Weekend Open Thread

by wj

This was just too good not to share:
“We wouldn’t get on a plane if there was a 5% chance of the plane crashing, but we’re treating the climate with that same level of risk in a very offhand, complacent way.”

— Nick Robins

Also:
“Investors currently face a stark choice. Either they will experience impairments to their holdings in fossil-fuel companies should robust regulatory action on climate change take place, or they will face substantial losses across the entire portfolio of manageable assets should little mitigation of climate risk be forthcoming.”

— Brian Gardner

Mr Gardner is the editor of a report from The Economist entitled The Cost of Inaction – Recognizing the value at risk from climate change

Great fun for all. (Even if we spend all the time talking about something else.)

162 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. “Investors currently face a stark choice. Either they will experience impairments to their holdings in fossil-fuel companies should robust regulatory action on climate change take place, or they will face substantial losses across the entire portfolio of manageable assets should little mitigation of climate risk be forthcoming.”
    You mean Jim Cramer wouldn’t be able to see his way through to bellowing “BUY, BUY, BUY” the fracking stocks and smacking the applause button with the heel of his hand while standing in saltwater up to his suspenders as insurance adjustors suggested their companies alert the reinsurance companies to Cramer’s and the world’s losses, so they could jump from tall buildings.
    99% of stock market investors are full of sh*t. I know because I am one.
    I tell people that if the Earth was loosed from its orbit and started heading directly toward the sun to be burnt to a cinder in 48 hours, market analysts on CNBC would enthusiastically recommend sunglasses stocks, suntan lotion stocks, fire equipment stocks, and manufacturers of burn blister ointments to the viewers.
    Would you hold those stocks for the long term, Bob?
    Well, I’d be looking to be nimble, but this quarter’s and the year’s earnings look to be very bright, indeed.
    You might want to sell some calls and buy naked puts going into the weekend to protect against any downside.
    If you feel outright defensive about the near-term macro-outlook, buy Philip Morris for the income.

    Reply
  2. “Investors currently face a stark choice. Either they will experience impairments to their holdings in fossil-fuel companies should robust regulatory action on climate change take place, or they will face substantial losses across the entire portfolio of manageable assets should little mitigation of climate risk be forthcoming.”
    You mean Jim Cramer wouldn’t be able to see his way through to bellowing “BUY, BUY, BUY” the fracking stocks and smacking the applause button with the heel of his hand while standing in saltwater up to his suspenders as insurance adjustors suggested their companies alert the reinsurance companies to Cramer’s and the world’s losses, so they could jump from tall buildings.
    99% of stock market investors are full of sh*t. I know because I am one.
    I tell people that if the Earth was loosed from its orbit and started heading directly toward the sun to be burnt to a cinder in 48 hours, market analysts on CNBC would enthusiastically recommend sunglasses stocks, suntan lotion stocks, fire equipment stocks, and manufacturers of burn blister ointments to the viewers.
    Would you hold those stocks for the long term, Bob?
    Well, I’d be looking to be nimble, but this quarter’s and the year’s earnings look to be very bright, indeed.
    You might want to sell some calls and buy naked puts going into the weekend to protect against any downside.
    If you feel outright defensive about the near-term macro-outlook, buy Philip Morris for the income.

    Reply
  3. “Investors currently face a stark choice. Either they will experience impairments to their holdings in fossil-fuel companies should robust regulatory action on climate change take place, or they will face substantial losses across the entire portfolio of manageable assets should little mitigation of climate risk be forthcoming.”
    You mean Jim Cramer wouldn’t be able to see his way through to bellowing “BUY, BUY, BUY” the fracking stocks and smacking the applause button with the heel of his hand while standing in saltwater up to his suspenders as insurance adjustors suggested their companies alert the reinsurance companies to Cramer’s and the world’s losses, so they could jump from tall buildings.
    99% of stock market investors are full of sh*t. I know because I am one.
    I tell people that if the Earth was loosed from its orbit and started heading directly toward the sun to be burnt to a cinder in 48 hours, market analysts on CNBC would enthusiastically recommend sunglasses stocks, suntan lotion stocks, fire equipment stocks, and manufacturers of burn blister ointments to the viewers.
    Would you hold those stocks for the long term, Bob?
    Well, I’d be looking to be nimble, but this quarter’s and the year’s earnings look to be very bright, indeed.
    You might want to sell some calls and buy naked puts going into the weekend to protect against any downside.
    If you feel outright defensive about the near-term macro-outlook, buy Philip Morris for the income.

    Reply
  4. Finally, a right-wing talk radio hater puts his bullets where his hair-trigger mouth was.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/07/24/tv-hosts-remember-alleged-lafayette-gunman-as-anti-tax-anti-feminist-gadfly/?postshare=7821437760547990
    His views sound identical to Limbaugh’s and company:
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/john-russel-houser-louisiana-gunman
    Pro-gun, anti-feminazi, and taxhater.
    But with the guts to do what needed to be done unlike the other right-wingers who merely talk a good game of hate and expect crazies to carry out their agendas.

    Reply
  5. Finally, a right-wing talk radio hater puts his bullets where his hair-trigger mouth was.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/07/24/tv-hosts-remember-alleged-lafayette-gunman-as-anti-tax-anti-feminist-gadfly/?postshare=7821437760547990
    His views sound identical to Limbaugh’s and company:
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/john-russel-houser-louisiana-gunman
    Pro-gun, anti-feminazi, and taxhater.
    But with the guts to do what needed to be done unlike the other right-wingers who merely talk a good game of hate and expect crazies to carry out their agendas.

    Reply
  6. Finally, a right-wing talk radio hater puts his bullets where his hair-trigger mouth was.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/07/24/tv-hosts-remember-alleged-lafayette-gunman-as-anti-tax-anti-feminist-gadfly/?postshare=7821437760547990
    His views sound identical to Limbaugh’s and company:
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/john-russel-houser-louisiana-gunman
    Pro-gun, anti-feminazi, and taxhater.
    But with the guts to do what needed to be done unlike the other right-wingers who merely talk a good game of hate and expect crazies to carry out their agendas.

    Reply
  7. I see a lot of this as the flip side of Dick Cheney’s 1% doctrine, which said that if there were even a 1% chance that al Qaeda was developing a bomb, we had to treat it as certainty. When it comes to climate change, any hint that the science might be wrong is used to justify inaction. What it really means is that some people will use any evidence, no matter how scant, for their preferred course of action as justification.

    Reply
  8. I see a lot of this as the flip side of Dick Cheney’s 1% doctrine, which said that if there were even a 1% chance that al Qaeda was developing a bomb, we had to treat it as certainty. When it comes to climate change, any hint that the science might be wrong is used to justify inaction. What it really means is that some people will use any evidence, no matter how scant, for their preferred course of action as justification.

