Consensus of Economists About The Stimulus?

Does anyone know of a good summary of economic consensus about the effectiveness/wisdom of the stimulus? (And/or of the wisdom of near-term austerity and so forth.) Seems like the preponderance of the sane analysis is pro-stimulus, but I can find so little stuff from the right that is readable that I'm worried I'm getting a slanted account of it.

I am shamefully ignorant of economics, so something understandable by morons would be best in this case...

A Different View of the Wragge-Marshall Foul

At the Tar Heel Blog.

I think that the video tells a different and slightly more complete story than the stills, but I've got a really low tolerance for such "physical" play. Also, I'm not in a good position to be objective about the matter. Seems to me that Wragge is only making a nominal play on the ball, and that the real action is with his other arm.

Also: footage of "the wink" and of 00 leveling Zeller.

Still No Charges In Treyvon Martin Murder

Almost beyond belief.

Apparently the FBI is now monitoring the case.

The Threat of "Human Engineering"

Now this is some scary stuff.

E.g. making humans smaller in order to combat climate change. Astonishing.

Egad, man. Independently of particular arguments, how can you not see the insanity of even contemplating going down this road? I mean, I'm willing to discuss the fine points as long as we start out by agreeing that this is an insane trajectory to even consider. By all means, we can discuss it as a purely theoretical question...but if you are seriously suggesting any of this as an actual policy proposal...then you are a truly frightening human being.

Apparently this is a protege of Peter Singer's...so that the trajectory ends in absurdity should not come as much of a surprise. That utilitarianism is still taken seriously is astonishing to me.

Look. We've overpopulated the planet, and the West has begun to live downright wastefully. If you start thinking things like "hey, let's make people tiny so that we can squeeze an extra couple of billion in!" instead of "whoa, time to have fewer kids"...well, it's time to stop and think hard about what the path you are headed down.

(h/t J. Carthensis)

The Foul Against Marshall

As you can see, 34 is not even trying to go for the ball. He holds up his left hand, but it's a foot under the ball, and he's got no play at all. So he pushes Marshall in the ribs, extending his right arm and sending Kendall's upper body out, so he can't get his legs under him on the landing. Predictably, KM crashes to the floor.

As I've long said: this kind of thing has got to stop. Dean warned, just before his retirement, that the game was becoming too violent, and he was right.

That's the season right there.

Marshall is having surgery this morning to put a pin in his wrist. Good luck, man. We're all thinking about you.

Carolina's Season Likely Over After Defeating Creighton; Marshall's Wrist Fractured

After an extremely thuggish performance by Creighton, Carolina's season is likely, in effect, over, despite the 87-71 victory.

Kendall Marshall, the one player that Carolina absolutely cannot do without, has a fractured wrist, no doubt after a particularly hard foul that sent him crashing to the court.

The game was peppered with several thuggish plays by Creighton, including this gem, some pointless slapping at Henson's injured wrist, and the...well..let's just say aggressive foul that knocked Marshall to the court. (After Henson was T'ed up for jawing at the guy who slapped at his wrist, the dude looked over at the bench and appeared to wink at them, if you can believe that bullshit.)

I can't even talk about this right now. The refs let too much of this shit go. Too many mediocre teams drag good teams down to their level by throwing hard fouls as a strategy.

Lehigh Ousts Duke

Not going to gloat. No sense dancing on their grave.

I will allow myself to note that they've only made it past the Sweet Sixteen once on the last eight years (and that was their "Magic Carpet Ride" in 2010). This is never mentioned.

Now that Rivers is gone, Operation Don't Hate d00que can resume. It was futile with that kid there. K seems to have become somehow less odious this year. Could be my imagination...

Best sign at the game: We Are Ridiculous Lehigh.

Good game, Engineer...er...Mountain Hawks! You have done God's work.

Bin Laden's Plot To Kill Obama

Link

How'd that work out for ya, big guy?

Looks like somebody brought a couple of explosive religious fanatics and an AK-47 to a Seal Team 6 fight...

Go Cyclones, Beat the Wildcat$

My official position has been that I want UK in the final game. They managed to eke out a 1-point win against us at Rupp, Calipari teams represent the Dark Side, and I want the Heels to take 'em out.

Thirty seconds into this game, I realized that I want them to lose early as a repudiation of Calipari and everything he represents and of any fan base that would get behind him, and that it is impossible for me not to root for whoever is playing them.

Kentucky is long and talented, and Iowa State will have a hard time beating them...but GO CYCLONES. Beat 'em. No Calipari team deserves to win. Ever.

Reich: Blame Speculators (Hence the GOP) for $4 Gas

Link

Heels Outlast UVM

Whew.

Congrats to Vermont on a great effort.

That was not an easy win. Lots of it was Vermont, but a fair bit of it was our on-going discombobulation with out Henson. If we can't get him back in the lineup soon, our chances of advancing start to diminish very, very rapidly.

Next up: Creighton.

Refs Hand Syracuse First-Round Win over UNC-A
[Or Maybe Not...]

[edit: turns out that the lane-violation call was, in fact, by the book, even if weird. I thought there was something odd about that play, but didn't know about the relevant rule.


The out-of-bounds play was, apparently, bad but ended up with basically the right result, as UNCA did foul the Syracuse player.

Just as significant, though, and entirely undiscussed, was the slap-across-the-face foul against Dickie on the layup attempt late in the game. There was no question about that one, and it cost UNCA 2 points and a TO.

College hoops really does need to let officials review plays like these.]


Wow.

