My friend Scotus sent out an e-mail last week linking to this Commentary article, “Honor Versus Unity.” He suggested each of us propose an earlier “type” for McCain and another for Obama. He was thinking Teddy Roosevelt and Wilson. The first response from another colleague was Grover Cleveland and Robespierre.
Ginny
Flyover Humor
Iowahawk has a Midwestern perspective on Joe; he now speaks as that other beleagured Midwesterner, Hyde Park’s leading resident, in I am Bill. Thanks, Iowahawk.
We’re going to need all the Zucker and Iowahawk they can create during the next few years. Even great genius of this kind is uneven (Zucker’s new movie is). But at the top of their game, they make my day – or week. National treasures, they restore proportionality; the serious-minded transcendentalists thought that was a great poet’s task, but my vote is for comedy.
Another Place Heard From
Mrs. Davis thoughtfully comments on James’s post :
In case you missed it, the housing market started to crash about a year ago. But unemployment never rose. Why? They all went back to Mexico. They may have a hard time getting a job there, but they’ve saved a lot of dollars and they’re still the richest guys in the village. They’ll hang out till we need them again and then they’ll be back. Even in those midwestern meat and poultry packing plants.
James, Ohio must be really different from other parts of flyover country. I don’t think anyone would mistake Lexington, Nebraska for Marin County. But guys stand around there as they do all over Texas waiting for a job on week-ends. Put in a meat packing plant and suddenly the Somalis and Mexicans join the cowboys at Wal-Mart.
Useful Analysis
What happens when the voter in the exact middle of the earnings spectrum receives more in benefits from Washington than he pays in taxes? Economists Allan Meltzer and Scott Richard posed this question 27 years ago. We may soon enough know the answer. Paul L. Caron
An Old Topic
Todd Zywicki has a post “Intelligence versus Glibness”. It rehashes arguments we sometimes discuss here (sufficiently that we probably don’t need to start again, though Shannon is often quite interesting when he discourses on the articulate in empty suits). Still if any of our readers long to analyze Palin’s sentences, they can take themselves to the sanctuary of Volokh’s comments. (It was inspired by Randall Hooven’s American Thinker essay, “Judging who’s Smart.”)