    Reply
  9. I see a lot of this as the flip side of Dick Cheney’s 1% doctrine, which said that if there were even a 1% chance that al Qaeda was developing a bomb, we had to treat it as certainty. When it comes to climate change, any hint that the science might be wrong is used to justify inaction. What it really means is that some people will use any evidence, no matter how scant, for their preferred course of action as justification.

    Reply
  10. Thank you, Countme-in (for the first comment, not so much the second). I was going to say that while the price of mosquito nets might be artificially low, repellent assets could do very well given climate change.

    Reply
  11. Thank you, Countme-in (for the first comment, not so much the second). I was going to say that while the price of mosquito nets might be artificially low, repellent assets could do very well given climate change.

    Reply
  12. Thank you, Countme-in (for the first comment, not so much the second). I was going to say that while the price of mosquito nets might be artificially low, repellent assets could do very well given climate change.

    Reply
  13. Would you hold those stocks for the long term, Bob?
    The problem is my long term truncates about 15-20 years from now. Rest assured, when somebody trots out figures based on the “infinite time horizon” I will get a good chuckle out of it.

    Reply
  14. Would you hold those stocks for the long term, Bob?
    The problem is my long term truncates about 15-20 years from now. Rest assured, when somebody trots out figures based on the “infinite time horizon” I will get a good chuckle out of it.

    Reply
  15. Would you hold those stocks for the long term, Bob?
    The problem is my long term truncates about 15-20 years from now. Rest assured, when somebody trots out figures based on the “infinite time horizon” I will get a good chuckle out of it.

    Reply
  16. Love this Keynes quote enough to post it basically every time “the long run” comes up:
    But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task, if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us, that when the storm is long past, the ocean is flat again.

    Reply
  17. Love this Keynes quote enough to post it basically every time “the long run” comes up:
    But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task, if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us, that when the storm is long past, the ocean is flat again.

    Reply
  18. Love this Keynes quote enough to post it basically every time “the long run” comes up:
    But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task, if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us, that when the storm is long past, the ocean is flat again.

    Reply
  19. I will never tire of pointing out that some people think humans live in The Economy, not in The Environment.
    Such people often talk as if petroleum is a renewable resource and money isn’t: future generations, they warn, will have no money to buy gasoline with if we don’t cut Social Security.
    –TP

    Reply
  20. I will never tire of pointing out that some people think humans live in The Economy, not in The Environment.
    Such people often talk as if petroleum is a renewable resource and money isn’t: future generations, they warn, will have no money to buy gasoline with if we don’t cut Social Security.
    –TP

    Reply
  21. I will never tire of pointing out that some people think humans live in The Economy, not in The Environment.
    Such people often talk as if petroleum is a renewable resource and money isn’t: future generations, they warn, will have no money to buy gasoline with if we don’t cut Social Security.
    –TP

    Reply
  22. Tony,
    Don’t you find that their argument is not so much for cutting Social Security as for privatizing it? Which doesn’t actually make a difference for the individual — unless the stock market goes down (which, given its current bubble characteristics, seems more likely than not, at least in the short to medium term).

    Reply
  23. Tony,
    Don’t you find that their argument is not so much for cutting Social Security as for privatizing it? Which doesn’t actually make a difference for the individual — unless the stock market goes down (which, given its current bubble characteristics, seems more likely than not, at least in the short to medium term).

    Reply
  24. Tony,
    Don’t you find that their argument is not so much for cutting Social Security as for privatizing it? Which doesn’t actually make a difference for the individual — unless the stock market goes down (which, given its current bubble characteristics, seems more likely than not, at least in the short to medium term).

    Reply
  25. wj; yes, there’s always been an undercurrent of “HUGE piles of sweet, sweet Social Security Cash. If only we could get our hands on it….to to to INVEST! Yeh, yeh, that’s the ticket, INVEST! Heh heh heh”
    Even if the trust fund is actually in bonds, and the usual spin is that the “bonds are worthless paper”.
    To quote Willie Sutton: that’s where the money is.

    Reply
  26. wj; yes, there’s always been an undercurrent of “HUGE piles of sweet, sweet Social Security Cash. If only we could get our hands on it….to to to INVEST! Yeh, yeh, that’s the ticket, INVEST! Heh heh heh”
    Even if the trust fund is actually in bonds, and the usual spin is that the “bonds are worthless paper”.
    To quote Willie Sutton: that’s where the money is.

    Reply
  27. wj; yes, there’s always been an undercurrent of “HUGE piles of sweet, sweet Social Security Cash. If only we could get our hands on it….to to to INVEST! Yeh, yeh, that’s the ticket, INVEST! Heh heh heh”
    Even if the trust fund is actually in bonds, and the usual spin is that the “bonds are worthless paper”.
    To quote Willie Sutton: that’s where the money is.

    Reply
  28. If you weren’t so bombastic, Count, the blog owners would tell you how to find the secret “edit” button.
    Oh, sure, they’ll deny there being such a button. Because *first* you have to be part of the BENGHAZI/Journolist conspiracy to be inducted into the inner hive that has “edit button” access.
    Plus Death Panels, also, too.

    Reply
  29. If you weren’t so bombastic, Count, the blog owners would tell you how to find the secret “edit” button.
    Oh, sure, they’ll deny there being such a button. Because *first* you have to be part of the BENGHAZI/Journolist conspiracy to be inducted into the inner hive that has “edit button” access.
    Plus Death Panels, also, too.

    Reply
  30. If you weren’t so bombastic, Count, the blog owners would tell you how to find the secret “edit” button.
    Oh, sure, they’ll deny there being such a button. Because *first* you have to be part of the BENGHAZI/Journolist conspiracy to be inducted into the inner hive that has “edit button” access.
    Plus Death Panels, also, too.

    Reply
  31. Don’t you find that their argument is not so much for cutting Social Security as for privatizing it?
    Privatization was a mask for several policy agendas. My take is the cry for “reform” is an effort to keep the cash flow into the Fund positive in order to not raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for the rest of the government which is REALLY in the red (for those of you who care about such matters or are actually paying attention).

    Reply
  32. Don’t you find that their argument is not so much for cutting Social Security as for privatizing it?
    Privatization was a mask for several policy agendas. My take is the cry for “reform” is an effort to keep the cash flow into the Fund positive in order to not raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for the rest of the government which is REALLY in the red (for those of you who care about such matters or are actually paying attention).

    Reply
  33. Don’t you find that their argument is not so much for cutting Social Security as for privatizing it?
    Privatization was a mask for several policy agendas. My take is the cry for “reform” is an effort to keep the cash flow into the Fund positive in order to not raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for the rest of the government which is REALLY in the red (for those of you who care about such matters or are actually paying attention).

