The stock market has as much to do with the real economy as the weather has to do with geology. Day by day there’s no relationship at all. Over time, weather and geology interact but the results aren’t evident for many years. The biggest impact of the weather is on peoples’ moods, as are the daily ups and downs of the market.

Please, follow Robert’s advice and pay no attention to the short-term fluctuations. It’s the long-term we should be keeping our eyes on — something the U.S. has never been good at.

No officials were talking about reforming British drinking habits of course. I like that. The Brits have got their priorities sorted — and, let’s face it, they’ve got a healthy dose of realism going here. Rather than stem the tide of drunken behavior, the government has invested in developing shatterproof beer glasses. Officials swear the country will save billions in health care costs by eradicating the “pint glass as a lethal weapon” issue.

“Glassing causes horrific injuries and has a lasting and devastating impact on victims and their families,” said Alan Johnson, Home Secretary, as he introduced two new shatterproof pint glasses. Alcohol Concern, a charity that strives to reduce alcohol abuse in Britain, praised the new designs.

Unemployment figures are largely calculated from claims against unemployment insurance, for example, when you file a claim with the EDD. But this is a narrow view, avoiding the overall “employment health” of the country. Even so, we must recognize that unemployment figures have been calculated in this way for a very long time. This means it is a sound relative measure — that is, since we are calculating it essentially the same way we did in years past, we can measure overall health as a comparison to other years. We know that 10% is horrible. The last time we saw unemployment this high was entering into the great depression, when it rose to 23.6% in 1933. So while it may not be accurate, it does give us a solid indication that our economy is in very, very bad shape.

For the past few months, political analysts and demographers have been poring over the results of the 2008 election and comparing them with presidential results from the past two decades. From whatever angle of their approach — age, race, economic status, geography — they have come to a remarkably similar conclusion. Almost all indicators are pressing the Republicans into minority status.

The author goes on to say that the study “offered conclusions that would alarm any Republican hopeful of a quick turnaround in the party’s fortunes.” It’s being borne out in personal and anecdotal experience, as demonstrated by the Star’s forum on the topic, as one poster writes:

I was having a long-distance phone conversation with my oldest brother just yesterday. He and (especially) his wife are very conservative and ALWAYS voted Republican. They voted for Obama. I couldn’t believe some of the stuff he was saying about Republicans and how disgusted he is with them. “The more they talk the more stupid and foolish they look” is the line that most sticks in my mind.

All I can say is… it’s about time. But is it too late to make a difference? Our educational system has been gutted, the country is feared not respected, and our economy is in a mess. Last time I looked, China was buying up our real estate. Without a doubt, the U.S. we all grew up with is gone for good. How realistic is it that we can turn the country around, when we’ve discovered that yes, you can fool some of the people all of the time. Recent poll results by Gallup still show 27% of our country believe Bush did a good job. Yes, yes, it’s close to a new all-time low for the Presidency (beat out only by Nixon and Truman), but really, about 1 in 4 people actually think Bush was a positive influence on this country? (I’m going to be watching my coworkers very closely).

What I really identified with, though, is not the fancy chart that shows how red states tend to have lower IQs, but some of the comments posted by other readers. The fact that the majority of the statistical range shows an average spread of only 20 points is disappointing too. But, back to those comments… this one strikes way too close to home:

I have an 11 year old daughter who we have had in a little private school for the past 3 years. this year, we decided to put her in a public school to save money. She has been there a week, and we are pulling her out and putting her back in the private school. Why?

Because she has been bringing home the math papers they have been working on, and I for one was motherfucking shocked. She’s in the 5th grade.

Anyways, friday’s math hour was spent with the whole class working on a 10 question worksheet. My girl tells me that most of the class was having trouble with it. Here are some of the ‘problems’ my FIFTH GRADER had to work out (if no one believes me, i will scan it and post it):

1. The first problem was some ‘review’ equations : 3+8=? 4/1=? there were a couple of other equally 1st grade equations

2. What is the number that comes after 99? (I shit you not this was a question)

3. There was a fraction question with a rectangle that had 1/2 shaded, then below it, the rectangle was divided into fourths, with the same 1/2 of the rectangle shaded, to show how 2/4 simplifies to 1/2

There were several others, but you get the gist. I cannot beleive some of the kids were having problems with it, or even that 5th graders would be asked shit like this.

