Michael B. Duff

Note that if these tax cuts get approved, Republicans will be in the exact same position Krugman is in now. "You said tax cuts would help the economy! Where's my job?" "They helped a little, just not enough! And imagine how bad things would be if we had let them go back up!" Completely unfalsifiable arguments. We can't prove the stimulus prevented bigger losses and we can't determine what level of tax cuts would help. Ultimately, the problem cannot be solved with stimulus or tax cuts because they're both the same thing. The problem isn't lack of cash. The problem is malinvestment, and tax cuts do nothing to resolve that.

There's a really good point made in this video. It's easy to be bearish on the market when you're watching economic fundamentals. We've seen bubble after bubble after bubble in my lifetime and we know these things are not sustainable in the long term. But what's "long term" when you've got every banker, every politician, and every bureaucrat in the world colluding to keep prices up? We have the power to create bubbles, and when one pops, money can quickly shift to a new one, until the music stops and there's nothing left to blow up. We're certainly headed there, but it may take years, perhaps even a decade to be real. Look how long Europe went before it even started talking about austerity. A lot of bulls can make a lot of money before reality hits.

The Ku Klux Klan website directs users to a site called Christian Concepts. It takes Visa and MasterCard donations for users willing to state that they are "white and not of racially mixed descent. I am not married to a non-white. I do not date non-whites nor do I have non-white dependents. I believe in the ideals of western Christian civilisation and profess my belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God."

Whatever concerns I might have about Wikileaks, however, I’m still more troubled to see political actors pressuring intermediary firms in an effort to throttle a media organization that has been convicted of no crime. Indeed, the State Department’s assertion notwithstanding, it’s not clear that Wikileaks could be convicted in light of the strong precedent set by the Pentagon Papers case.

Awesome video. Perfect summary of what's happening in Ireland and what is about to happen all over the world. Warning: contains Irish language. Give this man a TV show.

"Rumor has it he answered more questions than Obama has at any time in his administration, including, I believe, one on Haiti. And, while he didn't quite come off as Al Haig, he was very much in charge. The reporters appeared to welcome him back as though he had never left. The scene was, many are saying, surreal."

"Of course, as a feminist, I am also pleased that the alleged victims are using feminist-inspired rhetoric and law to assuage what appears to be personal injured feelings. That’s what our brave suffragette foremothers intended!"

Hannity: "A stunning act of desperation."

Disturbing. I think it makes Obama look weak. Particularly the way he left. This contrast does not enhance Obama, it reminds people of what they miss, a reminder of what leadership looked like. Dammit, I hate having to praise Clinton all the time, but he looks better with every year that goes by. Even after he lost the Congress, Clinton was always the alpha dog. This press conference was a terrible, terrible idea.

Claim: PayPal will let you give money to the Klu Klux Clan but not to Wikileaks?

Ah Fred Phelps, keeping stereotypes alive, literally praying for Anderson Cooper's death. WARNING: This video is super, crazy offensive. And please, as you watch it, remember that this man is to the average Christian what terrorists are to the average Muslim. There will always be crazy people at the fringes, but fundamentally, Christianity is a religion of peace.

"Students in Europe who are rioting in the streets have it right. (And I am amazed that Texas college students have taken little action in the face of 86% tuition increases from 2003-2009.) Those European students should be outraged that their governments are unraveling a lifetime worth of mutually understood plans, infrastructure, and moral fiber."

"So Netflix has a $9 monthly service plan that in effect, counts on you being able to push a $50 monthly service toward a traffic profile that the cable company would charge you $200 for, without paying the $200. If and when you're forced to pay the $200 or stop pounding your connection as if it was a business link Netflix instantaneously implodes."

"In truth however, there are no real tax cuts in this proposal. The true burden of government is not measured by how much it taxes but how much it spends. Since this deal ensures that government will be more expensive next year than it was this year, American citizens will have to shoulder the added cost. Just because Congress has decided to deliver the bill with debt rather than current taxes does not mean that the spending will not be paid for. The only thing the plan accomplishes is to alter the means by which government spending is financed."

"Satellite broadcasts of the US TV shows Desperate Housewives and Late Show With David Letterman are doing more to persuade Saudi youth to reject violent jihad than hundreds of millions of dollars of US government propaganda, informants have told the American embassy in Jeddah."