    Reply
  34. wj,
    As you know, I think that “privatized” Social Security is jumbo shrimp; it is dehydrated water; it is a child-proof toy. In other words: it is oxymoronic, impossible, and pointless.
    I started to rehash why I think so, composed a wall of text that I don’t have the heart to inflict on an unsuspecting public who have heard me say it all before anyway, and then realized I wasn’t really answering your question. So here’s a shorter version:
    What bobbyp said.
    –TP

    Reply
  35. wj,
    As you know, I think that “privatized” Social Security is jumbo shrimp; it is dehydrated water; it is a child-proof toy. In other words: it is oxymoronic, impossible, and pointless.
    I started to rehash why I think so, composed a wall of text that I don’t have the heart to inflict on an unsuspecting public who have heard me say it all before anyway, and then realized I wasn’t really answering your question. So here’s a shorter version:
    What bobbyp said.
    –TP

    Reply
  36. wj,
    As you know, I think that “privatized” Social Security is jumbo shrimp; it is dehydrated water; it is a child-proof toy. In other words: it is oxymoronic, impossible, and pointless.
    I started to rehash why I think so, composed a wall of text that I don’t have the heart to inflict on an unsuspecting public who have heard me say it all before anyway, and then realized I wasn’t really answering your question. So here’s a shorter version:
    What bobbyp said.
    –TP

    Reply
  37. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rick-perry-guns-movie-theaters
    Further, it would make a lot of sense to keep the lights up while the movies are running so we can keep track of who is shooting whom, don’t ya think?
    It makes sense to me too to attend his speeches and rallies and those of his insane comrades while packing lots of heat, in self-defense.
    If this is what passes now as the vision of ascendant pigf*ckers about how we’re going to live in this benighted country, that I need to think about how many loaded weapons are near me in a f*cking movie theater at all times and make sure I finish the bushel basket of popcorn before I’m taken out in a crossfire in the dark, then we need a reboot in this country, and its going to entail much bigger weaponry than Rick Perry has in mind.
    How bout Rick Perry just stays home, watches some Netflix, and the gun goes off accidentally, and he and these other vermin leave the leave the rest of us out if it.
    Next we’ll be hearing Barack Obama wants to deliver Israel and its people to the ovens of the Holocaust.
    Only 15 and one half months till election day, folks.
    How hot can violent rhetoric become before it ignites unrelenting violence, one against the other?

    Reply
  38. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rick-perry-guns-movie-theaters
    Further, it would make a lot of sense to keep the lights up while the movies are running so we can keep track of who is shooting whom, don’t ya think?
    It makes sense to me too to attend his speeches and rallies and those of his insane comrades while packing lots of heat, in self-defense.
    If this is what passes now as the vision of ascendant pigf*ckers about how we’re going to live in this benighted country, that I need to think about how many loaded weapons are near me in a f*cking movie theater at all times and make sure I finish the bushel basket of popcorn before I’m taken out in a crossfire in the dark, then we need a reboot in this country, and its going to entail much bigger weaponry than Rick Perry has in mind.
    How bout Rick Perry just stays home, watches some Netflix, and the gun goes off accidentally, and he and these other vermin leave the leave the rest of us out if it.
    Next we’ll be hearing Barack Obama wants to deliver Israel and its people to the ovens of the Holocaust.
    Only 15 and one half months till election day, folks.
    How hot can violent rhetoric become before it ignites unrelenting violence, one against the other?

    Reply
  39. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rick-perry-guns-movie-theaters
    Further, it would make a lot of sense to keep the lights up while the movies are running so we can keep track of who is shooting whom, don’t ya think?
    It makes sense to me too to attend his speeches and rallies and those of his insane comrades while packing lots of heat, in self-defense.
    If this is what passes now as the vision of ascendant pigf*ckers about how we’re going to live in this benighted country, that I need to think about how many loaded weapons are near me in a f*cking movie theater at all times and make sure I finish the bushel basket of popcorn before I’m taken out in a crossfire in the dark, then we need a reboot in this country, and its going to entail much bigger weaponry than Rick Perry has in mind.
    How bout Rick Perry just stays home, watches some Netflix, and the gun goes off accidentally, and he and these other vermin leave the leave the rest of us out if it.
    Next we’ll be hearing Barack Obama wants to deliver Israel and its people to the ovens of the Holocaust.
    Only 15 and one half months till election day, folks.
    How hot can violent rhetoric become before it ignites unrelenting violence, one against the other?

    Reply
  40. I thought mass shootings were statistically insignificant. Why would we take the extraordinary step of going around armed all the time in case of such an unlikely thing?

    Reply
  41. I thought mass shootings were statistically insignificant. Why would we take the extraordinary step of going around armed all the time in case of such an unlikely thing?

    Reply
  42. I thought mass shootings were statistically insignificant. Why would we take the extraordinary step of going around armed all the time in case of such an unlikely thing?

    Reply
  43. the cry for “reform” is an effort to keep the cash flow into the Fund positive in order to not raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for the rest of the government which is REALLY in the red
    Bingo.

    Reply
  44. the cry for “reform” is an effort to keep the cash flow into the Fund positive in order to not raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for the rest of the government which is REALLY in the red
    Bingo.

    Reply
  45. the cry for “reform” is an effort to keep the cash flow into the Fund positive in order to not raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for the rest of the government which is REALLY in the red
    Bingo.

    Reply
  46. Mass shootings are statistically insignificant when we are talking about instituting gun controls on account of them. They are very significant when we are talking about the importance of citizens carrying guns.
    Context is all.

    Reply
  47. Mass shootings are statistically insignificant when we are talking about instituting gun controls on account of them. They are very significant when we are talking about the importance of citizens carrying guns.
    Context is all.

    Reply
  48. Mass shootings are statistically insignificant when we are talking about instituting gun controls on account of them. They are very significant when we are talking about the importance of citizens carrying guns.
    Context is all.

    Reply
  49. Yeah. I guess we’ll figure out what to do with the organically shaped firing squads and their statistical significance once the data are in.

    Reply
  50. Yeah. I guess we’ll figure out what to do with the organically shaped firing squads and their statistical significance once the data are in.

    Reply
  51. Yeah. I guess we’ll figure out what to do with the organically shaped firing squads and their statistical significance once the data are in.

    Reply
  52. Next we’ll be hearing Barack Obama wants to deliver Israel and its people to the ovens of the Holocaust.
    Next? That has been the constant refrain since at least the first fallout between Obama and the yahoo from Netanja (the oath of fealty to whom has been explicitly put by many a congresscritter above their oath of office explicitly).
    ‘Nice’ statistic I heard about yesterday: 2015 is likely to be the year were death by firearm will surpass death by traffic accident (last year was close already).

    Reply
  53. Next we’ll be hearing Barack Obama wants to deliver Israel and its people to the ovens of the Holocaust.
    Next? That has been the constant refrain since at least the first fallout between Obama and the yahoo from Netanja (the oath of fealty to whom has been explicitly put by many a congresscritter above their oath of office explicitly).
    ‘Nice’ statistic I heard about yesterday: 2015 is likely to be the year were death by firearm will surpass death by traffic accident (last year was close already).

