Why Are They Saying Those Things?

Two Sizes Too Small

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by hilzoy In a piece called "How Jezebel is Hurting Feminism", Linda Hirshman writes: "The Jezebels are clearly familiar with the rhetoric of feminism: sexism, sexual coercion, cultural misogyny, even the importance of remembering women’s history. But they are also a living demonstration of the chaotic possibilities the movement always contained. In its origins, women’s liberation … Read more

How Dare He?

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by hilzoy Dick Cheney on Face The Nation: "SCHIEFFER: What do you say to those, Mr. Vice President, who say that when we employ these kinds of tactics, which are after all the tactics that the other side uses, that when we adopt their methods, that we're weakening security, not enhancing security, because it sort … Read more

Dueling Videos

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by hilzoy The Senate Republicans have put up an unusually boneheaded video about the idea of holding Guantanamo detainees in the US: Something about 9/11 seems to have produced a kind of amnesia among some people on the right. It's as though they think that we have never before had to figure out such questions … Read more

“He Used … Sarcasm”

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by hilzoy Erick Erickson informs us that "The Obama Thugocracy Has Arrived", and that Obama is "turning to the bully pulpit and the press to beat the hell out of dissenters." "Beating the hell out of dissenters"? With the White House Press Corps? It all sounded very peculiar, so I clicked the link Erick provided, expecting … Read more

Getting Your Face Wet

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by hilzoy John Hinderaker wows us again with his caring and decency (emphasis added): "Torture has been illegal for a number of years, and President Bush insisted just as strongly as Obama that the U.S. does not torture. There was a legitimate debate about waterboarding, which does no physical injury, and which I do not … Read more

When You Assume, You Make an Ass of U and Me

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by hilzoy Andrew Klavan in the LA Times: "If you are reading this newspaper, the likelihood is that you agree with the Obama administration's recent attacks on conservative radio talker Rush Limbaugh. That's the likelihood; here's the certainty: You've never listened to Rush Limbaugh. Oh no, you haven't. Whenever I interrupt a liberal's anti-Limbaugh rant … Read more

Mark Haines Doesn’t Get It

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by hilzoy

If anyone on Wall Street is wondering: what is this "it" that we are supposed to "get"? Is it just that people are angry? Could I be one of those people who don't "get it"? If so, how would I know?, s/he could do worse than consider this YouTube of CNBC's Mark Haines interviewing Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) (via TPM). It's a pretty good diagnostic tool. 

This is what "not getting it" looks like. At about 50 seconds in, Haines says: "You and people who share your opinions seem to feel that, you know, let's hold salaries on Wall Street to $100,000. Do you have any idea what Wall Street would look like if you did that?" If your immediate reaction is: that's telling him, Mark Haines!, then you don't get it. 

A couple of years ago, it would have been hyperbole to suggest that we would all be better off if the senior executives at all our major financial firms were people picked entirely at random out of the phone book. Now, it's arguably true. People picked at random would, admittedly, be likely not to have been to business school. They might not know a lot about futures or derivatives or put options. But so what? At least they might have been more likely to know that they were clueless, and a few of them might have had the common sense to ask questions like: will housing prices really go up indefinitely?

In any case, what's the worst they could have done? Bankrupted their companies with ludicrously risky gambles that fell apart once markets went south? Destroyed trillions of dollars in value? Brought the world financial system to the brink of collapse? Left taxpayers across the globe on the hook for trillions of dollars? Bankrupted entire countries?

Oh, right. 

"Getting it" means understanding that the entire story that some people on Wall Street have told themselves about why they got such obscene levels of compensation is false. As a group, they were not uniquely talented. They did not make a lot more money for their company than they earned, at least not in the long run. Their salaries were not fair compensation for the value they produced. It would not have been worse if they had been replaced by people chosen at random. 

Look at the YouTube clip again. Mark Haines seems astonished and baffled by Rep. Sherman's comments. He acts as though he's dealing with some ignorant Yahoo who just doesn't see that when people on Wall Street and people on Main Street disagree, Wall Street is obviously right. That's why he takes "What do people on Main Street know about running a financial system?" to be such a killer response to Sherman.

A few years ago, it would have been a killer response. Normally, it makes sense to think that people on Wall Street know more about running a financial system than people chosen at random, just as it makes sense to think that a successful director knows more about making movies than I do. When people reach positions of prominence in a given field, it makes sense to think that their opinions about the field they work in are entitled to some deference*. It takes a lot to completely forfeit any right to that deference. But the people in the financial services industries have managed to pull it off.

And that's what Mark Haines doesn't get.

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Your Moment Of WTF??

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by hilzoy From the normally sane Will Wilkinson (h/t): "Obama and his devotees are Bizarro World Randian romantics in the grip of an adolescent faith in the generative powers of the state." Savor that sentence. Cherish it. Roll it around on your tongue. It has to be the one and only time anyone will ever … Read more

Please Go Galt!

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by hilzoy The unemployment numbers are dreadful. But for once, there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon: conservatives are going Galt. "While they take to the streets politically, untold numbers of America's wealth producers are going on strike financially. Dr. Helen Smith, a Tennessee forensic psychologist and political blogger, dubbed the phenomenon "Going Galt" … Read more

Daycare?

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by hilzoy Here's a poll from USNews' Washington Whispers site: Steve Benen asks: "Would it ever occur to them, even for a moment, to ask who would run the best daycare center: Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden, or John Boehner?" Well, no.  But let's take this a bit further. Here are some other polls … Read more

Juxtaposition Of The Day

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by hilzoy From National Review's list of the 25 best conservative movies: "12. The Dark Knight (2008): This film gives us a portrait of the hero as a man reviled. In his fight against the terrorist Joker, Batman has to devise new means of surveillance, push the limits of the law, and accept the hatred of the press … Read more

The RedState Strike Force Strikes!

