For The Common Good

just checking to see if anyone might be interested in discussing this book here in this forum.

you can buy a used paperback from Amazon for $1.30

and that's all I got to say about that...

dk March 4, 2009 - 8:26am

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( categories: Miscellany | Strategies for Coping With Recession )

ideas for structure?

here?

alba

tross

dk March 4, 2009 - 8:27am

here's my idea for structure

but if you can think of anything better please post it here, as a reply to ideas for structure.
well, that's my idea, right there. there are many, many chapters. discussion of each chapter should be as a reply to the synopsis of said chapter.
within each chapter discussion, free-for-all discussion is encouraged. highly.
Graham? help me out here :) you must have hosted book clubs at the store.

alba

tross

dk March 19, 2009 - 7:31am

I received my copy

and I'm just going to do this regardless of whether I'm talking to myself. again. :)

alba

tross

dk March 11, 2009 - 7:29am

this might be a good area

to post if you are willing to read and synopsize a chapter as Lex has done. and maybe state which chapter you'd be willing to do, k?

alba

tross

dk March 19, 2009 - 7:54am

And away we go...

I'm "it", and i'm "it" first. So far as i know, there are no rules...but i recognize that being first might mean that i'll be setting precedents (or maybe illustrating what not to do). I hope that this conversation can extend even beyond the people reading For the Common Good. (There is a lot of economic knowledge on The Agonist that might serve to further clarify the book, but only if that knowledge has some idea where the book is coming from.) To that end, i've decided to include whole, salient points from the authors. Italics will indicate that i'm pulling straight from the text; quotes around italics if the authors are reproducing something verbatim.
>-----------------------------------------<

Within three paragraphs, it becomes obvious that the book is somewhat dated. But that only lends an eerie feeling to the proceedings: we might have been well served to have been thinking like this a long time ago.

There's a "hippy" feeling to the introduction, but much of it stems from the fact that the authors have strong ecological concerns. And though they can hardly be asked to fully explain themselves in the first 21 pages, they use slippery phrases like healthy communities. I'm looking forward to the definition of a healthy community.

They are not, however, socialists or communists, and they are at pains to point out this fact. They are both Protestants and one is a theologian. They both have a thing for Whitehead.

What is certain is that they will not jump to any prescriptions before they've made a full diagnosis. This will not only be a critique of the results brought about by current economic theory, but a critique of the theory itself and even the theories that founded the theory. Most importantly, the authors have set out to prove that economics is not a science.

Economic theory builds on the propensity of individuals to act so as to optimize their own interests, a propensity clearly operative in market transactions and in many other areas of life. Economists typically identify intelligent pursuit of private gain with rationality, thus implying that other modes of behavior are not rational.

Modern economic theory originated and developed in the context of Calvinism In that they both share the belief that self-interested motives are overwhelmingly dominant. When Christianity was socially dominant, it checked self-interested behavior to some degree. But economists have taught us to think that checks on self-interest are both unnecessary and harmful. It is through rational behavior, which means self-interested behavior, that all benefit the most.

Economics contributed to freeing individuals from hierarchical authority, as well as to providing more abundant goods and services. Though negative effects have always been known, it was generally believed that the positive outweighed the negative. The authors believe that this is no longer the case.

The authors make clear that they intend to question not just the assumptions upon which economics is based, but also the ability to make the assumptions in the first place...or at least treat those assumptions as how the world actually functions. Quoting Lester Thurow, "Economics cannot do without simplifying assumptions, but the trick is to use the right assumptions at the right time. And the judgment has to come from empirical analysis (including those employed by historians, psychologists, sociologists and political scientists) of how the world is, not how our economics textbooks tell us it ought to be."

The change [in economics that the authors are hoping for] will involve correction and expansion, a more empirical and historical attitude, less pretense to be a "science," and the willingness to subordinate the market to purposes that it is not geared to determine.

Since everything is politics, they address theirs. First, they use traditional political labels as examples rather than the spectrum itself. The spectrum runs from egalitarian to anti-egalitarian, with Anarchists to the left and fascists to the right; both Liberals and Conservatives fall on the right half of the spectrum. But they add a Y-axis based on Anti-Nationalists (positive) and Nationalist (negative). Marxists to the upper-left and Neoclassical Liberals to the upper-right, with Populists occupying the lower-left and Conservatives (traditional) in the lower-right. (It should be noted that the authors prefer "communitarian" to "Nationalist" and "anticommunitarian" to "Anti-nationalist".)

