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POPSIt's time to embrace American royalty About this latest hiring by NBC, Atrios observed: "if only the Villager values of nepotism and torture could be combined somehow." The American Prospect's Adam Serwer quicky noted that they already have been: "Liz Cheney." Liz Cheney is really the perfect face of Washington's political culture, a perfect manifestation of all the rotting diseases that define it and a pure expression of what our country has become and the reasons for its virtual ruin. She should really be on every political TV show all day every day. It's almost as though things can't really be expressed thoroughly without including her. Jenna Bush as a new NBC "reporter" on The Today Show -- at a time when every media outlet is firing and laying off real reporters -- is a very nice addition though.
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POPSAssorted Quotes from a blog sidebar... MORE: “Never believe in a meritocracy in which no one is funny-looking.” (Teresa Nielsen Hayden) “True religion invites us to become better people. False religion tells us that this has already occurred.” (Abdal-Hakim Murad) “To live is to war against the trolls.” (Henrik Ibsen) “No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” (Samuel Beckett)
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POPSThomas Friedman’s Five Worst Predictions In 2001, Friedman advised the American citizenry to “keep rootin’ for Putin,” hailing the K.G.B. veteran as “Russia’s first Deng Xiaoping” and a strong force for reform. Three years later, Friedman announced in his most awkward prose that “I have a ‘Tilt Theory of History’,” and called Russia “a huge nation” (this part checks out) “that was tilted in the wrong direction and is now tilted in the right direction” with regards to free speech, the rule of law, and the like. In 2007, Friedman finally noticed that Russia cannot even properly be termed a democracy and promptly wrote a column to this effect.
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POPSA Meritocracy Again By electing the anti-Bush—inspirational, articulate and unconnected—we restored the age-old empowering idea that anyone can become president if they work hard, and posses the right combination of intelligence, integrity, guts and guile. And that's good for America.
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POPSThe Demise of Meritocracy & The Push to Mediocrity "In America these days, we award everyone for merit, from the brilliant to the mediocre. Just as in Little League, everyone gets a trophy. It's the ultimate in populist democratization. Which is why McCain insists, despite all empirical evidence to the contrary, that Sarah Palin 'knows more about energy than probably anybody in the United States of America.' "
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POPSWhy are conservatives happier than liberals Analyzes with data from 9,000 people across 10 countries uncovered the pattern that, not only do right-wingers report greater life satisfaction across cultures, but the gap widens in those countries where quality of life is low. Finally, the authors looked at U.S. data spanning the past 30 years, and found that increasing economic inequality is associated with the decrease in the nation’s overall happiness. But noted they found that liberals’ self-reported happiness decreased more steeply than that of conservatives. IMO to screw someone is better than to be screwed...........which is not wrong
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POPSHope, change, and pissing in the wind: Of Obama, Democrats, and the power elite There are systemic contradictions at play that almost force the hand of capitalists to do what they do -- for example, they are now trying to roll back the social democratic gains of the European working class during the postwar period. Merkel, Brown, Berlusconi, and Sarkozy are no accidents. They represent the concerted effort of the European bourgeoisie, egged on by the American elites, to push back on the working class and take it all back under the pretext of “remaining competitive” and a plethora of other fraudulent reasons.
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POPSGoogle to compete with Wikipedia? Very interesting. By highlighting the author of an article, or "knol", there's a clear and compelling reason to contribute articles of value. Google's internal Knol likely creates a meritocracy, where it's important and valuable to be the person who wrote the authoritative knol on a specific technical topic. Compared with Wikipedia, where most contributions are fueled by a altruistic need to create or improve articles, I can see the motives for this, but it also seems as though this would create lots of stale pages, jockeying for 'authoritative' position, and generally stifle collaboration. Interesting - but I don't think it's a wikipedia killer.
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POPSUS Men earning less than their Dad's did. "There is clearly some story here that productivity gains are not trickling down to the median family," said John Morton, a co-author of the study and the managing director of economic policy initiatives at the Pew Charitable Trusts. The study's authors, who plan to examine relative mobility, or the ability of Americans to move up or or down in social strata, said their report shows the canonical belief in an American meritocracy may be unraveling. "The expectation that each generation will do better than their parents has become a fundamental part of what we call 'The American Dream,'" said Morton. "But this new analysis suggests this bedrock belief may be shifting under our feet."
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POPSAlso, the stupidity of crowds Excuse me—I just discovered Jaron Lanier and I think my head might explode. Y'all read up on this here amazingness while I tumble back down the rabbit hole...
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POPSA meritocracy of dunces, clusterfucks!!!! great turns of the phrase in here!!!! A nice ballsy gamble of a war. Sure, it could throw the region into chaos, bankrupt this country, and dye the fertile crescent red with the blood of civilians; yet an audacious war is like a red lollipop—who isn't powerless to resist it?Tom friedman As Judy Miller pursues freelance projects out in Sag Harbor, doggedly accompanied by the rotting corpse of her career, she likely has much time for rumination. And it's tough to imagine these sessions of thought don't sometimes include spleen toward Jeffrey Goldberg. How did she end up getting screwed by Ahmed Chalabi and the neocons— metaphorically, of course— re: Jeff Goldberg
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POPSLog on, drop out, cash in... Top techies who left school "Of course, for every dropout's success story there are untold stories of disappointment and failure. Nathan Ensmenger, a University of Pennsylvania history professor who tracks the Silicon Valley labor market, says youngsters often are lured by high starting salaries and low barriers to entry. But not everyone can hit a startup grand slam, leaving many with fewer options as they try to climb the corporate ladder that quickly tops out for techies without a degree. "If we were shooting a movie of this, there would be a disclaimer at the bottom, 'Do not attempt this at home,' " said Paul Graham, a startup investor and founder of Y Combinator. "It's an extreme example of a fundamental, underlying trend: If you can program, you don't have to play by the rules." "We discourage people from starting startups too young. You're not a loser if you finish college first."
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POPSBusiness school bans cornrows, dreadlocks A business program at historically black college Hampton University enforces a "hair code". If employers are going to make hiring decisions based on hair style, then something is seriously wrong with American culture.
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