From Newsweek
What we do need to be cautious of is leaping on the nascent science of positive psychology before we are certain that we are asking the right questions. The most recent findings, for example, are that wealth makes you happy but children do not.
So … more money and fewer kids. Can this really be the weight of our accumulated wisdom? Do we all want daisies-in-the-meadow happiness, or a less chirpy, quieter contentment?
The entire article is pretty interesting to read, but I think they confuse denial with happiness. You can choose to deal with your situation in a positive manner and only worry about what you can control, or you can ignore the letters from your mortgage company and other creditors or the warning from your doctor that you really should get that brain tumor removed, but that prabably wont lead to long term happiness; however, if you stay positive during any of these situations chances are you will handle them better.
The one thing I get out of the article is that kids almost always insure that you will have less money and probably more stress.
Posted by John Rove as Words at 10:15 AM GMT+4
No Comments »
Over the weekend I saw this article on population and climate change by Matthew Yglesias and he asks why people don’t talk about the benefits of small families. on the enviroment.
Efficiency—just not using energy—is the cleanest source of energy at all. And nobody uses less energy than a person who doesn’t even exist. That’s not to say we should be engaging in coercive limits on people’s ability to have children, that would be a cure that’s far worse than the disease. But the evidence is pretty clear that in societies where women are empowered and have access to contraception, that on average they want modest-sized families. And what this study is talking about is specifically what could be accomplished by closing the gap between the level of contraception that people want to have and the level of contraception they’re actually able to maintain. There are dozens of good reasons to think closing that gap would be beneficial, the impact on the environment is one of them, and there’s no reason people should refuse to say that.
I have even been in college classes where talking about the benefits of smaller families is strongly dicouraged. Kids have sort of become a consumer good that everyone is entitled to have, and anyone who suggests otherwise is some sort of elitist jerk. And yes I am bitter about being called an elitist jerk.
Posted by John Rove as Words at 11:57 AM GMT+4
No Comments »
This is truly stunning and a bit creepy More than anything I think it shows that angry paranoid people are always angry and paranoid even to their friends, and the FOX reporter does everything but tell the guy I am one of you, and yet he still trys to shut him down.
Posted by John Rove as Words at 6:16 PM GMT+4
No Comments »
Sometimes Rush Limbaugh makes a mistake and says what he is really thinking:
In a remark extraordinary even by the standards of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio heavyweight declared on his program Wednesday that the United States needed to return to racially segregated buses.
I hope reporters will start asking Republican politicians whether they agree with Limbaugh. It should make for some great TV and the apologies to Limbaugh later should be fun to watch.
Posted by John Rove as Words at 10:10 AM GMT+4
No Comments »
The debate about the public option really isn’t policy debate at all. It is a no-brainer to implement a medicare like system that allows for reimbursement at the same scale as medicare, for everyone in America. The real debate is about whether or not conservative can get Democrats to break a promise to the American people when they said they would give the country a public option.
In other words it is about Republicans trying to get a political advantage and whether or not Democrats will be stupid enough to give it to them. Republican politicians will be able to claim Democrats were lying when they promised a public option. Even though it was mostly Republicans who made sure it didn’t pass that is not what most people are going to remember. They will remember that Democrats had a solid majority and could not pass a public option and probably for another forty years any time anyone trys to do something about the health-care in America it will be very easy to say they are lying or that they are unrealistic. After all at one time Democrats had a majority in both houses and their was a democratic president.
Even if the minority party could get a bill passed through both congress and the Senate I am sure President Palin would veto it. Democrats really need to come together and pass a health-care bill with a robust public option. The last time they failed at health-care we wound up with eight years of Bush.
Posted by John Rove as Words at 12:03 PM GMT+4
No Comments »
During last nights speech Joe Wilson made a name for himself by heckling the president and in the process made Republicans look even smaller and more unreasonable. As the Washingtonmonthly explains
There are a few important angles to this. The first is substantive. When Wilson accused the president of lying, Wilson was, in fact, lying. Even in Congress, facts should matter, and the right-wing Republican wasn’t just obnoxious with his idiotic interruption, he was also wrong.
The second is personal. Joe Scarborough, a former Republican member of Congress, said, “Whoever shouted out that the president was lying is a dumbass.” John McCain denounced Wilson’s outburst as “totally disrespectful.” While right-wing blogs were thrilled, Republican lawmakers have been entirely unwilling to defend Wilson’s behavior.
The third is contextual. President Obama couldn’t have been more magnanimous last night, highlighting a plan that “incorporates ideas from many people in this room tonight, Democrats and Republicans.” He made frequent references to Republican lawmakers and even George W. Bush. Obama even talked up medical malpractice reform. It was in this context that Wilson decided to lash out? As Gail Collins noted this morning, “Let me go out on a limb and say that it is not a good plan to heckle the president of the United States when he’s making a speech about replacing acrimony with civility.”