They point out that Marxism and Western economics are more similar than different...both being children of the same, philosophical parentage, that's no surprise.

They pin the bulk of our current problems on the industrial revolution. Marxism and Capitalism are both intrinsically related to the industrial revolution; both being accused of strapping humankind to the clattering beast of industrialization. Along with the other problems of the industrial revolution, they note that, The industrial revolution has shifted dependence from the relatively abundant to the relatively scarce source of the ultimate resource: low-entropy matter-energy. In other words, from the Sun to fossil fuels.

The industrial revolution is regularly replayed in traditional societies and called "economic development".

The authors make a point of critiquing centralized economic planning, with the caveat that not every socialist idea is bad. They share with some Socialist thinkers a belief in decentralization of political and economic power . . . and the subordination of the economy to social goals, democratically defined.

[Interesting footnotery: they make an argument that Feudalism was not only more efficient than either Capitalism or Socialism, but that it was also more communitarian. The point is that it is possible to be opposed to both Capitalism and Socialism, not that we should return to feudalism.]

The theologian half of the pair appears to come in with the Christian Sociologists and the Catholic critique. We'll have to see, but this may be mostly as means of A. supporting the decntralization argument and B. emphasizing the importance of community.

"It is an injustice, a grave evil and a disturbance of right order for a larger and higher organization to arrogate to itself functions which can be performed efficiently by smaller and lower bodies." ~Pius XI

And they note how similar Pius sounds to Thomas Jefferson, and then bring in de Tocqueville for support: "too much importance is attributed to legislation, too little to customs." These customs were nurtured in local communities, and it was "the influence of customs that produces the different degrees of order and prosperity which may be distinguished in the several Anglo-American democracies."

That modern political leaders and writers have neglected the communitarian concerns of Jefferson and his ilk is a problem, moreso because a wide range of evidence is now affirming empirically that they were right. We ignore them at our own peril...

"A society and its members require mutual civility for sheer survival. Unless the retreat to ego is overcome and community institutions reconstituted, the level of conflict and frustrations will rise, and the limited energy channeled to shared concerns will make for an ineffectual 'can't do' society, continued deterioration, and even, ultimately, the possibility of destruction." ~Amitai Etzioni

THE PROGRAM:

...we are approaching economics for community from the side of the market economy, discussing the revisions required in neoclassical theory and in actual capitalist practice in order that the destruction of community be ended.

Our intention is not that economic theory begin over again, but that it be reconstructed on the basis of a paradigm that both clarifies the excellence of its past work and sets it in a larger context.

Part One will discuss economics as it is. Part Two presents and alternative approach to the economy. Part Three proposes policies following from the different perspective. And Part Four discusses how changes in the required direction might come about.

We humans are being led to a dead end--all too literally. We are living by an ideology of death and accordingly we are destroying our own humanity and killing the planet.

The global system will change during the next forty years, because it will be physically forced to change. But if humanity waits until it is physically compelled to change, its options will be few indeed.

>--------------------------------<

Yeah, i know that was long. But my feeling is that with a book like this the introduction is very important. Chapter one will follow, but perhaps it is better to put this out and see if any other readers (followers) would like to see adjustments to the summary structure, etc. Oh, yeah, and i'm tired.

*Of course, if someone wants to take Chapter One in the meantime, please feel free.

Lex March 18, 2009 - 8:45pm

do you like it so far?

does it seem to be useful to you, in the context of today's current milieu, news stories, etc?

alba

tross

dk March 19, 2009 - 5:39am

not very far

but i like it just fine. I have a feeling that i'll be more interested in the critique of current economic theory than the proposed solutions, but i'm also curious to see their definitions of phrases like "healthy community".

And with that i'll sit down to some more reading...

Lex March 21, 2009 - 12:07pm

I just finished reading the intro

(been busy hawking the book,I've got a few more readers involved)
you've done yeoman's work trying to encapsulate the intro. I'm a little hesitant to comment on it, because the intro leads me to jump to some conclusions that they do not appear ready to make about the basis of economic theory, which I believe to be calculus.
Western Capitalism and it's study in economics coincided w/ the grasp of calculus as a means to project finite growth in an infinite manner.
(n-1) is an amazing concept, almost mystical.

what they seem to be describing is the effects of industrialization on capitalism, which led to the rise of Luddites and Marx.
collective/society vs the free market/individual
They seem to have no issue whatsoever w/ the free market as a concept, but then they want more rules and then it's no longer a free market, is it?