    Reply
  54. Next we’ll be hearing Barack Obama wants to deliver Israel and its people to the ovens of the Holocaust.
    Next? That has been the constant refrain since at least the first fallout between Obama and the yahoo from Netanja (the oath of fealty to whom has been explicitly put by many a congresscritter above their oath of office explicitly).
    ‘Nice’ statistic I heard about yesterday: 2015 is likely to be the year were death by firearm will surpass death by traffic accident (last year was close already).

    Reply
  55. “2015 is likely to be the year were death by firearm will surpass death by traffic accident”
    According to analysis from 2009 that is already the case in many states:
    Alaska: 104 gun deaths, 84 motor vehicle deaths
    Arizona: 856 gun deaths, 809 motor vehicle deaths
    Colorado: 583 gun deaths, 565 motor vehicle deaths
    Indiana: 735 gun deaths, 715 motor vehicle deaths
    Michigan: 1,095 gun deaths, 977 motor vehicle deaths
    Nevada: 406 gun deaths, 255 motor vehicle deaths
    Oregon: 417 gun deaths, 394 motor vehicle deaths
    Utah: 260 gun deaths, 256 motor vehicle deaths
    Virginia: 836 gun deaths, 827 motor vehicle deaths
    Washington: 623 gun deaths, 580 motor vehicle deaths

    Reply
  56. “2015 is likely to be the year were death by firearm will surpass death by traffic accident”
    According to analysis from 2009 that is already the case in many states:
    Alaska: 104 gun deaths, 84 motor vehicle deaths
    Arizona: 856 gun deaths, 809 motor vehicle deaths
    Colorado: 583 gun deaths, 565 motor vehicle deaths
    Indiana: 735 gun deaths, 715 motor vehicle deaths
    Michigan: 1,095 gun deaths, 977 motor vehicle deaths
    Nevada: 406 gun deaths, 255 motor vehicle deaths
    Oregon: 417 gun deaths, 394 motor vehicle deaths
    Utah: 260 gun deaths, 256 motor vehicle deaths
    Virginia: 836 gun deaths, 827 motor vehicle deaths
    Washington: 623 gun deaths, 580 motor vehicle deaths

    Reply
  57. “2015 is likely to be the year were death by firearm will surpass death by traffic accident”
    According to analysis from 2009 that is already the case in many states:
    Alaska: 104 gun deaths, 84 motor vehicle deaths
    Arizona: 856 gun deaths, 809 motor vehicle deaths
    Colorado: 583 gun deaths, 565 motor vehicle deaths
    Indiana: 735 gun deaths, 715 motor vehicle deaths
    Michigan: 1,095 gun deaths, 977 motor vehicle deaths
    Nevada: 406 gun deaths, 255 motor vehicle deaths
    Oregon: 417 gun deaths, 394 motor vehicle deaths
    Utah: 260 gun deaths, 256 motor vehicle deaths
    Virginia: 836 gun deaths, 827 motor vehicle deaths
    Washington: 623 gun deaths, 580 motor vehicle deaths

    Reply
  58. Yet one more freedom-loving reason to get rid of regulations forcing us to wear seat belts and install airbags.
    Maybe to address conservative concerns that Americans aren’t pulling their weight and falling behind in auto fatalities because of nanny-state safety prescriptions, the NRA should convince the auto manufacturers, as an add-on feature like blue tooth and leather upholstery, to rig up a shotgun on the dashboard of every factory-delivered auto in the country which would dispense two shells into the face of drivers as soon as their car makes contact with another car or truck, bridge abutment, or pedestrian.
    The fatalities would be counted as death by auto accident and then the NRA can use the data to claim that we need more guns in more hands in more public places to keep the arms race going.

    Reply
  59. Yet one more freedom-loving reason to get rid of regulations forcing us to wear seat belts and install airbags.
    Maybe to address conservative concerns that Americans aren’t pulling their weight and falling behind in auto fatalities because of nanny-state safety prescriptions, the NRA should convince the auto manufacturers, as an add-on feature like blue tooth and leather upholstery, to rig up a shotgun on the dashboard of every factory-delivered auto in the country which would dispense two shells into the face of drivers as soon as their car makes contact with another car or truck, bridge abutment, or pedestrian.
    The fatalities would be counted as death by auto accident and then the NRA can use the data to claim that we need more guns in more hands in more public places to keep the arms race going.

    Reply
  60. Yet one more freedom-loving reason to get rid of regulations forcing us to wear seat belts and install airbags.
    Maybe to address conservative concerns that Americans aren’t pulling their weight and falling behind in auto fatalities because of nanny-state safety prescriptions, the NRA should convince the auto manufacturers, as an add-on feature like blue tooth and leather upholstery, to rig up a shotgun on the dashboard of every factory-delivered auto in the country which would dispense two shells into the face of drivers as soon as their car makes contact with another car or truck, bridge abutment, or pedestrian.
    The fatalities would be counted as death by auto accident and then the NRA can use the data to claim that we need more guns in more hands in more public places to keep the arms race going.

    Reply
  61. I think more people need to carry guys while they’re driving. And you should be allowed to shoot anyone using a phone while driving – or at least be allowed to shoot the phone. You should also be allowed to shoot anyone who tailgates, cuts you off, or is driving at least 15 mph faster than the next fastest car. You can’t shoot people who don’t use turn signals, but you can shoot their cars, just to further incentivize signal use as avoidance of body-shop bills.
    Put that together with this movie-theater business, and you should really be packing some heat at the drive-in.

    Reply
  62. I think more people need to carry guys while they’re driving. And you should be allowed to shoot anyone using a phone while driving – or at least be allowed to shoot the phone. You should also be allowed to shoot anyone who tailgates, cuts you off, or is driving at least 15 mph faster than the next fastest car. You can’t shoot people who don’t use turn signals, but you can shoot their cars, just to further incentivize signal use as avoidance of body-shop bills.
    Put that together with this movie-theater business, and you should really be packing some heat at the drive-in.

    Reply
  63. I think more people need to carry guys while they’re driving. And you should be allowed to shoot anyone using a phone while driving – or at least be allowed to shoot the phone. You should also be allowed to shoot anyone who tailgates, cuts you off, or is driving at least 15 mph faster than the next fastest car. You can’t shoot people who don’t use turn signals, but you can shoot their cars, just to further incentivize signal use as avoidance of body-shop bills.
    Put that together with this movie-theater business, and you should really be packing some heat at the drive-in.

    Reply
  64. Hartmut, perhaps you know this, but Mike Huckabee said exactly that about the Iran deal just yesterday.
    I was just trying to slide my comment in as a satirical prediction of what conservatives MIGHT utter next, to make it look like I predicted and the, at some point soon, would fulfill the prediction, and then I’d get the credit.
    But I can’t keep up any more.
    They are way ahead of me.
    I’m like a soothsayer who sees a soaking wet guy in golf shoes holding a newspaper over his head, and who has burn marks going down one pantleg, enter his darkened room and proclaims “I see thunder storms and lightening during your double bogey on 18” in your future, but wants his fee anyway.

