One and a Half Cheers for Democracy.

I've been thinking about this post since I woke up yesterday and found out that New York has legalized gay marriage.  It might be my general morose outlook on life, the fact I've been sick for about three weeks, or my accurate view of things.  On the other hand I see that Whiskey Fire kind of beat me to it.  

My thought was and still is that the powers who control the world, at this point do not give a fuck about you and me and are unable to see further than their next dividend check, or pay out from the Koch brothers (with the possible exception of Iceland if we are talking only about Europe and North America. 

The recent victories in kind of ending DADT (that I'll believe when I see it actually happen, that is more than the harrumph and more or less meaningless votes in congress) and now gay marriage in New York, cost our rulers nothing.  At the same time Coumo the Younger is set to seriously injure the workers and middle class (such as is left) in the Empire State he has a shinny new prize that he will give all us liberals.  Of course, in Ohio all we get is the financial fuck you without even the shinny bauble of some social progress. 

The problem with pointing this out is that it seems as though I'm saying that the right to marry is not important and we shouldn't care about it.  Once all this is said though, we come back to the fact that this is very important and a recognition that there should be no second class citizens in this country.  This is particularly important when one looks at the Rove strategy of the 2000 election of getting anti-marriage equality amendments on various state ballots to bring out the red necks to vote again' them and in passing vote against Gore too.  Even last year when the Iowa Supreme Court Justices were thrown off the court in an anti-marriage equality backlash.  So this is indeed, a big fucking deal.

But I've just watched today Inside Job the movie about the financial melt down in 2008 and beyond.  I think that it is a better movie than Michael Moore's Capitalism a Love Story.  Mainly because Moore was unable to bring himself to really do any criticism of his man Obama.  Inside Job is definitely a movie I strongly recommend, it makes the melt down and derivatives completely understandable.

There are a couple of  things that make it worth while.  First it was enjoyable was watching a few of the important economists come to the realization during the questioning that the guy asking  the questions wasn't the kind of namby pamby soft ball inquisitor they were used to.  None of the questions were particularly rude, but he did follow up.  In particular Frederick Miskin a former member of the Fed who seemed to stutter a lot when asked direct questions and Glenn Hubbard who seems pretty upset when asked about being paid for among other things a report he wrote for the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce.

Which leads to another issue, or perhaps it is the same issue in a different light, and that is that most of the economic professors seem to be bought and paid for by various Wall Street firms.  I'd guess that the response to that is:  Of course why not, shouldn't they get what the politicians are all getting?  I guess I'm a little naive here.  My thoughts on the matter were that good economics professors could make money investing, because they should now when to get in and when to get out.  But that is not true.  The amount of wishes can make it true economic thought is truly scary even after the crash, well that and the who could have known defenses.