but see I'm making assumptioons and conclusions based on an intro, when I actually need to be reading the book ;>

(hopefully, I'll get a mathmetician involved, because my rudimentary calculus is rusty as hell. but I'm waiting for the day that someone bases economic thought on E=Mc(squared) or that Higgs Boson/ particle theory stuff. In the meantime, I'll find someone to write the synopsis of ch. 1, 'The Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness in Economics and Other Disciplines'. I might even do it myself, but writing is not my forte. )

dk March 23, 2009 - 6:33am

well my book has

left Nashville this am, hopefully here tomorrow :)

_{"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau}

Tina March 23, 2009 - 8:04am

I think one of the goals of

I think one of the goals of activism to help our communities conform to our ideals and one would think they would be healthy as an expression of nothing but our own self-interest.

GOPers suffer from CHIDS (Chronic Humor and Irony Deficit Syndrome), prounced 'kids' with that parental sigh

stumpy March 19, 2009 - 7:43am

as an old hippie,

i comment on the spelling. there's no Y in hippie (and only one in the related label yippie for that matter). eom

Zuma March 19, 2009 - 3:26am

apologies

And having been raised by hippys (i'm assuming that since the usual plural spelling is used for the singular than the normal singular spelling would be used for the plural) i should have known better.

Lex March 21, 2009 - 12:05pm

thanks Lex, I'm still waiting for my copy, but you've

whetted my appetite, and given me a heads up on what to expect.

graham March 19, 2009 - 6:32am

the dead end

Sounds like someone is at least in the right ballpark for what is going on.
I'm hoping the current economic dead end will wake people up enough to avoid the dead end imposed by Mother Nature and that they are not one and the same.
I sometimes wonder if a communitarian impulse is possible for 6 billion plus minds. It sure would be useful now.
Looks like I'm gonna get the book on Amazon or from my local library that is getting a 15% budget cut by the brilliant Republican local government.

JT March 20, 2009 - 10:53am

yay, the book arrived

hr>_{"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau}

Tina March 26, 2009 - 4:06am

yay three, mine too, a much loved and water stained copy

I've skimmed the introduction and have started chapter one, my brain hurts already ;)

graham March 26, 2009 - 4:21am

I didn't bring

it to work tonight. I thought I would watch Mists of Avalon tonight but the computer has decided otherwise lol I will read the intro tomorrow tho.

_{"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau}

Tina March 26, 2009 - 4:46am

see?

you can talk shit all ya want, back here? there's gotta be room for off topic bullshittin', that's where some of the best ideas come from, IMExperience. <--see? like that there? why is it IMO, why opinion and not experience? why is learn-ed opinion more valid than the school of hard knocks? is it the detachment? is it not the same knowledge? but then opinion is often held in lower regard than experience. it's the learn-ed (yes, it's intentional)opninion, I'm curious about.
why do I always wake up asking why?

dk March 26, 2009 - 4:57am

I wouldn't worry

about going off topic on other posts. As long as you hit reply to a specific comment it will wander on its own :) Seriously I never worry about going off topic and sometimes it is damn deliberate :D I suggest a bloody mary upon waking to knock those 'why' questions out of your head lol, at least after a couple you can wonder why what?

_{"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau}

Tina March 26, 2009 - 5:07am

lmao

I'm still coming down from a dentist prescribed dose of lorazapan, nitrous and vicodin from Monday. a bloody mary is exactly what I need, but it's a work day, today :(

dk March 26, 2009 - 5:16am

So?

have a drink and blame it on the pain killers :D

_{"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau}

Tina March 26, 2009 - 5:23am

why

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk4lCXt7JKo

embedding disabled by request :(

graham March 26, 2009 - 5:49am

oooo, goosebumps

good one, G-man!

dk March 26, 2009 - 6:10am

I have to reply to myself here

because, it's too damn funny. I just cracked open ch. 1, (yes, I'm behind in my reading too)and this is what it says

This fallacy flourishes because of the disciplinary organization of knowledge requires a high level of abstraction; and the more successfully a discipline fulfills the criteria established for it, the higher the level of abstraction involved. Inevitably, many practitioners of successful disciplines, socialized to think in these abstractions, apply their conclusions to the real world w/o recognizing the degree of abstraction involved

but dang, wouldn't it have been easier to say "it misses the forest for the trees"?
(ok, there's gotta be a better way to copy and paste text than me trying to remember 3 weeks of typing classs from 30 years ago)

alba

tross

dk March 26, 2009 - 5:12am

Yeah...

