Author: Aaron Weber

Volume

I bought a half-bushel of apples this weekend, and brought quite a few in to the office for snacks for everyone. During a break in a planning meeting today I mentioned it, and Ted, jokingly, asked, how many pecks are in a bushel? I said, four, more or less reflexively, sort of guessing. He was startled.

I was right. Two gallons in a peck, four pecks in a bushel. The actual volume of a gallon, peck, or bushel varies by nation (UK gallons are slightly larger, so although 2 UK gallons still make a UK peck, it’s not the same as a US peck.) This is why we have the metric system.

Mouth-breathers

Strangely, it’s the right wing that uses the word “idiotarian” more than the left. Because the right wing genuinely seems to be the faction of stupid people promoting stupid policies. People who believe that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. That “9/11 changed everything” and use that as an excuse to suspend all civil liberties. People who use the words “taxachussets” unironically (note that MA is dead center in tax burden among the states, the word, like “partial-birth abortion” and “death tax” is basically bullshit). People who believe that Kerry never went to war or that he evaded service or that he helped the Viet Cong, and who laud Bush’s military service in the same breath.

Our Leader is daring North Korea to nuke us. The designated “liberals” in the “liberal” media are unable to point out the lies Bush told during the debate.

At least there are some smart people out there. For example, John Eisenhower, son of Gen. Eisenhower, is endorsing Kerry. And Rita Hauser, former vice-chairman of Bush’s foreign intelligence advisory board, has endorsed Kerry. And Joseph Stiglitz, former world bank chief economist, has endorsed Kerry. He says

Bush supporters rightly ask: is Bush really to blame for this? Wasn’t the recession already beginning when he took office?

The resounding answer is that Bush is to blame. Every president inherits a legacy. The economy was entering a downturn when Bush took office, but Clinton also left a huge budget surplus—2 percent of GDP—a pot of money with which to finance a robust recovery. But Bush squandered that surplus, converting it into a deficit of 5 percent of GDP through tax cuts for the rich.

The productivity growth that was sustained through the downturn presented both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity: If the economy was well managed, the incomes of Americans could continue to rise as they had done in the 1990s. The challenge: to manage the economy so that growth would be robust enough to create the new jobs required by new entrants to the labor force. Bush failed the challenge, and America lost the opportunity because of his wrong choices.

Stupid people, stupid policies, stupid results.

Good Advice

Found a new advice column: Embarrassing Problems. It’s good, sincere advice about icky medical problems. Being based in the UK means that US readers won’t be put off by it: a British accent, as I have observed before, makes it ok to talk about things like “faeces” and “loo,” Contrast with Savage Love which is funnier advice about embarrassing sex problems, and Ask Kitty Winn, which basically makes askers feel ashamed of themselves, anonymously.

At what point do you give up?

For crying out loud, even their database administrators are corrupt. Come November third, lawsuits are going to fly, just like last time, and it’s pretty likely we’ll see a 5-4 vote for President again, and the US losing status as a country where free and fair elections are held. How about some international election observers, please? Check the Independent’s coverage of race-biased voter purges in Florida.

Also, Billionaires for Bush are back at it, send them some props for style. Or cash to help pay for hosting, since they’re not actually rich, they just play rich on the Internet.