The Supreme Court of India has ruled that a married man having sex with a woman who is not his wife is committing rape. At first I thought, “That will cut down the extra-marital affairs.” The more I think about the more I think it’s a pretty bad ruling.
*****
Imagine a rich and populous country with no movie theaters. I live next door to one. And that’s about to change.
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A man is eaten by a shark and his son hears his screams… yet the family is sanguine by citing what the now deceased wrote back in 2004:
"I have always had an understanding with my wife that if a shark or ocean accident caused my death then so be it, at least it was doing what I wanted."
For the record, I don’t feel the same way. If I die here it will be under the wheels of a LandCruiser. In addition to the blood money that will be sent my family I hope one of you take it upon yourselves to avenge my death!
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Here’s something you don’t expect from me: I hope Obama does not rescind his choice for Inaugural invocation. To do so now would be caving to the left and the gay community. In the future I hope he’ll show some spine and support ENDA (anti-gay discrimination) and repeal “Don’t ask, Don’t tell”. If Obama caves now it will make action on those fronts more difficult in the future because he’ll been seen as pandering to gays.
Obama had remarkably few gaffes in the campaign but I remember wincing when he told Hillary in a debate, “You’re likable enough.”
Which is why I can’t help but appreciate Frank Rich’s “You’re likable enough, gay people”.
******
I’ll close with economics. In turbulent times it’s helpful to listen to a Midwesterner who was not born wealthy but became one of the richest people in the world. Warren Buffet has been through it all. His predictions for 2009 are the best link to click on this entire post…
My favorite economist (I’d be a groupie if it wouldn’t be too creepy) Paul Krugman argues that home mortgage rates are still too high. Given where Fed rates are, he’s right.
Glenn Hubbard (Bush’s former econ advisor with real conservative credentials) takes it a step further. He wrote a piece in the Journal saying the government should let everyone who can afford the payments buy a house or refinance at 4.5%. His argument: Why give the money to the banks when it’s clear they are not going to lend it out?
He makes a valid point and has left many liberal economists with their jaws dropped to the floor. Hubbard puts the price tag at $340 billion.
Here’s my bold prediction for 2008: We’re going to see something like this in the Obama stimulus package.
It solves many problems: 1. It will quickly put a floor in housing prices. Right now people are sitting on the sidelines waiting for prices to drop more. That type of deflation can kill an economy (see Japan of the 1990’s… it’s almost hard to remember how much we Americans feared them in the 1980’s, isn’t it?). 2. It’s an investment in something real. The government isn’t giving you anything. It’s giving you a chance to buy a house (or refinance). It’s a real asset. Even if some default the government will do better collecting 4.5% than it is currently getting on long term bonds – under 2%. 3. It’s a stimulus people understand and would be popular. I know how easy it is to rag on the TARP bailout. The term “TARP” alone is reason to hate it. The fact is, without TARP our current bad problems would be much worse. I know that’s hard to believe…
Update: I lied; there's more... for the aspiring political and econ geeks (that's you if you are still reading this exhaustive, never ending piece) there's this insightful post from Nate Silver at 538... a sports guy who is neither an economist or a political scientist.
Update II: Oops, only uber-geeks will follow this one: In the post above I said I originally said I hoped Obama would support DOMA instead of ENDA. Now for the non-geeks I'll translate. I originally said I hoped Obama would defend traditional marriage against gay marriage. What I meant to say was that I hoped Obama would support the "Employment Non-Discrimination Act", a very different bill!
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