I've been very intrigued by the way that they attack the abstraction problem, and even the attempt to dress social sciences (philosophy) up as hard science.

Not only do the social scientists come to believe that they're on the level of physicists, but it mystifies the common person...and mystification generally leads to believing that the "scientists" are some kind of wizards.

Lex March 26, 2009 - 7:42pm

Mine arrived.

A student by the name of Anderson has marked it up. Perhaps he was Hans Christian.

http://mauberly.blogspot.com/

mauberly April 13, 2009 - 7:18pm

If you're going to talk about the

common good, then you're going to have some Christian stuff thrown in. For the fundamental position of Augustine, one of the Church fathers, saw confession in communion, not primarily as simply individual. So he is mentioned on page 5, as seeing self regarding behavior as part of fallen man.

He saw a common good in a personal way many centuries ago.

You'll probably want to secularize his position, for the purpose at hand, so as not always to have to regrind Christian coffee.

http://mauberly.blogspot.com/

mauberly April 13, 2009 - 7:18pm

It's Ok by me

being American it's easy to grasp the underlying social significance of Christian traditions. but do tell me more about Augustine and this "confession in communion". is it like group therapy? like an AA meeting? like an internet forum? the reconciliation movements of Africa? or is it more like being made to confess your crimes in a public courtroom?

(I don't have the book w/ me. but Pismo Beach is not awake yet, so here I surf.) theoretically, I could just go look it up, but I want to prove SP wrong about being able to find teachers wherever one looks ;> however I have no desire to talk theoretically about education, I just think DesCartes had issues.

dk April 14, 2009 - 7:58am

More like AA

but it's a part of a pilgrimage to the heavenly city. I'll see if I can find a passage. Been swamped.

http://mauberly.blogspot.com/

mauberly April 14, 2009 - 6:18pm

Still looking for the passage.

Let's go on. The remark by Mark Thoma, goodbye Homo Economicus, cited somewhere above, is a little misleading for our purposes, for our book proposes to look at H.E. as a person in a community(p7). Then it will go from there, having stripped out economic theory as the primary way to talk about H.E.

Remember that our book sees modern economics as modeling enlighted self regarding behavior.(p6) That is its problem, at minimum.

The fact that Cobb is a theologian is irrelevant. He is familiar with what he calls other regarding behavior(think "Love thy neighbor" as a form of this.), and he is proceeding to talk about the common good. So, as readers,we secularize what he knows as a theologian. He appears to have done this himself. Then we see where he and his co-author go with their notions.

Notice also they are trying to derive their method from a lot of other writers in these first few pages.

Lester Thurow was a pretty big gun, for example.(p7)

http://mauberly.blogspot.com/

mauberly April 15, 2009 - 10:59am

The passage

Confessions

10.4.6
This is the fruit of my confessions of what I am, not of what
I have been, to confess this, not before Thee only, in a secret exultation with trembling, and a secret sorrow with hope; but in the ears also of the believing sons of men, sharers of my joy, and partners in my mortality, my fellow-citizens, and fellow-pilgrims, who are gone before, or are to follow on, companions of my way.

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine.html

http://mauberly.blogspot.com/

mauberly April 15, 2009 - 11:20am

companions of my way

beautiful passage, gave me goosebumps.
thanks maub

dk April 16, 2009 - 8:32am

I've swallowed advil, half a bottle of red, and planted seeds in

the garden :)

Give me a medical textbook, a computer textbook or a tome of theology, I can read them, but chapter one has stopped me dead. I'll keep trying but i'm well out of my comfort zone...

I blame all those god-fearing physicists of the time pre 19thC.

Now if only economics relied on theology rather than the imposed discipline of physics and chemistry... /run

graham March 26, 2009 - 5:42am

lets inject a lil theology ;)

Book Summary of For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future by Herman E. Daly & John B. Cobb Jr. with contributions by Clifford W. Cobb
Citation:

For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future, Herman E. Daly & John B. Cobb Jr. with contributions by Clifford W. Cobb, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989), 476pp.

This Book Summary written by: T.A. O'Lonergan, Conflict Research Consortium

For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future is required reading for ARSC 5020/7020 as taught by Professors Michael Glantz and Jim Wescoat. This work will be of interest to those who seek an alternative to market approaches to policy-making. The co-authors have divided the book into four parts. The first part examines economics as an academic discipline and addresses the fallacy of misplaced concreteness in economics and other disciplines. Thus, the authors emphasize the abstract nature of: the market, measuring economic success, and the abstractions involved in the economic conception of land. The authors challenge the two assumptions which support the economic theory of human nature: first, that human wants are insatiable and, second, the law-like status of the principle of diminishing marginal utility.