That was some really, really terrible officiating. I'm totally neutral in this game--I'm not a UNC-A fan, I've got nothing against Syracuse...but the Bulldogs were absolutely ripped off.

Even with their #1 scorer missing every shot he put up, Asheville was in it up until the end. Then the cavalcade of terrible calls began.  A Syracuse player slapped Dickie right across the face on a layup attempt, causing him to miss--no call. Then there was a phantom lane violation on a Syracuse missed FT, giving them two points. Then a bad call on a tip out of bounds. I missed the bad goal-tending call earlier in the game everybody was talking about.

Jesus. Those were the worst refs I've seen in a long, long time. They made ACC refs look downright competent.

Props to UNC-A. Without terrible officiating, that would have been the 16-over-1 upset that everybody's waited so long for.

Calipari "98% Evil"

That's about right.(SI)

(Per IC: the other 2% is slime...)

Other highlights of tongue-semi-in-cheek predictions about March Madness:

"Rooting against Calipari will make you feel patriotic."

"[Parity]  inevitably leads to the following conversation, every single March:
EXPERT: "With so much parity in college basketball, we shouldn't be surprised ..."
FAN: "Hahaha, Duke lost, wahooooooooooooo!" "

"North Carolina's Roy Williams against his old team, Kansas, in a regional final. Ol' Roy would do his very best to say nice things about everyone, which would just tick people off."

Bonus awesome pic of Roy and TBF.

College Hoops Squelches Offense

Link

"It just doesn't serve the game's interest the way we're doing it," Bilas said. "How would the game suffer if Tyler Zeller weren't held? If you're a really good big guy — I mean, really good — why would you want to stay in college? So you can have guys hang all over you and you can't execute a play and they don't call it? And you can go to the NBA and get to execute in a 1-on-1 environment, they call fouls and you get paid for it."

Bilas may be a d00quie, but he really is one of the best guys on college hoops.

The flopping, hand-checking and hacking really do have to stop. They're ruining the game and giving unfair advantage to certain less-than-perfectly-scrupulous teams.

R-Money + Santorum?

My new worry; Santorum as Romney's running-mate. Mitt gets the money-'pub vote, Santorum brings in the Bible-'pubs, and counterbalances their anti-Mormon inclinations.

shudder

Obama Picks Carolina To Win It All

Link

I didn't think I could like that guy more than I already do...

I was wrong.

He clearly likes Carolina, picking them to win in '08 and '09, scrimmaging with them at least once, and attending the aircraft carrier game against MSU at the beginning of the season.

A Tough-Oil World

Link (via Metafilter)

So that points to an argument for the conclusion that high oil/gas prices--and the attendant scarcity--are here to stay.

This issue reminds me of the population issue (and they are, of course, related). We have a problem. It is a big problem. It is not going to go away. Band-aid solutions are not going to fix it; they might even make it worse. But we're lucky if even Band-aids get serious consideration.

Have we really entered a world of permanent oil scarcity? My untutored guess is that we haven't--but that we'll continue to chart an oscillating trajectory toward less and less more and more expensive oil.

The time to start fixing the problem is now, while we have time--and oil. To wait until the crisis hits is insane. Sucking every last drop out of ANWR is foolish and short-sighted. We might, of course, have to do so at some point. But the smart course of action now is not to use up our safety net now and hope that aliens will land and give us fusion power plants next year.

The American right seems to have gone from being indifferent to the relevant problems to being downright hostile to solving them. When I was a kid, they seemed indifferent, e.g., to the environment; now they often seem hostile to it. They not only don't think we need alternatives to oil, they seem to hate the very idea of energy sources other than oil (and possibly nuclear). I understand lefties who get teary-eyed about solar--and I'll continue to understand them even if it turns out to be a pipe dream. But I can't understand an in-principle commitment to oil--a commitment that seems to outstrip even the economic ties that the right has to big oil.

Of course the population problem is the major driver of these other problems--not that we can ignore overconsumption by the developed world. If we could bring our population under control, many of the relevant problems would be mitigated. But if you think that solving the oil problem is tough, wait til the population problem can no longer be ignored. It'll be hard enough to get liberals to react sensibly...and I dread the response on the right.

Renaming Philosophy "Ontic Science"

Dang, looks like Colin McGinn was not, in fact, joking...  (previously)

Ah, well. Shows what I know.

His main point seems to be: it would be cool if people who didn't know what we did thought that what we did was hard.

I can't believe electrons are being spilled over this...

Congratulations to the Mystic and Ms. Mystic on the Arrival of the Wee Mystic

Way to reproduce!

Nate Silver: Chance of UNC Cutting the Nets: 10.9%

Pretty good odds, all things considered, and third only to Kentucky's 26.1% chance and OSU's 14% chance. Kansas, our 2-seed, is just behind us at 9.1%.

Link

Needless to say, it's bad for basketball when any Calipari team wins, so, like so many others, I'm less-than-happy that UK has done so well. On the bright side, even if they win, it's likely that the championship will be vacated...

Kansas, incidentally, is scary good IMO. If Henson is healthy, it's very unlikely that we lose before the round of 8...but then sh*t gets real. I see a game against KU as a complete toss-up.

We lost by 1 to Kentucky on a somewhat fluky final play at Rupp, and I'd like another shot at them on a neutral floor. Of course, since then we lost Dex for the season...and nobody knows when Henson will be coming back.

Oh, March Madness...you are so bad for my productivity...

Drudge Does His Part To Drag Us To War

The 101st Chairborne is back on active duty.

Here's notorious liar Matt Drudge, back in action.

(via Balloon Juice)