The fourth is practical. While Dems have been divided of late on policy specifics, they were unified last night — they loved Obama and they hated Joe Wilson. Indeed, I’ve seen reports that Wilson’s Democratic opponent next year, Rob Miller, suddenly saw a wave of new campaign contributions in the wake of Wilson’s conduct.
It’s striking that Wilson, unable to find any support from his allies, quickly apologized. He said his emotions got the best of him, and issued a statement that said, “While I disagree with the president’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility.” He spoke directly to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel last night to express his regret.
The guy seemed like any other teabagger and looked just as angry and unreasonable as the crowds that were bussed into townhall meetings in August. Maybe now the Joe Wilson’s of the world will let the grown-ups do their job while they pass kool-aid through their noses at the kids table
Posted by John Rove as Words at 10:05 AM GMT+4
No Comments »
Thought I would re-post this as it seems especially relavant a few years later:
With mid-terms coming up soon, I wanted to share this list I came across at my local library:
1933 Unemployment Relief
1935 Social Security
1938 Minimum Wage
1944 GI Bill
1945 United Nations
1947 Marshal Plan
1949 NATO
1964 Civil Rights Act
1965 Medicare
1965 Voting Rights for all
1965 Head Start
1965 Federal Aid to Education
1967 Freedom of Information Act
1993 Family Leave Act
1990’s Federal Aid to Education
1990’s BUDGET SURPLUS
By my count, there are quite a few things on this list that the Republican Party is either against or is currently cutting while in power: Balanced Budgets (let alone creating a surplus), Social Security (GOP has hated this from the jump), Minimum Wage, United Nations (sending Bolton pretty much says it all), NATO (GOP bashed Clinton for participating in NATO missions), Head Start & Federal Aid to Education (funding reduced under Bush)…
This list represents what I’m proud of in terms of being an American, and in a lot of ways, it’s why I vote Democrat in most elections.
Hopefully in the near future healthcare reform, with a genuine public option,will be added to the list.
Posted by John Rove as Words at 9:49 AM GMT+4
No Comments »
I have not been able to get my mind around the republican hissy fit about Obama’s speech to school children until I read this post:, especially this part:
We laugh at the wingnuts pulling their kids out of school, and we point out that Obama’s speech is perhaps the most bland, inoffensive, apolitical thing he’s ever written. But that’s exactly what the wingnuts are afraid of. They can just imagine their kids sitting in a classroom, watching this man speak—a Democrat, a liberal, a “socialist” (so they’ve been taught), a black “racist” (so they’ve been taught)—and two things might occur to them. 1) Their classmates do not share their fear and hatred and 2) Obama is saying the same sort of things that anyone would say. In fact, the sheer normalcy of the situation is hard to deny, and kids who are eager to fit in with their peers are extremely unlikely to start insisting that up is down and this normal situation is scary and fucked up. And that might be the first step towards becoming a more open-minded, decent human being. No wonder their parents are scared.
Wingnuts, particularly the Christian right, have always seen the appealing normality of the “secular” culture as its main threat.
The best weapon the conservative movement has is the fear of the “other” and a promise to protect people from the “other”. Onece people start to see that the scary brown people or scary gay people are really just like everyone else with the same hopes and dreams, the need for protection from the other goes away as does the conservative reason for being.
Posted by John Rove as Words at 9:58 AM GMT+4
No Comments »
One thing that does not seem to get enough attention is how much easy access to credit fuels price inflation. At least if you have wage inflation to go with the price inflation people are not stuck with bills they cannot pay at a later date. This article seems to touch on the way debt has effected many of the countries businesses and orginizations in a negative way. This part seems especially relavant:
In recent years, Americans have grown accustomed to living amid the wreckage of various once-proud industries — automakers bankrupt, brand-name Wall Street banks in ruins, newspapers dying by the dozen. It’s tempting in such circumstances to take comfort in the seeming permanency of our colleges and universities, in the notion that our world-beating higher education system will reliably produce research and knowledge workers for decades to come.
Tempting — but wrong. Colleges are caught in the same kind of debt-fueled price spiral that just blew up the real estate market, and are selling information at a time when technology is pushing its value into the basement. In combination, these two trends threaten to shake the centuries-old foundation of the modern university.
Maybe higher education should accept its role as a farm system for the NFL and get out of the information business all together, Oh Wait, I think some universities have already done that.
Posted by John Rove as Words at 9:37 AM GMT+4
No Comments »
One thing everyone seems to agree on in the health care debate is that Medicare is a great program. In fact several teabaggers have used their Medicare to pay for fixing them up after they start and then lose a fight at a townhall event. At this point it seems like a no brainer to open up Medicare to anyone that would like to join. This would probably help Medicare to stay solvent as younger healthier people would probably join and they would cost the system far less than seniors, perhaps helping to subsidize the care of older Americans while at the same time helping most Americans to get health insurance. This seems like a win/win that should not be contraversial as everyoone loves Medicare.
Posted by John Rove as Words at 3:53 PM GMT+4
No Comments »