    Reply
  65. Hartmut, perhaps you know this, but Mike Huckabee said exactly that about the Iran deal just yesterday.
    I was just trying to slide my comment in as a satirical prediction of what conservatives MIGHT utter next, to make it look like I predicted and the, at some point soon, would fulfill the prediction, and then I’d get the credit.
    But I can’t keep up any more.
    They are way ahead of me.
    I’m like a soothsayer who sees a soaking wet guy in golf shoes holding a newspaper over his head, and who has burn marks going down one pantleg, enter his darkened room and proclaims “I see thunder storms and lightening during your double bogey on 18” in your future, but wants his fee anyway.

    Reply
  66. Hartmut, perhaps you know this, but Mike Huckabee said exactly that about the Iran deal just yesterday.
    I was just trying to slide my comment in as a satirical prediction of what conservatives MIGHT utter next, to make it look like I predicted and the, at some point soon, would fulfill the prediction, and then I’d get the credit.
    But I can’t keep up any more.
    They are way ahead of me.
    I’m like a soothsayer who sees a soaking wet guy in golf shoes holding a newspaper over his head, and who has burn marks going down one pantleg, enter his darkened room and proclaims “I see thunder storms and lightening during your double bogey on 18” in your future, but wants his fee anyway.

    Reply
  67. You don’t need to shoot people who refuse to use their turn signals, because they will commit suicide anyway, saving on ammo.

    Reply
  68. You don’t need to shoot people who refuse to use their turn signals, because they will commit suicide anyway, saving on ammo.

    Reply
  69. You don’t need to shoot people who refuse to use their turn signals, because they will commit suicide anyway, saving on ammo.

    Reply
  70. I’ve never received an explanation of why and how the language Second Amendment prohibits gun owners from shooting their weapons in public at will, for any reason, like if you want to shoot a crow off a swing set on a busy children’s playground.
    If possessing a firearm and carrying a firearm, concealed or openly, anywhere cannot be prohibited by government, or now in some cases private businesses, how can it be that firing the weapon for any reason whatsoever can be prohibited?
    Say you order a triple cheeseburger at McDonald’s and it comes with a bun and you requested no bun, and instead of further troubling the teenaged girl at the counter, you decide to just shoot the bun off the plate at your table.
    Sam Alito and I would agree, I think, that the Second Amendment permits that without government interference.
    Show me where it doesn’t. And don’t give me this States Rights nonsense.

    Reply
  71. I’ve never received an explanation of why and how the language Second Amendment prohibits gun owners from shooting their weapons in public at will, for any reason, like if you want to shoot a crow off a swing set on a busy children’s playground.
    If possessing a firearm and carrying a firearm, concealed or openly, anywhere cannot be prohibited by government, or now in some cases private businesses, how can it be that firing the weapon for any reason whatsoever can be prohibited?
    Say you order a triple cheeseburger at McDonald’s and it comes with a bun and you requested no bun, and instead of further troubling the teenaged girl at the counter, you decide to just shoot the bun off the plate at your table.
    Sam Alito and I would agree, I think, that the Second Amendment permits that without government interference.
    Show me where it doesn’t. And don’t give me this States Rights nonsense.

    Reply
  72. I’ve never received an explanation of why and how the language Second Amendment prohibits gun owners from shooting their weapons in public at will, for any reason, like if you want to shoot a crow off a swing set on a busy children’s playground.
    If possessing a firearm and carrying a firearm, concealed or openly, anywhere cannot be prohibited by government, or now in some cases private businesses, how can it be that firing the weapon for any reason whatsoever can be prohibited?
    Say you order a triple cheeseburger at McDonald’s and it comes with a bun and you requested no bun, and instead of further troubling the teenaged girl at the counter, you decide to just shoot the bun off the plate at your table.
    Sam Alito and I would agree, I think, that the Second Amendment permits that without government interference.
    Show me where it doesn’t. And don’t give me this States Rights nonsense.

    Reply
  73. Say you order a triple cheeseburger at McDonald’s and it comes with a bun and you requested no bun, and instead of further troubling the teenaged girl at the counter, you decide to just shoot the bun off the plate at your table.
    Here’s what happens at Burger King when you order a bunless burger.

    Reply
  74. Say you order a triple cheeseburger at McDonald’s and it comes with a bun and you requested no bun, and instead of further troubling the teenaged girl at the counter, you decide to just shoot the bun off the plate at your table.
    Here’s what happens at Burger King when you order a bunless burger.

    Reply
  75. Say you order a triple cheeseburger at McDonald’s and it comes with a bun and you requested no bun, and instead of further troubling the teenaged girl at the counter, you decide to just shoot the bun off the plate at your table.
    Here’s what happens at Burger King when you order a bunless burger.

    Reply
  76. I think more people need to carry guys while they’re driving.
    Absolutely, HSH. More guys being carried while driving would be a good thing. Car pooling cuts down on green house gas emissions, after all…. 😉

    Reply
  77. I think more people need to carry guys while they’re driving.
    Absolutely, HSH. More guys being carried while driving would be a good thing. Car pooling cuts down on green house gas emissions, after all…. 😉

    Reply
  78. I think more people need to carry guys while they’re driving.
    Absolutely, HSH. More guys being carried while driving would be a good thing. Car pooling cuts down on green house gas emissions, after all…. 😉

    Reply
  79. Downhill guy-carrying, platform guy-carrying, synchronized guy-carrying, Greco-Roman guy-carrying – all of them.

    Reply
  80. Downhill guy-carrying, platform guy-carrying, synchronized guy-carrying, Greco-Roman guy-carrying – all of them.

    Reply
  81. Downhill guy-carrying, platform guy-carrying, synchronized guy-carrying, Greco-Roman guy-carrying – all of them.

    Reply
  82. Yeah, but then the women and the children will want to be carried too, and in America, when everyone gets something, it ruins it for most guys.
    Think of those dingy red carpets they put down for the first class airline fliers to stand on as they prepare to board early.
    Then they whisk them away just as the rest of start thinking, hey, why them and not us?
    People get ideas and people with certain ideas are disruptive in a bad way, unless it’s one of those guys who comes with an idea that causes millions of people to lose their jobs and livelihoods.
    That’s considered disruptive in a good way.
    Delta Airlines has just started offering certain upscale customers an upgrade to private jets if they don’t like the cut of their fellow passengers jibs.
    Now, if I hear a guy wanting to be carried on a private jet instead of a commercial jet, I want that offer too.
    I’m a guy. Carry me, just like him.
    Instead I’ll be upgraded to Amtrak via police cruiser.