"I have a crude, limited fashion sense that may well have cost me the love of my life, who implored me to dress like an adult rather than like the free-market Fonzie."

The place with the highest median family income is the Washington, D.C., metro area, which includes the nation’s capital, as well as wealthy suburbs in Virginia and Maryland. In 2009 families in this region earned a median income of $102,340, a 0.7 percent increase from 2008. D.C. also boasts a better than average unemployment rate of 5.9 percent, far below the September’s 9.2 percent national average.

Bush is apparently more popular than Obama in this latest poll. Talk about a race to the bottom!

"Paul illustrates, in my view, the dark side of libertarianism. The Achilles heel of Paul's brand of libertarianism is foreign policy. You could describe him as an isolationist, but I think he is worse than that: during the Bush administration, his antiwar rhetoric took on a vicious quality. Today Paul showed once again why he is outside of the conservative mainstream. The House of Representatives voted 402-1 to congratulate Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo on her Nobel peace prize. The one Congressman who voted No was Ron Paul."

Movies about geeks are inherently dishonest because they replace awkward, disconnected people with actors who form connections for a living. Movies gloss over the messy, boring business of working geeks with the slick, precise magic of Hollywood editing.

Now, in an ironic turn, we've learned that there's another player in this drama who alleges that the Winklevoss brothers did a very similar thing to him.

I saw this watch company sponsor a news program in 1952 and decided to see if they were still around. Turned out to be venerable Swiss company. I found a nice model in their Heritage collection and decided to check the price. Then I had a heart attack and died. At this moment my brain is animated exclusively by shock. Price for the "nice watch?" $4,500

I love the fact that this video is available, easily searchable and permanently preserved in digital form. I wish it all was. Particularly notice McCarthy's appeal to Democrats and bipartisanship about 4 minutes in.

If we have sound money – which simply takes an honest accounting and a zero-price-change foundation, then expansion of credit as a means of faking "growth" disappears and so does the ability to run nearly all financial Ponzi schemes. You either actually produce more or you don't – there is no more fake "wealth" produced through asset bubbles, because borrowing becomes relatively expensive – too expensive to do for other than either essential or productive purposes. That is, nobody borrows 100% of a house's price any more, nobody borrows 100% of a car's purchase price over 7 years, and almost nobody borrows except on an emergency basis (e.g. to fix said car) for "retail" purchases. They certainly don't use their house as an ATM machine nor do we have kids borrowing $150,000 for 4-year degrees in Sociology.

A delightful and effective piece of propaganda. I almost used my "humor" tag for it, but it's really not funny at all.

One major problem we have in this recession is that 2 million of the 8 million jobs that have been lost are in construction. Giving researchers in St. Louis government grants to study Parkinson’s doesn’t help out of work construction workers in Florida.

President Obama’s deal keeps the lower personal income, dividend and capital gains rates enacted under President George W. Bush the same for at least the next two years. What’s new is a 2 percent reduction in social security payroll taxes for one year.

“I don’t want to say it, but this could mean IOUs and more tax-refund deferrals,” Chiang said.

Employment is escalating as energy and resources companies increase investment and hiring to meet demand from China.

What’s so troubling about the Sunday interview is that it wasn’t Bernanke, the media-shy economist, talking. It was a politician attempting to bolster confidence in his constituents and support for his policies. That’s not an ideal character trait for a central banker at a time when official interest rates, already close to zero, can only go up.

Imagine how much fun this is going to be when the real cuts start. I should probably create a "riots" tag.

"While the comments about gold shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise, we are once again reminded of the beauty of defending Keynesian economics – you can always say that some outrageous (and quite impossible) amount of deficit spending and/or money printing is required to heal the economy and, then, after that amount is not offered up, you can say that policymakers just didn’t try hard enough."

When the world itself is falling apart, the one thing that remains stable and defiant of all the hell breaking loose is the guild. Whether you are in a small casual guild with just your friends, a 10-man raiding guild, a 25-man one, or a hardcore raiding guild with over 50 active raiders, Cataclysm will introduce something new to your guild. You and your guildmates will be able to join efforts in order to bring your guild to a higher level, earn guild achievements, and unlock exclusive rewards!