When I saw from peoples’ status updates that the Boulder fires were getting bad, I was all like: “whatever, hippies”.  But apparently they are quite bad.

Jonathan Chait explains.

I don’t support the burning of Korans, but the people doing the Koran burnings should be no more taken as representatives of the American people as fanatics of other countries should be taken as representatives of theirs.  I would hope the Arab/Islamic media would understand that, though I don’t think America gets a fair shake by al Jazeera (I wonder if al Jazeera ever publicized the fact that New York’s very powerful Jewish mayor publicly defended the lower Manhattan mosque, for example).

The Economist explains. So sad.  I had high hopes for Congress Party and PM Singh.  And, considering right-wing Hindu nationalist party BJP is the only viable alternative, Congress’ ineptitude is really worrying.

I’m surprisingly hopeful about the Israel/Palestinian talks being brokered by the Obama Administration. Netanyahu credibly represents Israel’s current conservative mood, meaning he has a good deal of leverage in signing Israelis up to a peace deal. Meanwhile, Abbas and Fayyad are the most competent, honest leaders the Palestinians have ever had. A huge improvement over the self-dealing Arafat. And if they can eventually wean the Palestinians off of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, so much the better.

Fingers crossed.

This is pathetic. What, exactly, have Democrats done to earn the ire of the formerly hyper-coddled Wall Street elite?  The FinReg bill was mild and necessary.  A vast majority of the Democratic Wall Street-bashing rhetoric has turned out to be entirely empty.  The financial crisis was most certainly a failure of capitalism (Posner’s “A Failure of Capitalism” is a good run-down of why from a free-market defender).

Just as FDR complained when he was instituting the financial regulations of the New Deal, what Wall Streeters, with their parochial interests, don’t understand is that Democrats are saving capitalism, not attacking it.  Just as the Securities Acts of the 30′s (which, of course, were vociferously attacked by financiers then) ushered in transparent, consistent, robust economic growth, so too will this new round of even-tempered reforms.

This is unbelievalbe: ” He has his assistant seducing women for him. His assistant, who is female and lives in India, logs onto his account on a popular dating site, browses profiles and (pretending to be him) makes connections with women on the site. She has e-mail conversations and arranges first dates. Then her employer reads the e-mail conversation and goes to the date.”

I mean, doesn’t he know wage labor is cheaper in Sri Lanka?  English skills are worse, though.

Honestly, I want to see an exchange between this Indian woman and a woman this man has dated.  The potential for hilarity is limitless.

CEO’s “white magic” is fan-freaking-tastic. I very highly recommend purchasing it (yes, I still purchase music like a sucker. Although, I’ll admit to getting this album from a friend who I assume bitorrented it).
The album is reminiscent of a Death Cab for Cutie album, only way more fun and the songs are less painfully redundant. In fact, they’re not redundant at all; the album kept my attention the whole way through. CEO is a fun, very talented rock group with sick beats and light melodies. Grade: A

This is distressing.  And I simply can’t fathom the conservative-leaning libertarian revolt against Obama.  Obama hasn’t actually increased taxes yet.  And even when he does, he’ll put them back at the Clinton rates.  You know, the rates prevalent during the time of economic growth and prosperity.  If libertarians are really pissed at Obama for his counter-cyclical policies to fight the Great Recession, then libertarians can pretty much stuff it.  The juvenile critique of conservative libertarians (that we shouldn’t have bailed out the banks, auto industry, or enacted a stimulus program) would’ve in all likelihood pushed America over the edge into a catastrophic Depression if enacted as policy.  But that doesn’t bother libertarians, so long as their ideological positions remain pure.  Just look at Ron Paul’s defense of the gold standard.  The gold standard!!!  We got rid of that in the ’30s.  No credible economist believes it should return (and if some commodity currency standard should return, why gold?  Why not platinum or silicon?).

I’m afraid libertarianism is turning itself into a bumper sticker philosophy incapable of serious governance.

It’s really sad. And, of course, the geopolitical consequences will be enormous. Reports indicate that the military is already taking over basic government functions. Given Pakistan’s history, this means another military dictator probably isn’t too far off. I’m going with Kayani this time. Hopefully Kayani has the foresight to just run the Zardari government from behind the scenes. An overt military dictatorship would play right into the Taliban’s hands.
Beyond the strategic implications, there’s just the human toll. Wow, those Pakistanis have had it rough for many years now. And, sorry to say, it ain’t gonna get much better for a while.