    Reply
  83. Yeah, but then the women and the children will want to be carried too, and in America, when everyone gets something, it ruins it for most guys.
    Think of those dingy red carpets they put down for the first class airline fliers to stand on as they prepare to board early.
    Then they whisk them away just as the rest of start thinking, hey, why them and not us?
    People get ideas and people with certain ideas are disruptive in a bad way, unless it’s one of those guys who comes with an idea that causes millions of people to lose their jobs and livelihoods.
    That’s considered disruptive in a good way.
    Delta Airlines has just started offering certain upscale customers an upgrade to private jets if they don’t like the cut of their fellow passengers jibs.
    Now, if I hear a guy wanting to be carried on a private jet instead of a commercial jet, I want that offer too.
    I’m a guy. Carry me, just like him.
    Instead I’ll be upgraded to Amtrak via police cruiser.

    Reply
  84. Yeah, but then the women and the children will want to be carried too, and in America, when everyone gets something, it ruins it for most guys.
    Think of those dingy red carpets they put down for the first class airline fliers to stand on as they prepare to board early.
    Then they whisk them away just as the rest of start thinking, hey, why them and not us?
    People get ideas and people with certain ideas are disruptive in a bad way, unless it’s one of those guys who comes with an idea that causes millions of people to lose their jobs and livelihoods.
    That’s considered disruptive in a good way.
    Delta Airlines has just started offering certain upscale customers an upgrade to private jets if they don’t like the cut of their fellow passengers jibs.
    Now, if I hear a guy wanting to be carried on a private jet instead of a commercial jet, I want that offer too.
    I’m a guy. Carry me, just like him.
    Instead I’ll be upgraded to Amtrak via police cruiser.

    Reply
  85. As I was writing that, I wondered if a terrorist, outfitted to the teeth with hijacking plans, shoe bombs, and box cutters and with months of training and indoctrination to take a passenger jet down has ever been bumped from a his targeted commercial passenger flight at the last minute.
    Think how angry that might make him, an otherwise cool customer not given to rash emotions.
    Would he make a scene?
    Would he write a letter of complaint to the airline?
    Would he demand his money back? If he was upgraded gratis to a private plane with only one passenger — just him, and the pilot, what then?
    Say, he decides not to get the next flight made available and goes back to his car in the parking lot and drives home, dejected and a little worried about the repercussions.
    Then, on the radio, while in the car driving home, he hears the news that the very plane he was booked for but was bumped from has gone down in a corn field because of either pilot error or an equipment failure.
    How does he feel?
    Conflicted? Relieved? Like a failure?
    If he’s relieved, does he stop at the first bar he passes and buy rounds and announce drunkenly to the assembled patrons to cheering and applause that he was supposed to be on that doomed flight and was saved from certain horrible death by a bit of fortuitous malfeasance by the airline and the grace of his God?
    Would he think, geez, I’m glad I didn’t have any luggage already loaded on to that plane.

    Reply
  86. As I was writing that, I wondered if a terrorist, outfitted to the teeth with hijacking plans, shoe bombs, and box cutters and with months of training and indoctrination to take a passenger jet down has ever been bumped from a his targeted commercial passenger flight at the last minute.
    Think how angry that might make him, an otherwise cool customer not given to rash emotions.
    Would he make a scene?
    Would he write a letter of complaint to the airline?
    Would he demand his money back? If he was upgraded gratis to a private plane with only one passenger — just him, and the pilot, what then?
    Say, he decides not to get the next flight made available and goes back to his car in the parking lot and drives home, dejected and a little worried about the repercussions.
    Then, on the radio, while in the car driving home, he hears the news that the very plane he was booked for but was bumped from has gone down in a corn field because of either pilot error or an equipment failure.
    How does he feel?
    Conflicted? Relieved? Like a failure?
    If he’s relieved, does he stop at the first bar he passes and buy rounds and announce drunkenly to the assembled patrons to cheering and applause that he was supposed to be on that doomed flight and was saved from certain horrible death by a bit of fortuitous malfeasance by the airline and the grace of his God?
    Would he think, geez, I’m glad I didn’t have any luggage already loaded on to that plane.

    Reply
  87. As I was writing that, I wondered if a terrorist, outfitted to the teeth with hijacking plans, shoe bombs, and box cutters and with months of training and indoctrination to take a passenger jet down has ever been bumped from a his targeted commercial passenger flight at the last minute.
    Think how angry that might make him, an otherwise cool customer not given to rash emotions.
    Would he make a scene?
    Would he write a letter of complaint to the airline?
    Would he demand his money back? If he was upgraded gratis to a private plane with only one passenger — just him, and the pilot, what then?
    Say, he decides not to get the next flight made available and goes back to his car in the parking lot and drives home, dejected and a little worried about the repercussions.
    Then, on the radio, while in the car driving home, he hears the news that the very plane he was booked for but was bumped from has gone down in a corn field because of either pilot error or an equipment failure.
    How does he feel?
    Conflicted? Relieved? Like a failure?
    If he’s relieved, does he stop at the first bar he passes and buy rounds and announce drunkenly to the assembled patrons to cheering and applause that he was supposed to be on that doomed flight and was saved from certain horrible death by a bit of fortuitous malfeasance by the airline and the grace of his God?
    Would he think, geez, I’m glad I didn’t have any luggage already loaded on to that plane.

    Reply
  88. Is Polanyi’s ‘critique’ greatly different from what Adam Smith said at the outset of the whole markets thing ?

    Reply
  89. Is Polanyi’s ‘critique’ greatly different from what Adam Smith said at the outset of the whole markets thing ?

    Reply
  90. Is Polanyi’s ‘critique’ greatly different from what Adam Smith said at the outset of the whole markets thing ?

    Reply
  91. wj: ” Which doesn’t actually make a difference for the individual — unless the stock market goes down (which, given its current bubble characteristics, seems more likely than not, at least in the short to medium term).”
    wj, those guys don’t want to get their hands on that money for any other reason than for stealing as much as possible.

    Reply
  92. wj: ” Which doesn’t actually make a difference for the individual — unless the stock market goes down (which, given its current bubble characteristics, seems more likely than not, at least in the short to medium term).”
    wj, those guys don’t want to get their hands on that money for any other reason than for stealing as much as possible.

    Reply
  93. wj: ” Which doesn’t actually make a difference for the individual — unless the stock market goes down (which, given its current bubble characteristics, seems more likely than not, at least in the short to medium term).”
    wj, those guys don’t want to get their hands on that money for any other reason than for stealing as much as possible.

