Fri 30 Jan 2009
Ups and Downs of the week.
 Blago is gone!! – About time! On his way out the door he couldn’t help but make more of a fool of himself. Listen to him whining to the legislature.
  Business a usual in D.C. – These idiots just don’t get it!!!! Enough with the idiotic pork-barrel stuff. The stimulus package is so full of bullshit, it’s drawing flies. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) cannot possibly stimulate the economy. Support for STD treatment cannot either. Both these could be considered worthy causes in a time of prosperity, but now is not that time. Obama already trimmed out the ludicrous mall resodding project and the equally inane contraceptive funding, but there is still way too much pork and not enough direct action. We need money to support infrastructure projects which will put people to work. If a proposal will not add a substantial number of jobs, it should be scrapped. Congress is whining about Wall Street not listening to the people when they’re just as deaf. STOP THE PORK!!!! (Clear enough?)
  Celtics – Back to their winning ways.
 Winter – 9″ of snow this week. I’m so in need of a warm day or two. Now that I have a ragtop waiting for me, the winter days are dragging by endlessly.
  Dad continues to improve. – Today they had him standing up straight (with a little help) and next week he’ll start learning to walk again using parallel bars. The docs are amazed at his progress, but we’re not. He’s a determined man. Always has been.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:58 am
Mark
Great news on your dad. He’s a great guy.
May I try to rebut you a bit on the NEA? Quoting from the online edition of THE ATLANTIC:
http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/02/why_stimulus_spending_should_go_to_public_art.php
“Arts are actually a great form of economic investment, particularly public art, and they should be amply funded in the stimulus package. Every year nonprofit arts organizations generate $166.2 billion in economic activity, support 5.7 million jobs, and send almost $30 billion back to government, according to Americans for the Arts. There is hardly a person more likely to go out and spend her stimulus check than a starving artist.”
Me again. Supporting the arts in the 1930s did a lot of good, and while it wouldn’t be my highest priority now, either, I’m happy to see some money going that way.
— Steve
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 am
I’d love to know how they came up with those numbers. They seem awfully rosy. 5.7 million jobs? I smell a slant here. I suppose if an artist buys paint at Walmart you can say you supported the 100 or so jobs in that store, but how many of those jobs are “supported’ just as much by other industries?
What’s needed is investment in large public projects which employ thousands for years and promote secondary and tertiary industries. I just don’t see investment in the arts doing that.
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:43 am
I don’t disagree. Bridges, roads, rail systems and the like — that’s what has to be done. But one problem with large scale projects is that they take a lot of time to get underway. What’s the best way to create the most jobs the quickest?
Or is slow but sure the better way to proceed? Maybe there is no quick fix.
One way that’s not the answer is to give money to banks and bankrupt Wall Street firms (both morally and financially).