(One personal example: Brazilian culture is obsessed with love, passion, drama. TV is absolutely saturated with telenovelas that are all about these subjects. However, switch over to any TV channel that’s showing US shows, and you’ve got CSI, Law & Order, Criminal Minds, Dexter, etc. US culture is clearly obsessed with violence in comparison with Brazilian culture.)

Anyway, back to digby. Here’s her sum-up here.

We are so twisted that we’re infantilizing adolescence and turning tiny children into adults.

But before reading this particular post, it’s even better to read this story about a 6 y.o. felony, as in a 6 year old child who is being charged with a felony. Digby links to it in her article, but it’s better to read this story first.

Wisconsin DA charges 6 y.o. boy with felony for playing doctor with 5 y.o. girl

And now read Digby who has some more stories and more to say on this.

via Hullabaloo.

I personally wonder if it’s related to the right’s lack of individual analysis. That is, the right tends to be much more authoritarian, and its “followers” tend to trust the conclusions of their leaders instead of doing their own critical thinking and coming to their own conclusion.

So, when someone spouts an expletitive on the air, sh*t, for example, it’s easy to say that’s wrong. No thinking required, it’s a bad bad bad word.

But, when someone says that, for example, “Every single A-Rab is evil and wants to destroy the US.”, no one on the right argues because there is no simple trigger. Realizing that this is way more offensive than using the word sh*t takes either:

1. some individual thinking, or
2. a leader (whom the follower trusts) that comes out strongly and explicitly saying that this is wrong.

On the right, these two things never happen.

John Cole writes on this below and includes many links.

Balloon Juice » Policing Our Discourse.

I personally imagine it has something to do with, “Respect my ah-tor-it-tee!” It’s a pissing contest writ large.

Balloon Juice » Wouldn’t It Be Cheaper.

Daily Kos: Occupy scores victory against Republicans.

The GOP has lost touch with reality, and that’s bad for Amurka. They aren’t interested in helping the country as a whole, they’re interested in helping themselves at the expense of the country as a whole.

This article was written by a former (and I guess current) Republican and conservative, though I imagine some of his current peers would disagree with those terms. Regardless, this man has been around politics for ages, and he’s tried and true republican and conservative.

Here’s one of his many examples:

A dozen years ago, a very similar reform was the Senate Republican alternative to Hillarycare. Today, stimulative fiscal policy that includes tax cuts for almost every American is “socialism.”

David Frum on the GOP’s Lost Sense of Reality — New York Magazine.

Post about a blocked nomination to head Medicare and Medicaid.

If the continuing fight over deficits was really about deficits, Berwick would have broad, bipartisan support to continue his work.

via Balloon Juice » Score Another One For The Blockheads.

F*ck austerity. We have massive unemployment. Why oh why aren’t we running deficits to employ these people, especially when we can borrow (as a country) at record low rates?!

Anyway, Wolf touches on the same concept that Krugman’s been harping on, old concepts of economics have simply been completely forgotten, and we’re destroying ourselves for that sin.

Yet, if Mr Cameron had wanted to do so, he could have met many “anyones” who would have warned him of what he has now learnt, at great cost to the country. If the private sector is seeking to run down its debts, it is hard for the government to do so, too, because everybody cannot spend less than their income. That is the “paradox of thrift”. No, it is not a novel idea.

via Paul Krugman Sends Us to Martin Wolf on Death By Accounting Identity.

Ezra talks about how the Congressional Budget Office is now getting attacked. Frankly, it’s getting attacked because Republicans don’t like the results that the CBO is coming up with. Unfortunately, the CBO produces some of the best and most non-partisan work out there. After all, that’s the whole purpose of the institution. 

Have you ever stopped to wonder why a party which thinks so little of government wants to control it so much? And, if they think so little of it, do you think they’re gonna do a good job of running that government? Well, this is how it starts. The CBO is being blamed for coming up with realistic results and you can bet that the Republicans will only work further and further to destroy it from within or without.

Institutions matter. Too bad that one entire party disagrees.

During a speech this week on Social Security reform, Newt Gingrich called the Congressional Budget Office “a reactionary socialist institution which does not believe in economic growth, does not believe in innovation and does not believe in data that it has not internally generated.”

By the way, as Ezra points out, Gingrich has praised the CBO in the past. I assume praise only comes when the “right” results are available. Otherwise, it’s a “reactionary socialist institution which does not believe in economic growth”.

via In praise of congressional staff – The Washington Post.

Noah Smith, who usually does technical coverage of macroeconomics, does a nice takedown of a recent article by Ferguson. (I don’t know who Ferguson is either, but that’s ok.)

Anyway, I learned something new from Noah, a useful phrase that puts words to a concept I’ve been trying to nail down, “meritocratic diversity”.

You see, I believe that the United States of America has another “killer app”… meritocratic diversity. Where other countries cling to blood-and-soil tribalism, America absorbs and employs the energy and talent of a vast array of peoples…..

via Noah Smith Takes Niall Ferguson to School: The Real Meaning of “Western Civilization” Department.

In this post, the video at the top is a must-see. It’s a recent video out from an Australian group about a topic near and dear to my heart. It’s short and very well put-together.

As for reading the post, go ahead if you want some chuckles.

It’s time « Sarah, Proud and Tall.