    Reply
  94. Mike Huckabee’s lead guitar player seems to have a little problem with placing all of the wrong people in ovens too:
    http://www.mediaite.com/online/ted-nugent-hasnt-apologized-for-calling-jewish-figures-subhuman-and-nazis/
    I could see a hot power trio band consisting of Huck on bass, Nugent on lead guitar, harmonica, and machine gun, and conservative heartthrob Vlad (The Bulge) Putin fronting the band on lead vocals.
    A roster of rotating guest drummers, among them all 18 Republican candidates for el Presidente, could sit in on gigs to keep a steady backbeat of armed, murderous hate going for the next 15 months against their tens and tens of millions of mortal enemies in this country — all things immigrant, Mexican, black, Jew, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Muslim, movie theater patrons, liberal, RINO, rhinos, and vaginal, to keep their homicidal, sociopathic Grammy fan base in the groove for 2016 and beyond.
    We need a name for the band.
    Pussy Riot is already much more appropriately taken but I like the explosive and fricative sounds so “The Pusillaminous, Politically Correct (the real meaning of that phrase: whatever you do, don’t hurt conservative fee-fees) Pigf*cking Peckerwood Punks of Perestroika sounds like a marquee filler.

    Reply
  95. Mike Huckabee’s lead guitar player seems to have a little problem with placing all of the wrong people in ovens too:
    http://www.mediaite.com/online/ted-nugent-hasnt-apologized-for-calling-jewish-figures-subhuman-and-nazis/
    I could see a hot power trio band consisting of Huck on bass, Nugent on lead guitar, harmonica, and machine gun, and conservative heartthrob Vlad (The Bulge) Putin fronting the band on lead vocals.
    A roster of rotating guest drummers, among them all 18 Republican candidates for el Presidente, could sit in on gigs to keep a steady backbeat of armed, murderous hate going for the next 15 months against their tens and tens of millions of mortal enemies in this country — all things immigrant, Mexican, black, Jew, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Muslim, movie theater patrons, liberal, RINO, rhinos, and vaginal, to keep their homicidal, sociopathic Grammy fan base in the groove for 2016 and beyond.
    We need a name for the band.
    Pussy Riot is already much more appropriately taken but I like the explosive and fricative sounds so “The Pusillaminous, Politically Correct (the real meaning of that phrase: whatever you do, don’t hurt conservative fee-fees) Pigf*cking Peckerwood Punks of Perestroika sounds like a marquee filler.

    Reply
  96. Mike Huckabee’s lead guitar player seems to have a little problem with placing all of the wrong people in ovens too:
    http://www.mediaite.com/online/ted-nugent-hasnt-apologized-for-calling-jewish-figures-subhuman-and-nazis/
    I could see a hot power trio band consisting of Huck on bass, Nugent on lead guitar, harmonica, and machine gun, and conservative heartthrob Vlad (The Bulge) Putin fronting the band on lead vocals.
    A roster of rotating guest drummers, among them all 18 Republican candidates for el Presidente, could sit in on gigs to keep a steady backbeat of armed, murderous hate going for the next 15 months against their tens and tens of millions of mortal enemies in this country — all things immigrant, Mexican, black, Jew, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Muslim, movie theater patrons, liberal, RINO, rhinos, and vaginal, to keep their homicidal, sociopathic Grammy fan base in the groove for 2016 and beyond.
    We need a name for the band.
    Pussy Riot is already much more appropriately taken but I like the explosive and fricative sounds so “The Pusillaminous, Politically Correct (the real meaning of that phrase: whatever you do, don’t hurt conservative fee-fees) Pigf*cking Peckerwood Punks of Perestroika sounds like a marquee filler.

    Reply
  97. What? An open thread? Let’s go!
    From now on, the only comment I am really gonna need to make is “what Polanyi said”.

    Reply
  98. What? An open thread? Let’s go!
    From now on, the only comment I am really gonna need to make is “what Polanyi said”.

    Reply
  99. What? An open thread? Let’s go!
    From now on, the only comment I am really gonna need to make is “what Polanyi said”.

    Reply
  100. Barry: those guys don’t want to get their hands on that money for any other reason than for stealing as much as possible.
    Doubtless that is true of some of them. But I think others are motivated by sheer ideology, unrelated to anything as mundane and reality-related as money.

    Reply
  101. Barry: those guys don’t want to get their hands on that money for any other reason than for stealing as much as possible.
    Doubtless that is true of some of them. But I think others are motivated by sheer ideology, unrelated to anything as mundane and reality-related as money.

    Reply
  102. Barry: those guys don’t want to get their hands on that money for any other reason than for stealing as much as possible.
    Doubtless that is true of some of them. But I think others are motivated by sheer ideology, unrelated to anything as mundane and reality-related as money.

    Reply
  103. “We need a name for the band.”
    Explosions are the percussion accompaniment, so I suggest:
    The Petards

    Reply
  104. “We need a name for the band.”
    Explosions are the percussion accompaniment, so I suggest:
    The Petards

    Reply
  105. “We need a name for the band.”
    Explosions are the percussion accompaniment, so I suggest:
    The Petards

    Reply
  106. Some key stuff from bobbyp’s link (any emphasis is mine):

    …represents the effort to subject not just real commodities (computers and widgets) to market principles but virtually all of what makes social life possible, including clean air and water, education, health care, personal, legal, and social security, and the right to earn a livelihood. When these public goods and social necessities (what Polanyi calls “fictitious commodities”) are treated as if they are commodities produced for sale on the market, rather than protected rights, our social world is endangered and major crises will ensue.

    and

    By claiming it is free-market advocates who are the true utopians, Polanyi helps explain the free market’s otherwise puzzlingly tenacious appeal: It embodies a perfectionist ideal of a world without “coercive” constraints on economic activities while it fiercely represses the fact that power and coercion are the unacknowledged features of all market participation.

    and

    What happened in the name of “deregulation” has actually been “reregulation,” this time by rules and policies that are radically different from those of the New Deal and Great Society decades. Although compromised by racism, those older regulations laid the groundwork for greater equality and a flourishing middle class. Government continues to regulate, but instead of acting to protect workers, consumers, and citizens, it devised new policies aimed to help giant corporate and financial institutions maximize their returns through revised anti-trust laws, seemingly bottomless bank bailouts, and increased impediments to unionization.

    and

    This way of thinking, which we call social naturalism, conceived of society as governed by the same laws that operate in nature—a conceit that is necessary to make the idea of a self-regulating market even plausible. Social naturalism displaced rationality and morality as the essence of humanity, and imposed biological instincts in their place, making human motivations no different from those of the rest of the animal kingdom: We are incentivized to labor (and earn wages) only because of our primary biological drive to eat; and we are likewise content to rest once the drive of hunger is satisfied.

