Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.
— Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844)
In this week’s Sift:
- Confessions of a Centrist in Exile. My natural home is in the Center, not the Left. But I can’t go back there now, and I don’t know if I ever will.
- The Mosler Proposals. If you believed (as Warren Mosler does) that in the current economy government spending cannot create any kind of problem — short term or long — what would you do?
- Short Notes. Obama surrenders to the Tea Party. Even the Tooth Fairy is cutting benefits. Solar-powered bikinis. Apple is the new boss, same as the old boss. How much of a nuisance is it to get a voter ID? Southampton University prints an airplane. Why not let environmentalists bid on oil rights? Good ratings didn’t save Cenk Uygur. If the victim is Planned Parenthood, it’s not terrorism. Perry is the new Republican favorite. And Jon Stewart takes on conservative delusions of victimization.
- Last week’s most popular post. The Dog Whistle Defined got 360 views.
- This week’s challenge. This week’s challenge is to keep your spirits up. The news has been relentlessly negative for some while, and that’s probably going to continue this week. Breathe. Look at the sky. Find somebody young enough to get excited when you propose playing a silly game. Things change, and it won’t be long until you feel like changing them yourself.
The Weekly Sift 
Comments
If Obama and the Democrats do anything but denounce this deal and say it was negotiated with a gun to our heads held by madmen, they deserve whatever happens in the next election. Most economists say such cuts will severely harm the economy, and if so, the Democrats do not need to be providing bipartisan cover for the jerks who forced this on us.