Part Two outlines the shift which must occur if the economy is to be redirected along the lines suggested by the authors. Daly and Cobb propose that economic theory move from being an academic discipline to thought in service of community. They propose a shift in the economic view of human nature from an atomistic one to a contextual one which will require a move from cosmopolitanism to multiple smaller communities which themselves form larger communities.

The third part addresses policies which would support community in the United States. The authors examine policies concerning: free trade, population, land use, agriculture, industry, labour and income. They propose that the United States move away from a policy which strives toward world domination toward a policy which would result in true national security. The final part offers possible approaches to achieving the goals advocated. First, the authors offer possible steps toward a redirection of the economy and second, they present what they assert to be a religious vision. The authors believe that a realignment toward focus upon the biosphere and away from focus upon the environment as multiple resources for human use is supported by their Christian theist belief system. They do not address the negative environmental impact that has historically been justified by practitioners of monotheist religions or how their belief system (a monotheist one) hopes to avoid these historical difficulties.

For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future offers suggestions for the de-emphasis of economics and the emphasis of community and the environment. While the authors offer Christian theology in support of their suggestions, the offer is not necessary for the arguments in the book to be compelling.

_{"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau}

Tina March 26, 2009 - 5:47am

Having read the beginning of the book,

I see that to emphasize the Christianity of the authors is prejudicial to their position, in a bankhanded way, for the account admits that you don't need Christianity to make the authors' case.

So I'll introduce Sandburg's Halsted Street Car to show what failure economic notions can foist on a people of a city.

COME you, cartoonists,
Hang on a strap with me here
At seven o'clock in the morning
On a Halsted street car.

Take your pencils
And draw these faces.

Try with your pencils for these crooked faces,
That pig-sticker in one corner--his mouth--
That overall factory girl--her loose cheeks.

Find for your pencils
A way to mark your memory
Of tired empty faces.

After their night's sleep,
In the moist dawn
And cool daybreak,
Faces
Tired of wishes,
Empty of dreams.

http://carl-sandburg.com/halsted_street_car.htm

http://mauberly.blogspot.com/

mauberly April 17, 2009 - 10:54am

John Cobb is a theologian

and I'm still on my first cuppa joe, so I may not get the joke.
but perhaps I should read beyond the first paragraph yet.

dk March 26, 2009 - 5:50am

I don't deny that messr cobb is a theologian, but his academic

path is different from mine, but its early pages yet, my journey has been nursing/computers>bookselling >studying theology.
I may find john and I are on the same page, but not so far, my brain really hurts!

HOWEVER: I'm hoping to resume my theological studies in July, and reading this book may get my brain functioning again. It's been three years since I have been able to really devour books and enjoy them. I've four books by my bed:

A thousand splendid suns - Khaled Hosseini

Infidel = Ayaan Hris Ali

Look me in the eye - John Robison

The act you've know for all these years - Clinton Heylin

and have only got one or two pages into them...

plus I have a copy of Persuasion in the car which i have read upto chapter ten since January..

but I'm really gonna try to finish for the common good!

graham March 26, 2009 - 5:58am

thanks for the warning

maybe if I drink the whole bottle of gamay beaujolis I'll make it thru the first chapter

_{"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau}

Tina March 26, 2009 - 5:56am

I must be some sort of idiot

savant. I'll write the ch 1 synopsis, because I "get it". whether or not I can communicate it, remains to be seen. but pg 31, quoting Norbert Weiner, 1964, pg 89

"....so the economists have developed the habit of dressing up their rather imprecise ideas in the language of infinitesimal calculus....Any pretense of applying precise formulae ia a sham and a waste of time"

at least someone agrees w/ me. I'm just throwing thoughts up here as I read, (I can't find a highlighter marker atm, either).I'll come back and put something together. (but really, I'm gonna go blind if I look at the computer screen w/ my reading glasses on again)

dk March 26, 2009 - 6:25am

give me another 20 hours, I'm gonna read

it again. Work is busy, and the second read through may be easier.

