Barack Obama's decision to join the attack on Libya is very much of a piece with his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. There are various grounds on which a reasonable person could object to the Libya strikes (diplomatic reasons, military reasons, pragmatic reasons, reasons of consistency, even Constitutional reasons). But the decision absolutely fits within a coherent and very traditional moral philosophy. Obama walked through most of the key points of that position in his Nobel Prize speech, with one important omission.

WASHINGTON – Having taken criticism for not attempting any job-related legislation after campaigning on the issue, Speaker of the House John Boehner announced today that Republicans around the nation have been creating jobs with anti-abortion legislation.

KGB wants to know why so many Keynesian, "the debt is not an issue" lefties have become budget hawks where the Libyan war is concerned.  I'm certainly guilty of this.  When it comes to the economy, I'm so Keynesian that Keynes would question my sanity.  I have advocated using the powers of the Federal Reserve to pay people's credit card bills.  I believe that Social Security benefits should be expanded, not cut.

WKW Note: This was originally posted in Feb. 2010, but with current events in Libya and around the globe, maintains it’s timeliness.
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The disconnect never fails to amaze me. Death on a personal level is a heart-wrenching, life-altering affair. The recovery is a long process, filled with grief. Losing a loved one stays with you until you finally join them. But being part of the machine that gives others the same grief on a spectacular level has little to no effect.

WASHINGTON – Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi today took over the White House, which had been empty due to President Barack Obama’s trip to Brazil.

“I now am President of America,” said Gaddafi, who sneaked in a back door into the empty White House. “Bow before me, infidels!”

After taking over the Oval Office, Gaddafi’s first order of business was to change the name of the United States to “Libya 2.”

There is a cat in a box with a flask of poison. The random decay of a radioactive isotope is rigged to shatter the flask and kill the cat. We don't know if the cat is alive or dead.

According to the well-known quantum paradox of Schrodinger's cat, the cat is neither alive nor dead (or both alive and dead) until someone opens the box to find out, which disrupts the quantum uncertainty and resolves the cat's fate.

Normally I'm not that thrilled with loudmouths from New York but with Anthony Weiner I make the grand exception.  When he gives up his Good Fight gig in Congress, he could take over Late Night and give Leno and Letterman big time runs for their money.  Here he defends the already puny government funding of NPR by talking about my favorite Car Talk guys, Click and Clack.

Most news outlets are noticing that higher food prices are accompanying higher fuel prices. CNNMoney uses the i-word:

Rising wholesale prices ring inflation alarm bells

Tomorrow, I'll be discussing Blowing Smoke with host Tim Danahey on Castle Rock Radio from 2 to 3pm ET, Wednesday, March 16th.

Please listen in at http://castlerockradio.com.

Also, for those of you who missed my television appearance on C-SPAN last month, you can watch it online at http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/BlowingS.

Friends and neighbors,
 
The call has gone out and I'm asking everyone who can to take Wednesday [3/16/11] off and head to the State Capitol in Lansing to protest the cruel and downright frightening legislation currently being jammed down our throats.

Right now, [Michigan] Gov. [Rick] Snyder is pushing a bill that would give himself, Gov. Snyder and his administration, the power to declare any town or school district to be in a financial emergency.

DES MOINES – Having declared that their current budgetary path is “unsustainable,” Bob & Peggy Thompson of Des Moines today announced that they will be cutting the $1-a-week allowance they give to their 5-year-old child, Jessica.

On Baseline Scenario, Simon Johnson has posted: Testimony submitted to the Congressional Oversight Panel, “Hearing on the TARP’s Impact on Financial Stability,” Friday, March 4, 2011.

For weeks now, ever since the people took over the State House in Wisconsin, we've been looking for a leader.  We've watched the momentum building, knowing this was our chance and we couldn't let this die.  Each of us in our own way has been spreading the word, supporting labor, doing what we could to build this movement to such a juggernaut nothing would stop it, ever again.

Okay, this was the week of Charlie Sheen.  He was all over the place (in more ways than one) and actually set a Guinness World Record  by opening a Twitter account and getting a million followers in 25 hours and 17 minutes.  (Thereby giving some credence to his semi-delusional "Rock Star of the Planet" claim.) 

I was really disappointed to see that Beyonce took seven figures to perform for the Gadhafi clan and that she and her husband Jay-Z then partied with the dictator's family after the show.  I wrote about it today for The Daily and pretty much make my case there.

In Why Your Boss Is Wrong About You, an OpEd for the NY Times takes on the idea that unions discourage exceptional workers. It strikes a few chords with me: