Gooooooo Pope Francis!

I am not a religious person, nor a fan of the Church … but I must say that the fact that Pope Francis’ recent pronouncements have left the far right near apoplectic, and that these over the top responses have so nicely exposed their hypocrisy  fills me with glee

Rush Limbaugh – “pure Marxism”

Sara Palin – “He’s had some statements that to me sound kind of liberal, has taken me aback, has kind of surprised me”

Adam Shaw – “Like Obama he mistakes the faithful for the enemy, the enemy for his friend, condescension for respect, socialism for justice and capitalism for tyranny”

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano – “His encyclical is about economics, and it reveals a disturbing ignorance”

and on they went.  Up until recently the right has regularly been on Obama for disrespecting the Church and the Vatican.  This doesn’t sound too respectful to me.  Apparantly The Pope is all powerful and infallible … except when he disagrees with them.

 

Just Too Cool

Spent several years around this kind of stuff, (in the same arena), and I remember being like a little kid all the time. Because the stuff being done was, to me, almost magical.  (Toph may disagree with that viewpoint, but he’s friggin’ used to it)

 How can anybody look at this and not be in awe of what these guys can come up with.  (Although they could have spent a little more time with the photoshop part and the finger)

 Article here

 

Intel-Micron Flash Technologies 20nm die — The industry’s first monolithic 128 gigabit (Gb) NAND die represents continued leadership by Intel and Micron on the world’s most advanced 20 nanometer (nm) NAND production process technology. The new 20nm 128Gb device doubles the storage capacity and performance of the companies’ existing 20nm 64Gb NAND device.

World’s Highest-Capacity NAND flash memory die — New 20nm NAND from Intel and Micron provides unprecedented storage density. The industry’s first monolithic 128 gigabit (Gb) part can store 1 terabit of data in a single fingertip-size package with just eight die—a new storage benchmark that meets the ongoing demand for slim, sleek products.

 And Republicans say,…. “gotta hate me soma thet science!!”.  Until of course they pick up their next gadget that lets them make a restaurant reservation while they’re driving into town. Or until they have to get that new ultra efficient furnace that runs on half the fuel. Or until they need their GPS to find their way out of the woods when they get lost hunting. Or until that new combination of polymers lets them iinsulate their house at 5 times the r-factor.

 You know,—- that wasn’t science,—- that was the free market!!  Well, I suppose in a sense it was. But you sure as hell don’t have one without the other. And you sure as hell don’t help this country compete with really, really hungry and focused countries like China and India by cutting funding for education and making teachers double or triple their class size. Conservatives will set this country back 150 years in a decade or two if we let them.

 

So This is the Smartest Guy in the Room?

Newt…, Newt…, Newt…,———————–

This reminds me of something I heard Krugman say last week….. “Newt Gingrich is a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person should sound like”.

I’m not a politician,— I couldn’t run a campaign for the proverbial dogcatcher’s position and win.

But this much I do know.  When Newt starts taking little shots like this at Fox News,…

“One of the real changes that comes when you start running for President — as opposed to being an analyst on Fox — is I have to actually know what I’m talking about,” he said. The woman let out a startled laugh, and the audience joined in. “It’s a severe limitation,” Gingrich added.

 It won’t be long till all those crazies that follow Fox like a religion will be howling at the door. They’ll take you down quick.

 For the smartest guy in the room,… you’re pretty dumb.   You’re not campaigning, you’re doing a perpetual damage control.

Newt Gingrich On Fox News: I Have To ‘Know What I’m Talking About’ Now That I’m Not On Network

 

Mr. Krugman

Has got to stop this totally unacceptable practice of making sense.

Doesn’t he know that it makes Bill O’Reilly unhappy?  Disgusts him, actually.

And now he’s gone and found someone else that is too damned close to making sense.

No stringing bits and pieces of economic logic together, please.   Can’t have it.

>>>  November 23, 2011, 11:20 am

Paul Solman Is Shrill

Here:

I’ve been saying the following to friends and colleagues for months now: In all my many years as a business and economics reporter, I have never seen a greater cognitive dissonance than in the current coverage of the U.S. bond market. Even Chicken Little and the Boy Who Cried Wolf would have by now taken early retirement had their warnings proved as lame as those of the MSEM (mainstream economic media).

“S&P Downgrades!” “Bond Vigilantes Poised to Strike!” “America is Greece!” One-liners meant to catch the eye, freeze the heart. But flat-out irresponsible.

…

And, checking with NYU’s celebrated economic historian Richard Sylla, we find that today’s rates are astonishingly close to the lowest in the entire history of the United States: 1.85 percent, the nadir reached in late 1941. That was the record, I should say — until September 22, when the 10-year U.S. interest rate plunged briefly to 1.695 percent.

So what’s going on? Well, rather obviously, investors are a lot more worried about the credit of Greece — or Spain or Italy — than ours. Investors are also more worried about stock investments. Investors are also more worried about almost any other asset into which they might put their money.

Investors also seem pretty sure that U.S. inflation is not going to be a problem anytime soon. If inflation scared them, they’d hardly let the United States lock in an interest rate of less than 2 percent for an entire decade.

So then why isn’t it plausible to draw the following conclusion: that U.S. interest rates have been going in the “wrong” direction because investors are scared that the U.S. is going to reduce its debt and deficits, and such a reduction might horse-collar the world economy?

Solman better watch it. He’s in danger of not being considered Serious, which is what happens when you let facts get in the way of your orthodox narrative.

 

Jared Bernstein

Well,… at least the republicans on the supercommittee are making an effort———–

From the Depressing to the Ridiculous

Nov 18, 2011

OK, the supercommittee needs to go home for the weekend. According to my colleague Paul Van de Water:

Republicans on the supercommittee have made a new offer that would reduce deficits by $640 billion over the next decade, according to news reports (here and here). The Republican offer consists of roughly $542 billion in spending cuts and $3 billion in revenues, meaning the ratio of spending cuts to revenue increases in the plan is 181 to 1…When one includes the $900 billion in discretionary spending cuts already enacted in the Budget Control Act, the plan’s total deficit reduction rises to about $1.445 trillion, and its ratio of spending cuts to revenue increases rises to 481 to 1.

The D’s have rejected the offer as…um…unbalanced.

 

Mitt Spin

How does Mitt spin it? ———- How does he try to get across that there’s a huge difference between his Massachusetts health reform bill, the one that was used as a template for the Affordable Health Care Act that Obama passed?  I can’t remember,…. it’s hard to keep up with what the republican primary frontrunner, (kinda), says from day to day. It’s always different.

But, here we find an opinion from a man who should qualify as expert. Mostly because he helped write the Massachusetts version.

Jonathan Gruber, an M.I.T. economist hired by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to help craft health care reform, sharply criticized the Republican presidential candidate for distinguishing between his bill and President Barack Obama’s in an interview with Capital New York published Wednesday.

“They’re the same f***ing bill. He [Romney] just can’t have his cake and eat it too,” Gruber said. “He can try to draw distinctions and stuff, but he’s just lying. The only big difference is he didn’t have to pay for his. Because the federal government paid for it. Where at the federal level, we have to pay for it, so we have to raise taxes.”

Well,…. That puts us a little closer to the truth, doesn’t it.

Article here.