I aint done any serious reading since "After the death of god", I'll get there, promise :)

graham March 26, 2009 - 6:32am

now thats scary:

http://agonist.org/graham7/20071024/gay_baby_triggers_row#comment-134003

it's been a long time since i read a heavy book....

graham March 26, 2009 - 6:43am

how the heck did you

remeber that? dang, I was a fat one year old. you'll like this graham
pg36, quoting Sismondi, from 1827, (apparently he's a big shot)
regarding the esotericism of London economists

...This repugnanceis in itself a warning that we are turning awayfrom the truth when, in moral science where everything is connected, we endeavor to isolate a principle and to see nothing but that principle

perhaps that is what prompted you to remember that thread? it is a perfect illustration of that idea. the underlining is actually from the previous owner of my book, lol. a small world, indeed. :-)

dk March 26, 2009 - 7:20am

Sorry

My apologies for not being on top of things. Pretty busy, and my mother blew my reading plans to hell by sending me a copy of Truck by Michael Perry. It just sucked me right in and i haven't been able to put it down (fantastic writer - i've read other work previously - who manages to be an honest to goodness, rednecked jackpine savage from WI while remaining erudite, witty, and thoughtful)

In any case, i'm done with the first couple of chptrs of FtCG and will post summaries this weekend if nobody beats me too it.

It is dense and deep, but i understand why...though, that doesn't help the authors reach as many readers as they might.

Lex March 26, 2009 - 7:47pm

re: reaching readers

that's why we're here. did you see this? the idea is floating around already.

and don't worry, you don't have to do the whole book. everyone, (including myself), is trying to catch up to you, first. Tina had a good idea in that we post the synopses as diaries, and add links back to previous synopses, and allow comments on those diaries. as opposed to here, on the forum. I just want to keep "here" for additional discussion as well.
If you get to summarizing ch 1, great. I got my shit underlined, but yeah, it's like being in school, it's doing the actual writing that's hard. if only I could have sent in essays that said "I got my shit..."
I'm sure I would have been an academic ;>
but I can take care of posting the diaries w/ links iff'n you want to just post a synopsis back here. whatever is easy for ya. or maybe I'll beat ya to ch 1 :D
maybe you want to take ch 2?

dk March 27, 2009 - 5:43am

well dk I started reading,

I made it halfway thru the intro and got sidetracked. An infomercial started that was selling the best of the Carol Burnett show. How can anyone read when Korman, Waggoner,Burnett,Conway and Lawrence are going at it? :D

_{"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau}

Tina March 27, 2009 - 8:13am

ok, but just 5 more minutes....

this was a great PBS show in case you missed it. wait, what am I doing?

dk March 27, 2009 - 12:19pm

it is official

I am going to have to order the set of dvds. youtube is evil, it sucks you in and doesn't let you go! so many skits to watch :)

_{"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau}

Tina March 27, 2009 - 9:41pm

sorry dk, I unpacked a router from 2005

and have been trying to get windows 7 talking to windows 98. Result: fail!

it's been geek time, not book time.

The good news is that Ms 10 and I can both surf the net at the same time now.

Sunday I'm off to Jamberoo to collect paschal candles from the Benedictine Sisters, so maybe sunday night I'll read chapter one again, I'm taking the book with me, and may read it en route.

I have to read this book, to get my head into gear!

graham March 28, 2009 - 6:50am

in the world of "put up, or shut up"

I'm very tempted to shut up, this writing stuff is hard to think about. Daly and Cobb have already written the book, distilling that which is most important chapter by chapter into a summary that is accessible to many and all, is almost impossible, when you consider that it takes them 36 pages to write academically in an accepted jargon. how do I transfer their appeals to authority into appeals to common sense in less than one page w/o dumbing it down?
ow, my brain hurts!
you say Adam Smith and all the economists say, of course, invisible hand. you say Samuel Adams to a historian and they say, American statesman. you say Sam Adams at the bowling alley, and they say brown ale or pale ale? I'm searching for correct metaphors in economics, but none are coming yet.
fucking SP and all his talk of structure got me all screwed up. ;>

dk March 29, 2009 - 7:55am

it was

on my list for today, but then i got all tied up in a long listserve conversation that led to writing a blog post from it for S&R (link under "global" on the sidebar)...and now i'll have to find something else to do before the shit-storm of 'why do i hate Obama' and 'you fucking traitor' hits the comment thread. Yeah, i'm assuming but unlike the political class, i find it best to assume the worst so that i can be pleasantly surprised by anything less than worst-case scenarios.

Lex March 29, 2009 - 1:49pm

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