A quick lunchtime news chum, based on some articles that keep sticking in my head:
- Politics vs. Government. Last night, I read a nice piece in the LA Times about Obama’s recent speeches and how it may reflect his upcoming reelection strategy. One statement of Obama’s is really sticking with me:
“You’ll hear a lot of folks, by the way, say that government is broken,” he said at his first stop in Cannon Falls. “Well, government and politics are two different things. Government is our troops who are fighting on our behalf in Afghanistan and Iraq. That’s government. Government are also those FEMA folks when there’s a flood or a drought or some emergency who come out and are helping people out. That’s government. Government is Social Security. Government are teachers in the classroom. Government are our firefighters and our police officers, and the folks who keep our water clean and our air clean to breathe, and our agricultural workers. And when you go to a national park, and those folks in the hats — that’s government.
“So don’t be confused,” Obama said, “as frustrated as you are about politics, don’t buy into this notion that somehow government is what’s holding us back.”
I really agree with what he says. I work every day with government people, almost all of whom are hardworking defenders of our nation. They are trying to do the right thing. They are not the bad guy you hear about in the news. What we’re frustrated with is not government in general, but politicians and bureaucrats. It’s an important distinction to remember.
- Credit Ratings. I’ve been reading a number of articles on the economic woes: articles on how Washington is destroying the economy. Articles on European woes. Articles on how people are selling stocks and abandoning stock funds. What’s killing the economy, plain and simple, is economic stupidity. People don’t think, and they don’t understand economics. They believe, for example, that countries should be debt-free (which isn’t the case — you want a managable level of debt). They believe that the debt limit is a spending limit (which isn’t the case, appropriations deal with what you spend, the debt limit just ensures you can pay the bills you’ve already said you would pay). They believe that the government’s credit rating somehow affects the credit of businesses, when there’s no connection (often businesses are more reliable than the government, although they can’t print money). They believe that one can reduce debt solely by reducing spending (when in reality, in their own homes, they’re getting second jobs in addition to spending cuts).
- Who is a Jew. A really interesting article in the WSJ on the Jewish community in China. This community cannot overly practice Judaism because the Chinese government doesn’t recognize it as an official religion, and the Orthodox community in Israel doesn’t recognize them as Jewish because they didn’t follow halacha to the letter (they use patrilineal descent, for example). The people want to be accepted as Jews, but from both sides, the nuances of the law isn’t letting them.
