Ginny

Age: 77 Place: Originally Nebraska, now Texas Family: Husband, 3 daughters, 3 sons-in-law, 3 grandchildren Occupation: Retired Education: BA, MA Nebraska; Ph.D. UT-Austin Work On hhe Double (1979-1992); taught: ta Austin, Blinn Jr. College (1993-20015), Kelly Girls intermittently.

The Tempting Irrational

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Voltaire observed that “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”   Well, maybe;  he sparked our adolescent conversations late into boozy nights and forty years later we haven’t settled it. But we also feel the need  of Satan, directing frustration and anger at Emmanuel Goldstein, internalizing a picture of Bush taking the form BDS dictates.   We laugh, but the haters’ anger makes us uneasy; we feel the impotency of rational arguments against passionate irrationality.

That disease is one I fear for myself. It is dangerous: to our understanding, our reasoning, and our souls. I don’t want to feel what I’ve seen from the opposition the last few years. I don’t want to simplify & ignore the causes of war, natural catastrophes, history; I don’t want to become conspiratorial; I don’t want to ponder the sexual preferences of a chief justice’s four-year-old or gloat over the young death of someone whose chief fault is representing that opposition. I don’t want to lose my sense of proportionality, always a small enough counterweight to my passions and assumptions. I don’t want to become the worst of them and need to remember most of them are not the worst.

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Ramblings Late at Night, Looking into the Darkness

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Probably most of you have seen these, but if not they may amuse you:

As we infantilize ourselves.  (I view this somewhat ruefully because, unlike apparently most of   the Chicagoboyz, I’m totally incompetent.   Last New Year’s Day my brother walked into our kitchen, asked what was wrong with the sink I said we were going to phone a plumber after the holiday.   He looked at it, climbed under the sink, screwed the head on the hose, and it has worked ever since.)

The friend who forwarded that (who I might say is skilled at both dressing for success and hacking down a tree, at editing a paper and remodeling a room)  sent two sons to the first  Gulf War and one of them  forwarded this to her.  

And this rant is cheerful (even if the Iowa Trades are not likely to make us feel the sentiment is as widespread as we’d like).

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Foster’s Clip – and Others Floating Out There

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Another comment to yet another interesting post by Foster.   (The advantage I have over some of our commentors is that I can put up a post when I realize I’m getting too long-winded and too off-topic.)

Palin’s high energy may not  rescue the McCain candidacy but at least it’s enlivening.   Obama appears to have energized some passions in  Manhatten as well as across the country,  if  dulling other  civil & communal qualities.    Transferring religious fervor  to the political leads to  some strange results.   Of course, that is why political fervor is both compelling – and disturbing.    Belmont Club discusses one.

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The Bailout and Human Nature

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Eyes and ears are poor witnesses when the soul is barbarous.      Heraclitus  

Posted mid-Sunday, as bail-out talks continue.    

Pinker complains in The Blank Slate  of the increasing emphasis in the 20th century on  nurture.   This may well have increased  our sympathies for others, but has led us to undervalue human nature and therefore not consider moral hazards that tempt it.    Our experiences are so variable and their impact so ambiguous, we may be quick to assert  effect where none  existed – or emphasize it when  convenient.       Indirectly, we came  to  devalue  that third and most personally consequential component – human agency.     We say, “Officer Krupke, I’m down on my knees” and  grin, but  we  aren’t always  ironic.   Our experience and history, however,  should make  us more optimistic and  also wary:   men can be good (and remarkably so) and men are fallible.   (Sinners some might say, while the Deists find us  prone to errata.)    A culture’s use is in restraining  us from being our worst and encouraging our best; the more those restraints and rewards are internalized  the smoother, more productive, and happier  our lives. Our goal is not too  many laws but good ones, not  many restraints but necessary ones.  

The general consensus is that  increased subprime lending encouraged by Congress led CEOs to make bad loans.   We are selfish, our vision narrowed to our time and our profit:   the home buyers may have been naïve but also wanted a free lunch; the CEOs wanted to please Congress the source of their jobs, power & money; Congress wanted to buy votes, increase campaign contributions, and purchase  their own houses cheaply.    Those least likely to feel the consequences of their follies are in Congress.

Which is a long way around to the point:   What the hell were Dodd and Frank doing writing a version of the bailout?   Why do they think they should?   Why does anyone else listen to them?   Isn’t having a dog in that fight exactly the reason for recusals?   Is there no moment when we say your history has undermined your authority?      

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Bail out links

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Update, October 2:   Wall Street Journal lists a chronology of links leading to current crisis

 

Links gathered from our blog & others about current financial crisis:

Jonathan:   Healthy Banks to Congress  ; Lex:Opposed economists  & Bailouts Depressing historical parallel     Blogs:   Gary Becker  , superman’s cape     Visual histories:   Fox  ,  Weekly Standard,  Mishu:  The Mouth Peace; Old editorials:   Paul Gigot  A more humerous approach.  

David Foster suggests four useful blogs:   MaxedOutMama, Calculated Risk, The Big Picture, Hussman Funds   Another blogger (via Insta):   Granitegrok

Update:   Another Visual (via Instapundit) of 2004 hearings

If  anyone  wants to add  useful  discussions or  believes some  here are not  useful (and know more than I do which is pretty much anyone who posts here), then  put  others in the comments & I can add them above; or give reasons for their lack of insight or skewing of history that informs us.

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