Blogwatch
In the course of an article about whether religion makes people nicer, Slate makes a point about religion in Scandinavian countries that I found interesting.
The Danes and the Swedes, despite being godless, have strong communities. In fact, Zuckerman points out that most Danes and Swedes identify themselves as Christian. They get married in church, have their babies baptized, give some of their income to the church, and feel attached to their religious community—they just don’t believe in God. Zuckerman suggests that Scandinavian Christians are a lot like American Jews, who are also highly secularized in belief and practice, have strong communal feelings, and tend to be well-behaved.
Steven Barnes blogs A note from Alice Walker to Obama.
Sr. Helen Prejean’s “Memo” to President-elect Obama.
After the Election: Benedictine Christianity as Othercultural.
Okay, the “Black people cost gay people the right to marry in CA ZOMG” meme needs to stop, NOW.
Same-sex Marriage: The Good News from the 2008 Election.
Bad models or bad modellers on the financial crisis.
Paul Krugman on New Deal economics (with charts).
… Now, you might say that the incomplete recovery shows that “pump-priming”, Keynesian fiscal policy doesn’t work. Except that the New Deal didn’t pursue Keynesian policies. Properly measured, that is, by using the cyclically adjusted deficit, fiscal policy was only modestly expansionary, at least compared with the depth of the slump….
Net stimulus of around 3 percent of GDP — not much, when you’ve got a 42 percent output gap. FDR might have been more of a Keynesian if Keynesian economics had existed — The General Theory wasn’t published until 1936. Note in particular that in 1937-38 FDR was persuaded to do the “responsible” thing and cut back — and that’s what led to the bad year in 1938, which to the WSJ crowd defines the New Deal.
Implications for Obama: be inspired by FDR, but don’t imitate him slavishly. In particular, your economic policy should be bolder, not more cautious.
8 Stats for American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.
Blogging–the New Pamphleteering?
John McGuiness on Veteran’s Day:
Is it me, or is Veterans Day observed in an incredibly passive-aggressive manner. The parade is scheduled for like 9:30 am on a Thursday in November, which predictably enough draws small crowds. Then there’s a series of letters to the editor about how sad it was that nobody showed up to the parade, and blogger refresh Google at 12:01 on Veteran’s’s Day so they can criticize them for not having a special logo to mark the day. It’s not about honoring the veterans, but making everyone feel bad for not appreciating them.
Pro-life blogger Hector loses hope of a political solution to the abortion problem in My last post on the life issues, for a while.
Sarah of the Bitten Apple on Why the Pro-Life side lost me.
RIP Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 10 November 2008).
Sylvia on Rahm the Knife.
November 10th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Regarding well-behaved Scandinavians, part of that explanation might lie with their environment. Scandinavian cultures evolved in a harsh environment where it was necessary to band together in order to survive, and in which individuals striking off on their own would probably wind up dead from famine or the harsh winter. I wouldn’t be surprised if that had led to a culture that valued equality, solidarity and cooperation more than individual self-interest. Other cultures in similar environments- Russians, Inuit, Japanese- also seem to have developed strong traditions of cooperation and group cohesion.