So the point was?

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Krugman:

Simon Wren-Lewis writes with feeling about the “austerity deception“; what sets him off is a post that characterizes the whole austerity debate as being about “big-state” versus “small-state” people.

Wren-Lewis’s point is that only one side of the debate saw it that way. Opponents of austerity in a depressed economy opposed it because they believed that this would worsen the depression — and they were right.

Proponents of austerity, however, were lying about their motives. Strong words, but if you look at their recent reactions it becomes clear that all the claims about expansionary austerity, 90 percent cliffs and all that were just excuses for an agenda of dismantling the welfare state. That in turn helps explain why the intellectual collapse of their supposed arguments has made no difference to their policy position.

One interesting point, which Wren-Lewis gets at and I’ve mentioned on other occasions, is that the austerity side of this debate isn’t just disingenuous; it doesn’t seem to comprehend the notion that other people might actually argue in good faith. No time to do the link right now, but back when we were discussing stimulus many people on the right, economists like Lucas included, simply assumed that people like Christy Romer were making stuff up to serve a political agenda. And now I think we can see why they made this assumption — after all, that’s how they work.

When it comes to the right wing, Krugman has always missed the obvious.

Mind wandering

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Really cool article. I’ve often said that workplaces lose a lot by insisting only on people who can perform at 100 percent, every hour of the day. How do the ideas incubate?

Once accused of being absent-minded, the founder of American Psychology, William James, quipped that he was really just present-minded to his own thoughts.

Most recent studies depict mind wandering as a costly cognitive failure with relatively few benefits (Mooneyham and Schooler, 2013). This perspective makes sense when mind wandering is observed by a third party and when costs are measured against externally imposed standards such as speed or accuracy of processing, reading fluency or comprehension, sustained attention, and other external metrics.

There is, however, another way of looking at mind wandering, a personal perspective, if you will. For the individual, mind wandering offers the possibility of very real, personal reward, some immediate, some more distant.

These rewards include self- awareness, creative incubation, improvisation and evaluation, memory consolidation, autobiographical planning, goal driven thought, future planning, retrieval of deeply personal memories, reflective consideration of the meaning of events and experiences, simulating the perspective of another person, evaluating the implications of self and others’ emotional reactions, moral reasoning, and reflective compassion (Singer and Schonbar, 1961; Singer, 1964b; Singer, 1966, 1974, 1975, 1993, 2009; Wang et al., 2009; Baars, 2010; Baird et al., 2011, 2012; Kaufman and Singer, 2011; Stawarczyk et al., 2011; Immordino-Yang et al., 2012; Kaufman, 2013).

From this personal perspective, it is much easier to understand why people are drawn to mind wandering and willing to invest nearly 50% of their waking hours engaged in it.

‘Nashville’ Season 2, Episode 1: I Fall To Pieces

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

http://youtu.be/0eyDbOth1AE

RECAP:
“Nashville” really does have the best music on television (curated last season by T Bone Burnett) and if you’re not watching, you should. They’re using songs by some top singer-songwriters.

Anyway: The last thing we saw in the Season 1 finale, Deacon snapped out in a drunken rage and fought with Rayna when she admitted he was Maddie’s father, forcing the car off the road. Two weeks later, Rayna is in an induced coma and Deacon’s in jail, with bail set at one million smackers, with him pleading guilty.

  • Juliette Barnes is pissed off because it’s award season, she and Rayna are up for the same awards and “now I have to compete with the saint,” she spits. She grabs for the spotlight when she does a tribute to Rayna during her show, including a slideshow. (“Interestingly enough, you were in most of the pictures,” Avery notes acerbically as they come offstage.)
  • During her rehearsal, Scarlett approaches Juliette to lend her money for Deacon’s bail. “Let him go, he’s an addict. Addicts will always break your heart,” Juliette says.
  • Peggy confirms her pregnancy to Teddy, who says he wants nothing to do with the child. He offers her financial support, “but that’s it.” Later, when she goes to the ultrasound appointment alone, she learns that she miscarried. Will she tell Teddy? Nope. “I heard the heartbeat today,” she tells him.
  • Teddy and Maddie have a father-daughter talk about Deacon. “He was always my Uncle Deacon, and now he’s my dad,” she says. “He’s your biological father. I’ll always be your dad,” Teddy assures her.
  • Scarlett, ever loving and supportive, goes to the jail to tell her uncle she’s trying to raise his bail. Decon rebuffs her. “I’m no one’s damn father! You quit coming here!” he yells at a tearful Scarlett.

Continue reading “‘Nashville’ Season 2, Episode 1: I Fall To Pieces” →

Harvard, for free

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Spread the word!

The state of Massachusetts understands what it means to fight tyranny better than most, and yesterday the “Cradle of Liberty” broke out its biggest, 350-year-old cannon for the second year in a row. Yes, for 2013, Harvard University has once again announced that students coming from families making under $60,000 a year will pay no tuition, and no student loans. While Harvard has traditionally been seen as the literal definition of the elitist, ivy league school, the school’s President Drew Faust reminded us all of the university’s proud tradition of public service as she said on Friday, September 20th:  

“When only ten percent of the students in elite higher education come from families in the lower half of the income distribution, we are not doing enough. We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution.”

Let THAT “elitist” message sink in for a moment. Of course, even Harvard has bills to pay…and let’s face it, rich people don’t do anything without some kind of return on investment.But some investments are longer term than others, and when you’ve been around for 350 years, the term “long term investment” can take on a whole new perspective. Harvard knows better than anyone what will happen if the corporate GOP is successful in reducing our nation to a mob of slobbering idiots, devoid of all potential for innovation or success. Harvard isn’t Wall Street…it doesn’t think in micro-second trades, short-term gains or quick returns. They know that today’s mistakes mean tomorrow’s closed doors. Or, as Bill Nye might put it:

“Innovation is what’s going to make the United States economy grow. And in order to have innovation, you have to have scientifically literate students.“

A few years ago, we might have been able to convince ourselves that the GOP’s war on education was just a case of greed…maybe even relatively benign neglect. But history suggests otherwise. The GOP’s corporatism is nothing more than tyranny and slavery reborn; from the Koch Brothers’ “More Mexicans equals cheaper labor” immigration policy, to the GOP’s rabid support of parochial indoctrination, to the Tea Party’s general deification of proud and utter stupidity. Education is a threat to domination; it causes us to question by what right we are dominated, and provides us with the tools to mount a revolution. Boston style.

“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. I believe it [the human condition] susceptible of much improvement, and most of all, in matters of government and religion; and that the diffusion of knowledge among the people is to be the instrument by which it is effected.” – Thomas Jefferson, 181

If you know an honor-roll child who comes from a family making less than $60,000 a year, send them here. The next revolution is calling.