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The Definition of Insanity

Is doing the same thing over and over again …

Mike Konczal does what I was planning to do, and compares the (very thin) policy discussion in Mitt Romney’s big speech with previous GOP speeches. As he shows, Romneynomics 2012 is literally identical to McCainomics 2008, Bushnomics 2004, and Bushnomics 2000. Drill, baby, drill; cut taxes on rich people (why didn’t we think of that?); and so on.

I would just add to Mike’s take the historical experience. Romney says that his plan would create 12 million jobs in his first term. Leaving aside the fact that this is about what forecasters on average predict in any case, surely we should ask how the identical policies worked out in Bush’s two terms. And the answer is: zero job growth in term one (and a fall in private sector employment), one million in term two. Oh, and private sector employment lower when Bush left office than when he arrived:

The poverty of new ideas is truly amazing.

Books

 

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"I went to school to age to learn the past"

What Fifty Said by Robert Frost

When I was young my teachers were the old.
I gave up fire for form till I was cold.
I suffered like a metal being cast.
I went to school to age to learn the past.

Now I am old my teachers are the young.
What can’t be molded must be cracked and sprung.
I strain at lessons fit to start a suture.
I go to school to youth to learn the future.

Trinity

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On This Day: August 31

Updated August 30, 2012, 2:28 pm

NYT Front Page

On Aug. 31, 1997, Britain’s Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris at age 36.

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On Aug. 31, 1907, William Shawn, editor of The New Yorker magazine for 35 years, was born. Following his death on Dec. 8, 1992, his obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

 

 

Historic Birthdays

William Shawn 8/31/1907 – 12/8/1992 American editor of The New Yorker (1952-87).Go to obituary »
97 John Neville Keynes 8/31/1852 – 11/15/1949
English philosopher and economist
69 Georg Jensen 8/31/1866 – 10/2/1935
Danish silversmith and designer
81 Maria Montessori 8/31/1870 – 5/6/1952
Italian educator; founder of Montessori education
82 Wilhelmina 8/31/1880 – 11/28/1962
Dutch queen (1890-1948)
71 George Sarton 8/31/1884 – 3/22/1956
Belgian-born American scholar
54 DuBose Heyward 8/31/1885 – 6/16/1940
American dramatist, novelist and poet
77 Fredric March 8/31/1897 – 4/14/1975
American screen and stage actor
79 Arthur Godfrey 8/31/1903 – 3/16/1983
American radio and television entertainer
74 Dore Schary 8/31/1905 – 7/7/1980
American screenwriter, playwright, producer and director
49 Ramon Magsaysay 8/31/1907 – 3/17/1957
Philippine president (1953-7)
72 William Saroyan 8/31/1908 – 5/18/1981
American novelist and playwright
67 Alan Jay Lerner 8/31/1918 – 6/14/1986
American librettist and lyricist for stage and screen

 

 

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Eight Only Yesterday; Eighteen Today and Moving Into New Digs

P2107
P2108
P2109
P2110

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Aloo Tikkis With Chutneys: To Tide Me Over

P2067
P2065
P2066
P2064

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On This Day: August 30

Updated August 29, 2012, 2:28 pm

NYT Front Page

On Aug. 30, 1963, the hot-line communications link between Washington, D.C., and Moscow went into operation.

Go to article »

On Aug. 30, 1898, Shirley Booth, American stage, screen, radio and television actress, was born. Following her death on October 16, 1992, her obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

 

 

Historic Birthdays

> Shirley Booth 8/30/1898 – 10/16/1992 American stage, screen, radio, and television actress.Go to obituary »
77 Jacques-Louis David 8/30/1748 – 12/29/1825
French Neoclassicist painter
53 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 8/30/1797 – 2/1/1851
English novelist; wrote “Frankenstein”
58 Jacobus Hoff 8/30/1852 – 3/1/1911
Dutch/German first winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry (1901)
66 Ernest Rutherford 8/30/1871 – 10/19/1937
English Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1908)
42 Huey Long 8/30/1893 – 9/10/1935
American senator (1932-5) and powerful governor (1928-32) of Louisiana
86 Raymond Massey 8/30/1896 – 7/29/1983
Canadian-American actor, director and producer
68 John Gunther 8/30/1901 – 5/29/1970
American journalist and author
83 Fred MacMurray 8/30/1908 – 11/5/1991
American motion-picture and television actor
84 E. M. Purcell 8/30/1912 – 3/7/1997
American Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1952)
78 Sir Richard Stone 8/30/1913 – 12/6/1991
English Nobel Prize-winning economist (1984)

 

 

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Facts: Brute Beasts of the Intellectual Domain

All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called ‘Facts.’ They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.

– Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894)

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Sending My Firstborn to College: Hits Home at the Kitchen Table

Kitchentable