Love in a Time of Dementia

July 26, 2011 at 1:44 pm (By Amba)

The faces of the two old actors at the center of this film tell you so much.

 

 

Why I Don't Have an Opinion on How to Resolve the Debt Crisis

July 25, 2011 at 9:15 pm (By Amba)

1.) I don't understand economics very well.  (Even economists don't seem to understand it very well, but that's another story.)

2.) Therefore, in order to form an opinion I would need to depend on others' explanations.

3.) The normal procedure is to get the explanatory basis for one's opinions, and often the ready-made opinions themselves, from the "side" that you group with or agree with or share a worldview with.  But I don't group with or agree with or share a worldview with anybody, except perhaps for others who don't group with or agree with or share a worldview with anybody.

4.) All the sources of information, explanation, and opinion on this issue seem filtered through . . . I was going to say "ideology," but no, not even.  They're all filtered through a political agenda.  It's all about capturing the presidency in 2012, and how close the country can be pushed to the edge without going over, and who can be successfully blamed for the terrifying near miss (or, if we do go over some edge, who can be blamed for the catastrophe).

5.) Even though I agree with those who say our profligate ways have to end and that everyone will have to make some sacrifices, I will be very surprised if our new financial ruling class, those Chinese acrobats who keep the mesmerizing markets spinning with their feet above the fray, is included in "everyone."

6.) I can't stand Obama's voice, and I can't stand Boehner's voice. I don't hear a shred of sincerity in the calculated posings of any of them.  I'm a dropout from politics because I have gone beyond ambivalence to equal-opportunity loathing. Or shall we say global loathing.  Like global warming.

7) My late next-door neighbor Mamie Harmon, who used to say she lived through the Depression largely on bananas, once exclaimed that what this country needs is another Depression.  Is that the only thing that will squeeze the bullshit out?