Benjamin Barber at The Huffington Post writes:

QUESTION: What's the difference between capitalism and socialism according to Henry Paulson?

ANSWER: Socialism is when big government steals from the banks to bail out the people; capitalism is when big government steals from the people to bail out the banks.

In an article in The NYT, Adam S. Posen , an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says, “It is profound, and it is something of a shift back to the state. But is this a recasting of capitalism? I think what we’ll see is that the government acts as a silent partner and gets out as soon as it can.”

However we define the help we're getting, the Republicans, who've had the closely-held idea of an unregulated free market wrested from their grasp with the original $750 billion dollary bailout, now have to, simultaneously, watch as the banking industry is, in effect, nationalized. (On Monday, large American banks agreed to accept government investments totaling $125 billion with another $125 billion to be invested in smaller banks.)

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. might be squeamish about framing this help, but he is not squeamish about supplying it.

In another article in The New York Times Paulson says the $250 billion dollar government infusion of government money into banks is regrettable but necessary. The NYT article says that "[i]n addition to injecting money into the banks, according to the plan, the United States would also guarantee new debt issued by banks for three years — a measure meant to encourage the banks to resume lending to one another and to customers."



According to Paulson:

The alternative of leaving businesses and consumers without access to financing is totally unacceptable. When financing isn’t available, consumers and businesses shrink their spending, which leads to businesses cutting jobs and even closing up shop.

Which brings us back to the Question and Answer. From Benjamin Barber's article:

Which is to say we are not going to see any recognition that overproduction and over consuming by a capitalist system that manufactures needs rather than goods to sell all the stuff it has to sell to stay afloat is what really lies behind the crisis. Or that capitalism must change its ways - like producing goods we actually need and taking responsibility for bad decisions it makes. On the contrary, the market's heading up (for a day at least), and the credit pump is being primed so consumers will start spending again, and we can go back to where we were before phase one of the crisis started. Back to spending our way to phase two of the crisis.

How to fix what's broken while creating something new? And have the people who need to learn a lesson from all of this really learned the lesson they needed to?

Apple has launched a new MacBook made of titanium. It has a glass button-less trackpad and costs $100 less than previous incarnations.
Engadgethas a pretty exhaustive list of all of the specifications.

I'm a PC guy, but this sure is pretty.

Via boy culture

Click thumbnails below for full size pics

Marshall Ramsey, copyright 2008 Creators Syndicate

LA Mayor donates to "No on 8" campaign

Ben Bernanke gives a brief overview of the recovery effort

The Republican fear of a completely Democratic Washington

The Spreadsheet Psychic predicts baseball, elections

The Bradley Effect No Longer in Effect? A breakdown of the diminishing role of race in politics and in America. And in a roundabout way, a confirmation of the successes of affirmative action.

Via Yglesias (where Matthew has a slightly different take on Linker's review of Religulous than I do -- funny that we both had similar title responses to the original article), Ars Technica takes a serious look at robotic cars, and how they would transform society:

Self-driving cars will never be drunk, tired, or inexperienced. They should make designated drivers as anachronistic as linotype operators, freeing suburbanites from worrying about how they'll get home after an evening of drinking. Similarly, people on long road trips won't need to worry about falling asleep at the wheel. They'll be able to take naps while their cars drive for them. Hundreds of truckers die every year, and the automation of the trucking industry could eliminate the need for human truck drivers, saving hundreds of lives in the process. And far fewer teenagers will have their lives cut tragically short due to crashes caused by their lack of experience behind the wheel.

Colin Farrell discusses his sex tape
Daily Show couple to write CBS sitcom

Liz Smith reviews Brolin as W

Via popnography, some stills from Milk

Gus Van Sant to be honored that the LA Gay and Lesbian Center

Audre Lorde, the black lesbian poet, is celebrated for Black History Month

Scissor Sisters perform at Mercury Lounge last night

More Heroes defections

omgblog has an NSFW pic of what is probably a naked Ashton Kutcher sitting on the toilet. (NSFW) I mean, take it where you can get it, right?

Madonna wears dumb shoes to the New York premiere of her new movie Filth and Wisdom

In a review of Religulous over on The New Republic, Damon Linker, discusses the views taken by Bill Maher in the film:

Maher hilariously exposes astonishing levels of ignorance and parochialism among the earnestly pious Americans he encounters in his travels around the country . . . Religulous achieves the rare feat of blending stiletto-sharp cultural criticism with farce . . . Maher and director Larry Charles are highly adept at ridiculing their fellow citizens. Anyone who has seen Charles' last film (Borat) is familiar with his directorial style: put ordinary Americans on camera, ask them a few questions about their beliefs, and then stand back as they reveal their vapidity.

Borat did this beautifully, but he did it with ulterior motives. Sacha Baron Cohen's portrayal of Borat allowed different kinds of people to bounce off of their perceptions of the character he meticuloulsy created. The laughs that punctuated each of Borat's cultural missteps unfurled our, the audience's, prejudices against outsiders. The people in the film weren't the joke -- the audience members were. Maher attempts what looks to be a similar tactic.

Yet Maher has loftier ambitions than laughs. He wants to save the world from the idiocy he unearths in the American heartland, and he believes the best way to fulfill this aim is to mercilessly attack religion and all those who adhere to it. And that's why the film, like so much written by critics of religion in recent years, must ultimately be judged a failure . . . [Because] Maher takes on simpletons and extremists instead of seeking out theologians and other thoughtful believers to explain and defend their beliefs . . . Not only is this approach to religion intellectually fraudulent and morally sloppy--equating as it does scientifically literate believers with God-intoxicated scriptural literalists--but it is also asinine as a practical strategy

But Maher's only appears to be the same tactic. Instead, Maher's attempt, like his other comedy, is targeted against the people he is engaging, not the larger issue. Where Borat pushed us to reevaluate our views, Maher uses unsophisticated thinkers to make us feel good about ourselves. He commits this same mistake in his HBO show when he tells two black guests to stop arguing because he doesn't like to see "black on black fighting." Or when he refers to Sarah Palin as a "stewardess." I am often uncomfortable watching Maher's fumbling, although I do appreciate the platform he gives to his panel members. And while he is a good liberal, his talent never seems quite up to the task at hand.

Linker goes on to discuss how people like Richard Dawkins commit similar moral crimes in their efforts to underscore the dangers of religion, but, on that point, I could not disagree more Linker. Dawkins' book The God Delusion summarizes beautifully and compassionately the wrongness of religion in a manner Maher could learn from. Preaching to the choir never works, but there are people out there who need and deserve a preacher other than Bill Maher.

Via The Daily Beast