    Reply
  107. Some key stuff from bobbyp’s link (any emphasis is mine):

    …represents the effort to subject not just real commodities (computers and widgets) to market principles but virtually all of what makes social life possible, including clean air and water, education, health care, personal, legal, and social security, and the right to earn a livelihood. When these public goods and social necessities (what Polanyi calls “fictitious commodities”) are treated as if they are commodities produced for sale on the market, rather than protected rights, our social world is endangered and major crises will ensue.

    and

    By claiming it is free-market advocates who are the true utopians, Polanyi helps explain the free market’s otherwise puzzlingly tenacious appeal: It embodies a perfectionist ideal of a world without “coercive” constraints on economic activities while it fiercely represses the fact that power and coercion are the unacknowledged features of all market participation.

    and

    What happened in the name of “deregulation” has actually been “reregulation,” this time by rules and policies that are radically different from those of the New Deal and Great Society decades. Although compromised by racism, those older regulations laid the groundwork for greater equality and a flourishing middle class. Government continues to regulate, but instead of acting to protect workers, consumers, and citizens, it devised new policies aimed to help giant corporate and financial institutions maximize their returns through revised anti-trust laws, seemingly bottomless bank bailouts, and increased impediments to unionization.

    and

    This way of thinking, which we call social naturalism, conceived of society as governed by the same laws that operate in nature—a conceit that is necessary to make the idea of a self-regulating market even plausible. Social naturalism displaced rationality and morality as the essence of humanity, and imposed biological instincts in their place, making human motivations no different from those of the rest of the animal kingdom: We are incentivized to labor (and earn wages) only because of our primary biological drive to eat; and we are likewise content to rest once the drive of hunger is satisfied.

    Reply
  108. Some key stuff from bobbyp’s link (any emphasis is mine):

    …represents the effort to subject not just real commodities (computers and widgets) to market principles but virtually all of what makes social life possible, including clean air and water, education, health care, personal, legal, and social security, and the right to earn a livelihood. When these public goods and social necessities (what Polanyi calls “fictitious commodities”) are treated as if they are commodities produced for sale on the market, rather than protected rights, our social world is endangered and major crises will ensue.

    and

    By claiming it is free-market advocates who are the true utopians, Polanyi helps explain the free market’s otherwise puzzlingly tenacious appeal: It embodies a perfectionist ideal of a world without “coercive” constraints on economic activities while it fiercely represses the fact that power and coercion are the unacknowledged features of all market participation.

    and

    What happened in the name of “deregulation” has actually been “reregulation,” this time by rules and policies that are radically different from those of the New Deal and Great Society decades. Although compromised by racism, those older regulations laid the groundwork for greater equality and a flourishing middle class. Government continues to regulate, but instead of acting to protect workers, consumers, and citizens, it devised new policies aimed to help giant corporate and financial institutions maximize their returns through revised anti-trust laws, seemingly bottomless bank bailouts, and increased impediments to unionization.

    and

    This way of thinking, which we call social naturalism, conceived of society as governed by the same laws that operate in nature—a conceit that is necessary to make the idea of a self-regulating market even plausible. Social naturalism displaced rationality and morality as the essence of humanity, and imposed biological instincts in their place, making human motivations no different from those of the rest of the animal kingdom: We are incentivized to labor (and earn wages) only because of our primary biological drive to eat; and we are likewise content to rest once the drive of hunger is satisfied.

    Reply
  109. Here’s one more that jumped out at me. It’s a follow-up to the third quote from my last comment (emphasis in original).

    …since the rights or lack of rights that employees have at the workplace are always defined by the legal system, we must not ask whether the law should organize the labor market but rather what kinds of rules and rights should be entailed in these laws—those that recognize that it is the skills and talents of employees that make firms productive, or those that rig the game in favor of employers and private profits?

    (I swear I haven’t quoted the whole thing!)

    Reply
  110. Here’s one more that jumped out at me. It’s a follow-up to the third quote from my last comment (emphasis in original).

    …since the rights or lack of rights that employees have at the workplace are always defined by the legal system, we must not ask whether the law should organize the labor market but rather what kinds of rules and rights should be entailed in these laws—those that recognize that it is the skills and talents of employees that make firms productive, or those that rig the game in favor of employers and private profits?

    (I swear I haven’t quoted the whole thing!)

    Reply
  111. Here’s one more that jumped out at me. It’s a follow-up to the third quote from my last comment (emphasis in original).

    …since the rights or lack of rights that employees have at the workplace are always defined by the legal system, we must not ask whether the law should organize the labor market but rather what kinds of rules and rights should be entailed in these laws—those that recognize that it is the skills and talents of employees that make firms productive, or those that rig the game in favor of employers and private profits?

    (I swear I haven’t quoted the whole thing!)

    Reply
  112. Hey, boys and girls, look lively:
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/harry-tracey-conyers-georgia-gun
    For his next common-sense defying stunt, this guy will:
    1. Set off an M-80 just behind Tommy Devito, Joe Pesci’s character in “Goodfellas”.
    2. Rub his entire right arm with an open-faced pastrami sandwich and then stick it through an opening in the tiger pen at the Big Cat Buffet Game Sanctuary just outside Cheboygan.
    3. Fly to southern Syria, draw a dotted line around his neck with the words “Cut Here” tattooed next to it, and try to make contact with the Grand Vizier of ISIS.

    Reply
  113. Hey, boys and girls, look lively:
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/harry-tracey-conyers-georgia-gun
    For his next common-sense defying stunt, this guy will:
    1. Set off an M-80 just behind Tommy Devito, Joe Pesci’s character in “Goodfellas”.
    2. Rub his entire right arm with an open-faced pastrami sandwich and then stick it through an opening in the tiger pen at the Big Cat Buffet Game Sanctuary just outside Cheboygan.
    3. Fly to southern Syria, draw a dotted line around his neck with the words “Cut Here” tattooed next to it, and try to make contact with the Grand Vizier of ISIS.

    Reply
  114. Hey, boys and girls, look lively:
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/harry-tracey-conyers-georgia-gun
    For his next common-sense defying stunt, this guy will:
    1. Set off an M-80 just behind Tommy Devito, Joe Pesci’s character in “Goodfellas”.
    2. Rub his entire right arm with an open-faced pastrami sandwich and then stick it through an opening in the tiger pen at the Big Cat Buffet Game Sanctuary just outside Cheboygan.
    3. Fly to southern Syria, draw a dotted line around his neck with the words “Cut Here” tattooed next to it, and try to make contact with the Grand Vizier of ISIS.

    Reply
  115. As Benjamin Franklin said when he strolled out to the press gaggle to comment on what the Constitutional Convention had wrought:
    “A Republic, unless a bunch of effing hardheaded jagoffs read too much into what this document says.
    Then he looked into the camera and addressed the public: “I’m talking to you, numbnuts.

    Reply
  116. As Benjamin Franklin said when he strolled out to the press gaggle to comment on what the Constitutional Convention had wrought:
    “A Republic, unless a bunch of effing hardheaded jagoffs read too much into what this document says.
    Then he looked into the camera and addressed the public: “I’m talking to you, numbnuts.

    Reply
  117. As Benjamin Franklin said when he strolled out to the press gaggle to comment on what the Constitutional Convention had wrought:
    “A Republic, unless a bunch of effing hardheaded jagoffs read too much into what this document says.
    Then he looked into the camera and addressed the public: “I’m talking to you, numbnuts.

    Reply

Leave a Comment