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Says Murdoch, of Google, “If they were to pay everybody for everything they took from every newspaper in the world, and every magazine, they wouldn’t have any profits left.

Bing Tries To Buy The News

Of course, Google doesn’t actually “take” anything, it just points to things. I guess Murdoch doesn’t want people to know about his news stories? Capitalize on the stream, dinosaurs! Not to mention the uber-creep factor of “exclusive indexing” of online information.

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Take any random group, of any political affiliation, and I suspect many will be as clueless about why they hold their particular beliefs as the people in this video. I see this more as an indictment against American citizenship than against Republicans in particular. Still sad.

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For those waiting for the new White House to make good on its vow to bring transparency to the executive branch, it was another disappointing brush with Obama opacity.

An Opaque Transparency

One area of disappointment for me, and something that doesn’t require Congressional agreement to achieve in most cases.

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Texas accidentally bans all marriage. Overzealous much?

The blog Corpus Callosum has a brief write-up and links to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, explaining:

“The remainder of the article outlines the efforts being made to say that the document does not say what it says.  The amusing part of this is that some of the people making those arguments may be the same ones who argue for a strict interpretation of the Constitution, and a literal interpretation of their bible.”

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Jon Stewart and Lou Dobbs

An interesting discussion between the two. Both get a few moments on the stump, and I think they highlight some of the key divisions of our nation: what are “the fundamentals” of this nation, how fragile is this nation, and what do the answers to those questions suggest about how we should respond to a party in office with which we disagree?

Three parts online: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

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You don’t believe in global warming? You’re wrong, but I’ll let you enjoy it until your beach house gets washed away. But if you also don’t believe the world is getting more crowded … — and that ignoring that will play to the strength of our worst enemies, while responding to it with clean energy will play to the strength of our best technologies — then you’re willfully blind, and you’re hurting America’s future to boot.
What They Really Believe
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I don’t think there’s any rich period or fallow period. That’s just a perception you get from what’s published. Your busiest day might be watching some ants carrying bread crumbs.

Cormac McCarthy on The Road

Good interview in the Wall Street Journal

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And so, arguably, shortchanging the humanities is a very dangerous thing. And, in fact, one of the great lessons of history is that military might is insufficient to dictate terms to almost any society anywhere.

Boosted Federal Funds Give Arts, Humanities New Significance

(h/t to @katmere)

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A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time.
‘We have broken speed of light’
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There is no professional consensus on the details of what should be done to arrest the downturn, speed recovery, and prevent (so far as possible) a recurrence. Not having believed that what has happened could happen, the profession had not thought carefully about what should be done if it did happen.
How I Became A Keynesian
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