Arkansas Blog

You mean it didn't go to Phil Gramm?

Big congrats to Paul K -- try never to miss his column.

Krugman deserves it...and an apology from all those right-wing economists who poo pooed his predictions of disaster. (I've really enjoyed watching him revel in his critics' discomfort...ha...what goes around...)

The sad thing is that in a relatively short time the Gramms of the world will be right back in government (in one way or another) pushing their disastrous ideas...just like Cheney et al came back for a Vietnam redo. It use to take several generations before we'd replay public policies that had been proven wrong/disastrous, now...guess our pop-culture brains have been so short-circuited that a night's sleep is all that's needed.

Speaking of short attention spans...my beloved niece (25) spent the weekend with me and I was amazed by her attachment to her cell phone (texting, not talking). She could text, play a card game/eat and talk to me all at the same time...and without missing a beat. And, she's not the first 'young en' of mine who I've watched short circuit everything. Hell, I can't talk on the phone AND drive...well, and that's not an age thing. Never thought that paying attention to one thing at a time would be so...old fashioned. Years ago, I use to get irritated at people who disrespected my time by doing five things while talking to me on the phone...lordy...I am old.

I'm certain that Greenberg The Fair will put a line at the bottom of Krugman's columns (those he deigns to run) for the next 25 years reminding everyone that Krugman won a Nobel Prize.

After all, Greenberg reminds everyone he won a Pulitzer back when John McCain was a teenager.

Unfortunately, multi-tasking contributes to the problem by not devoting sufficient resources to the task at hand. Multi-tasking seems to work because most tasks require so little. Situational awareness is one of the first things to go; we don't know what's going on, how we got here or where we're going. Sound familiar? On a typical day you may find significant percentages of everyday people have allowed themselves to become seriously impaired. A new opiate of the masses for a new millennia?

"I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers, consulting with the rain. And in my head I'd be scratchin' while my thoughts were busy hatchin' if I only had a brain. I'd unravel every riddle, for any individ'le in trouble or in pain." Scarecrow, The Wizard of Oz

I have proposed "If I Only Had a Brain" as Sarah Palin's theme song.

Anyone know when crow season starts? Or is it long over now? Anyway, someone should deliver a dozen or so of the birds to Paul. Who, in his prime, was . . . well , was in his prime . . .
But then reading the Commercial every day as I do, I suppose all I can say is that all good thngs come to an end. Corporate ownership or not, I can't believe how bad it has become. Choking as I type this, I have to say I prefer the Democrat. Gasp . . .

Ha! I heard it on NPR this morning while I was shaving and thought the same thing! Almost cut myself I was giggling so hard...

Greenberg has no street cred in my opinion. I got stuck behind him buying wine one time and he just couldn't get his mind around the size of the magnum...sheesh...

Congrats to Krugman...he deserves it...

Conservative Repubs like Greenberg and the DimGaze editorial writers have been ridiculing Greenberg and his columns on our borrow-and-spend economic follies for years. I wonder what sarcastic remarks on his Nobel Prize selection will greet us in tomorrow's DG editorial section?

I occasionally get a call from the DG wanting me to subscribe and I always respond the same - when Paul Greenberg is off the payroll, I'll subscribe, but not one cent until that day....

I originally said that I wouldn't subscribe to the Democrat-Gazette until they got rid of John Robert Starr and Wally Hall.

Over time I have decided that Hussman would have to go too. I can't believe I overlooked Greenburg, I guess I just figured his tone would shift with the management, like Wally.

I know, I know, Hussman isn't going anywhere, and when he does, I'm sure he has some equally translucent offspring to take his place.

I guess my point is, I will never ever subscribe to the Democrat-Gazette.

Oh, and congratulations to Paul Krugman. He and Jon Stewart kept me sane in those dark early years of the Bush administration.

I have a great "autographed" copy of George Fisher's cartoon showing Bill serving USDA crow to Starr & Greenberg; hangs prominently on my living room wall.

Orval needs to do a ripoff, with credit to Fisher of course.

Paul Krugman's best quote of the day: "The Rupublicans are the party of stupid."

Just for fun, in case you missed it.

Editorial
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
October 14, 2008

Hell's Bells, Hooray, and Aw Shucks

Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist whose writing we've found a great source of bleak comedy, has just won the Nobel prize for economics.

And here we were carrying his stuff on the editorial page mainly to provide some balance for our own less trendy views.

No, we're not apologizing, but we're getting ready to if this kind of universal recognition for Mr. Krugman keeps up-even if we still think he couldn't write his way out of a paper bag. (His metaphors alone deserve the Nobel for Irish bulls.)

And, yes, we still think his comparing these economic conditions now, however volatile, to those of the Great Depression was ludicrous.

But anyone who's now joined the late great Milton Friedman in Nobel laureatehood deserves congratulations and a second opinion. After all, this isn't the Nobel for peace (once awarded to Yasser Arafat) or the one for literature, which regularly goes to some fashionable Comsymp even if a deserving writer or two (Solzhenitsyn) gets one on occasion. This is economics, and while it remains a dismal science and semi-mystical art, it's not entirely subjective.

Congratulations, Mr. Krugman. But hold that order of crow till the bread lines and apple sellers materialize. Cheers, despite this passing cloud, aka The Panic of '08, that you've mistaken for The Deluge.