Needless to say, Jordan has today off while we enroll her back in her regular school…

I’ve posted many times before about the horrible state of our educational system, and I’m sure to do so again. It gets worse every year. Get out there and do something to put an end to the so-called “no child left behind” (should have been named “least common denominator”).

And, in the meantime, my own kids will stay in their charter school, attend after school programs such as Soccer, Lacrosse, and Kumon (an advanced math program that more-or-less seems to be on a par with what I remember doing when I was in 4th and 5th grade), and get as much home schooling as possible. It’s such a shame though — once upon a time, the U.S. turned out 1 in 2 of the world’s best engineers. Today, we turn out 1 in 98, if I remember the statistics correctly.

Hear hear, Mr. Olbermann.

…You can learn something about a person by the company [Palin] keeps. In the churches where Palin has worshiped for decades, parishioners enjoy “baptism in the Holy Spirit,” “miraculous healings” and “the gift of tongues.” Invariably, they offer astonishingly irrational accounts of this behavior and of its significance for the entire cosmos. Palin’s spiritual colleagues describe themselves as part of “the final generation,” engaged in “spiritual warfare” to purge the earth of “demonic strongholds.” Palin has spent her entire adult life immersed in this apocalyptic hysteria. Ask yourself: Is it a good idea to place the most powerful military on earth at her disposal? Do we actually want our leaders thinking about the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy when it comes time to say to the Iranians, or to the North Koreans, or to the Pakistanis, or to the Russians or to the Chinese: “All options remain on the table”?

…The prospects of a Palin administration are far more frightening, in fact, than those of a Palin Institute for Pediatric Neurosurgery. Ask yourself: how has “elitism” become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn’t seem too intelligent or well educated.

Please, write to your representatives, and write to Nancy Pelosi. Take a few minutes, and maybe it will make a difference:

I urge you to support Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s motion to impeach President Bush. I wholeheartedly agree with the claims raised by Kucinich, and believe that it is imperative that we uphold the law. Failing to act will ultimately affect us for generations to come by sending the message that the President is above the law and that the Constitution is little more than a piece of paper that our Administration can change to suit its will.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Zacharias J. Beckman

You can contact the Speaker here, find your representative here, and read about Kucinich’s motion on CNN.

Bush knew two months before he triggered the invasion of Iraq that his actions would create what he now calls “America’s greatest threat,” that being Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The report also warned that an invasion would spur, rather than deter, other WMD programs in other countries. It raised the likelihood of drawn out factional violence in Iraq, that a war would increase global support for radical Islamic terrorists and militant Islamic groups seeking political power, that it would lead Al-Qaeda to accelerate anti-U.S. operations, and that it would not only help Al-Qaeda recover in Afganistan but go so far as to create new Al-Qaeda allies around the world — including in Iraq.

The report continues with a litany of additional warnings: That Iran would achieve greater influence in the middle east, and that “States with developmental WMD programs would try to increase the secrecy and pace of those programs with the hope of developing deterrent capabilities before they could be pre-empted.” (From the January 2003 NIC report).

Finally, despite Bush’s continued insistence that Iraq would become an engine for Democracy, the report concludes that in fact Iraq would likely not be a catalyst for regional change by itself, and that any progress “would depend heavily on U.S. success in ensuring that a new Iraqi government was not seen in the region as primarily a U.S. creation.” (January 2003 NIC Report).

So what happened? How could Bush and his administration ignore a report represented as an assessment of the _entire intelligence community_? Clearly, he expected this to be a cake walk and charged ahead regardless of a great deal of information warning that the war would be unwise. His agenda to establish control in the region, against all rational evidence, took precedence over the well being of this nation and thousands of lives.

Do we really have to live with this man calling the shots for another year and a half?