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by hilzoy Erick Erickson of RedState has a message for the RedState Strike Force about their latest triumph (and may he enjoy many more victories like this one): "Persevere. And relish victories like we had last night – the House Republicans heard us and stood united against Barack Obama’s socialist stimulus plan." He seems to be … Read more

Chill Out

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by hilzoy From the NYT: "Is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed coming to a prison near you?One day after President Obama ordered that the military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, be shuttered, lawmakers in Washington wrestled with the implications of bringing dozens of the 245 remaining inmates onto American soil. Republican lawmakers, who oppose Mr. Obama’s plan, found a talking point … Read more

Fanboyz

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by hilzoy I gather there are football games today. Apparently, one of them even involves my hometown team. Buildings all over Baltimore are illuminated in purple. But we haven't gone as far as the mayor of Pittsburgh (h/t): "In light of the big Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens matchup this weekend, mayor Luke R. Ravenstahl has officially changed his name … Read more

Happy Human Rights Day

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by hilzoy Via Undiplomatic, I see that Bush decided to celebrate Human Rights Day by awarding the Presidential Citizens Medal to, among other, Chuck Colson. Here’s what the Presidential Citizens Medal is supposed to be: “The Presidential Citizens Medal was established in November 13, 1969, to recognize U.S. citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of … Read more

Bill Ayers: Please Go Away

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by hilzoy For reasons best known to themselves, the NYT has published an op-ed by William Ayers: “In the recently concluded presidential race, I was unwillingly thrust upon the stage and asked to play a role in a profoundly dishonest drama. (…) “Now that the election is over, I want to say as plainly as … Read more

Essence Of Oogedy-Boogedy

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by hilzoy Steve Benen flagged an op-ed in the WSJ that has to be in the running for Dumbest Column Ever. It starts with fairly conventional War on Christmas stuff: “Christmas, the holiday that dare not speak its name.” Right. But then it launches itself off into the great empyrean of stupid: “This year we … Read more

I Am Baffled

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by hilzoy Over the weekend, I wrote that Will Wilkinson was wrong to think that a general recitation of the virtues of free markets was sufficient to show that bailing out Detroit was a bad idea, and that in order to make his case, he needed to consider the specifics of this situation. Now Jonah … Read more

Crude Oil From Trees. Really.

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by hilzoy ThinkProgress: “Rep. Bill Sali (R-ID), who is participating in the GOP’s ongoing “Drill Now” energy stunt, has a unique idea about how to bring down gas prices: extracting oil from trees. In a meeting in his Capitol Hill office, Sali reportedly told a candidate for Idaho’s House of Representatives, Byron Yankey, that there … Read more

Slavery!

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by hilzoy Jonah Goldberg strikes again: “There’s a weird irony at work when Sen. Barack Obama, the black presidential candidate who will allegedly scrub the stain of racism from the nation, vows to run afoul of the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery. For those who don’t remember, the 13th Amendment says: “Neither slavery nor involuntary … Read more

Just For Giggles

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by hilzoy From NRO’s Campaign Spot (h/t Attackerman): “So, the recent news out of the Obama camp is that they’re planning a huge rally with thousands of people in a stadium, want to create a mandatory youth corps for national service, and are thinking about a big dramatic speech in Berlin. It’s like they’re trying … Read more

Conservatives And Jesse Helms

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by hilzoy

I haven’t written anything about Jesse Helms’ death, since I don’t like speaking ill of the dead. However: every so often, conservatives wonder: why oh why do people think that the Republican party, and/or the conservative movement, is bigoted? I think that the conservative response to Helms’ death ought to settle that debate once and for all.

[UPDATE: I’m talking about about the Republican Party as an institution, not its individual members. Of course there are bigots and non-bigots in both parties. Ditto “the conservative movement”: I meant to refer to it as an organized force, not to all its members. Sorry not to have said this more clearly. END UPDATE.]

More below the fold. Note that I have largely restricted myself to conservatives’ own words (and not random bloggers, but people and magazines with some standing in conservative circles), and to Helms’ words and actions.

For my part, I’ll just echo Matt:

“Conservatives are taking a line that I might have regarded as an unfair smear just a week ago, and saying that Helms is a brilliant exemplar of the American conservative movement.

And if that’s what the Heritage Foundation and National Review and the other key pillars of American conservatism want me to believe, then I’m happy to believe it. But it reflects just absolutely horribly on them and their movement that this is how they want to be seen — as best exemplified by bigotry, lunatic notions about foreign policy, and tobacco subsidies.”

And Ezra:

“Some of my conservative friends often complain about the difficulty of constructing a “usable history” out of the movement’s recent past, and I sympathize with their plight. When leading exemplars of your political tradition were trying to preserve segregation less than four decades ago, it’s a bit hard to argue that your party, which is now electorally based in the American South, is really rooted in a cautious empiricism and an acute concern for the deadweight losses associated with taxation. That project would really benefit, however, if more of them would step forward and say that Helms marred the history of their movement and left decent people ashamed to call themselves conservative. The attempt to subsume his primary political legacy beneath a lot of pabulum about “limited government and individual liberty” (which did not apparently include the liberty of blacks to work amongst whites or mingle with other races) is embarrassing. But if it goes unchallenged, what are those of us outside the conservative movement to think?”

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