the ladybug and the lion

From Fox News:

Here’s what one interested in making America stronger can reasonably conclude—psychologically—from Mr. Gingrich’s behavior during his three marriages:

1) Three women have met Mr. Gingrich and been so moved by his emotional energy and intellect that they decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with him.

2) Two of these women felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married. 

3 ) One of them felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married for the second time, was not exactly her equal in the looks department and had a wife (Marianne) who wanted to make his life without her as painful as possible. 

Conclusion: When three women want to sign on for life with a man who is now running for president, I worry more about whether we’ll be clamoring for a third Gingrich term, not whether we’ll want to let him go after one.

Full story here (yes, there is more). I can't help but wonder whether the author, Dr. Keith Ablow, is making an underhanded comment about the intelligence of women. 

The SEC.

It is not that they failed to uncover my fraud, it is the fact that for their entire existence they have spent their time and resources on the petty problems of small firms and refuse to deal with the obvious problems and outright violations of the large investment banks who had free reign to cause the eventual destruction of the financial markets. This mentality is still in evidence today.

—Bernie Madoff

Full story at the NYT.

Eat Up.

(via Ted McCagg)

Negative Real Interest Rates.

If we rely too heavily on negative real interest rates to spur the economic activity, my prediction is that we will see a lot of false dawns and social strife. Savers of modest means are harmed and outraged by low market interest rates and use the political system to try to raise them. Regardless of macro models or market outcomes, we have a cultural bias against negative real rates. We hold prudence dearer than profligacy. We don’t work to teach our children to spend their allowances. We work to teach them to save. More people are willing to spend incautiously than are able to husband savings carefully. If we were to cast away the norm that saving is praiseworthy and spending decadent, rather than getting contingent, market-price-regulated spending/savings behavior, we might end up with a culture incapable of saving. We want most people to face a positive real interest rate, not because that is the price that equilibrates a market, but because positive real interest rates reward behavior we wish to uphold as a virtuous.

Full post by Steve Randy Waldman at interfluidity.

Merit Badges For GOP Candidates.

(via Ted McCagg)

The Kardashian Divorce.

The dead horse that is the sanctity of marriage just got up and reached for a bat to beat itself some more while mouthing the word "sorry" to the gays.

Full post from dlisted.

The Supreme Court.

If you had to write a help-wanted ad for the position of Supreme Court justice, what would you include in the job description?

It would start with: Those who went to Harvard or Yale Law School need not apply. Every sitting justice went to Harvard or Yale. That tells you something about the very narrow bandwidth from which the members of the court are coming. And it’s not just the law school they went to – more and more nominees worked for the executive branch. Everybody who is on the court right now, with the exception of Justice Elena Kagan, came off the bench. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the only one on the court who was a civil rights attorney. Back in the day, we used to have people like Sandra Day O’Connor and Earl Warren, who served in elected office. Now none of those people could get confirmed. There is a narrowing in the backgrounds of nominees when what we need is diversity – diversity of voice, of belief, of career and of experience.

Dahlia Lithwick at FiveBooks. 

Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

The luckiest among them survive without suspicion, disguising their homosexuality by laughing along with anti-gay jokes, telling lies about how they spent the weekend or entering into contract marriages with partners of the opposite sex.

Many more are less fortunate. Turned in by unsympathetic commanding officers, disgruntled partners or friends who name names under the pressure of interrogation, they are subjected to the humiliation and stress of investigation. And some, despite sterling service records, and without judicial proceedings, are discharged if the military has proof of their homosexuality or extracts a confession.

On being gay in the military during DADT. 

Full story from the NYT (from 1990).

Stay Tuned.

If you’re not afraid, you haven’t been paying attention.

Tyler Cowen on the debt ceiling and the Euro crisis at MR.

DSK.

As the case against Mr. Strauss-Kahn seemingly disintegrates, he is enjoying a political renaissance at home, yet I keep asking myself: does a sexual encounter between a powerful and wealthy French politician and a West African hotel cleaning woman from a dollar-a-day background not in itself suggest a gross abuse of power?

Full OpEd by Mike McGovern from the NYT.