Christian Lawn Care

The campaign sabbatical continues.  Here, with a hat tip to my brother Steve, is a dialogue on lawn care from a Christian perspective.  It makes a lot of sense to me.

Fear the Boom and Bust

À propos of the upcoming vote on whether to confirm Ben Bernanke for another term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, I pass along the following video.  Proving once again the capacious bounds of human imagination, it presents some of the basic differences between Keynesian and Austrian economic perspectives by casting Keynes and Hayek as . . . well, you’d better just watch it yourself.  (Bernanke and Geithner make an appearance (in character at least) at 4:28.)

One of the creators, Russ Roberts of George Mason University, has a weekly podcast called Econtalk that’s terrific.

Take Me When I’m Gone to Forest Lawn

News of Michael Jackson’s interment at Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California immediately reminded me of this song.  I think I heard John Denver sing it, but Tom Paxton is the one who’s available on YouTube.

Where Are We Going? And What Are We Doing in this Handbasket?

On the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought perhaps I could use my latest bumper sticker purchases to substitute for commentary I haven’t been writing. Here’s a pretty good summary:

Monogramming the Financial Crisis

I know it’s in the Obama Administration’s interest to emphasize how bad the economy was at the end of the Bush Administration.  But I think this goes too far.

SUPER BAAADDDD, by Bill Bonner

I don’t usually do posts that just say, “Hey, read this.”  But hey, read this.  It’s by Bill Bonner, who sells many of his insights but offers the ones below free on his Daily Reckoning site.  Finally, a proposal for helping clear the glut of bad novels.

SUPER BAAADDDD
by Bill Bonner

Bankers are idiots, sometimes

Closing the Money Hole

The bailout debate almost defies parody.  Almost.

One Day More

No matter whom you support in the presidential election, you have to hand it to these folks.

Of course, the kids got slaughtered at the barricades . . .

Patriotic Songs for Our Newest National Protectors

It has been noted, on this blog and elsewhere, that the sense of national emergency over the last three weeks has been eerily reminiscent of various national security threats we’ve encountered in the last eight years.  The important difference, of course, is that the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force have been completely unable to help us out of this crisis.  Only Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke could do anything about it.  They were kind enough to ask Congress for permission, but as we’ve noted, they went ahead with a back-door bailout anyway, even before Congress consented.

Now that Congress has ratified it, however, the new reality is that our economic security — and therefore, it is widely believed, our national security — now depends on a new part of the executive branch.  It seems only fair that this newest guarantor of our lives and our fortunes (though not, I think, our sacred honor) should have some patriotic songs to celebrate its important new role.

As you may have guessed, I have some modest suggestions,

Breaking News

I’d been planning a post about the bailout proposal and about the upcoming debate, but it looks like I may have been preempted by this development.