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1411 [lbo-talk] great moments in economics -- rank: 1000

[from a paper on the economics of religion by Laurence R. Iannaccone] Within this provocative model, individuals allocate their time and goods among religious and secular commodities so as to maximize lifetime and afterlife utility. Azzi and Ehrenberg posit "afterlife consumption" as the primary goal of religious participation, an assumption that implies a strong restriction on the way religious commodities enter household utility functions. Formally, households are assumed to maximize ...

Document Size:	5170
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 25 16:09:54 PDT 2011

1412 [lbo-talk] Lack of left due to prescription drugs? -- rank: 1000

On May 25, 2011, at 11:59 AM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote: > I wonder why "grim." Sober, yes; thoughtful, yes. Because there's something so businesslike about all his taxonomy?

Document Size:	4920
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 25 12:17:43 PDT 2011

1413 [lbo-talk] NY-26: the right-wing take -- rank: 1000

From: Jameson Cunningham <jcunningham at sbpublicaffairs.com> Date: May 25, 2011 10:16:09 AM PDT To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: NY-26: all the more reason to tackle entitlements Political pundits are calling Kathy Hochul s win in NY-26 a referendum on Medicare, but there s no doubt independent Jack Davis fake tea party campaign had something to do with it. His record is diametrically opposed to the limited government mission of the true tea party movement and wascaught on camera ...

Document Size:	5816
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 25 11:54:50 PDT 2011

1414 [lbo-talk] Large numbers turn out to support Medicare candidate... -- rank: 1000

On May 25, 2011, at 11:42 AM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote: > http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/nyregion/democrat-capture-house-seat-in-special-election.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Gaining+upset+Democrat+wins+seat&st=nyt > > Dems trounce in election due to support for Medicare. As Ben Smith of Politico pointed out, Paul Ryan cut his political teeth working for Jack Kemp. And now Ryan has lost that seat for the GOP, one of the most Republican districts in NYS. Doug

Document Size:	5507
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 25 11:50:13 PDT 2011

1415 [lbo-talk] Lack of left due to prescription drugs? -- rank: 1000

On May 25, 2011, at 10:59 AM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote: > A good encyclopedic reference is Otto Fenichel's "The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis." I always liked Harold Bloom's thumbnail description of Fenichel: "Freud's grim encyclopedist." I love that book, though. Doug

Document Size:	5035
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 25 11:45:55 PDT 2011

1416 [lbo-talk] Obama's peace plan too much for party -- rank: 1000

[via Mike Allen] WEST WING MUST-READ - WP 1-col. lead, Obama under fire on Israel: TOP DEMOCRATS JOIN CRITICISM, by Peter Wallsten: In AIPAC remarks, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer and other Democrats appeared to reject the president's reference to the 1967 lines By this week, White House aides were reaching out to Israel supporters in the Jewish community to try to ease concerns, according to people familiar with the effort. The White House has arr ...

Document Size:	5710
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 25 10:08:43 PDT 2011

1417 [lbo-talk] Lack of left due to prescription drugs? -- rank: 1000

On May 25, 2011, at 8:39 AM, Carrol Cox wrote: > This is a reasonable hypothesis held I believe by some but not all psychiatrists/neuroscientists. But there is no real or dependable knowledge on any form of mental illness. In the past, and perhaps still, some psychiatrists suggested that there is no such thing as depression, there are only bipolar patients who have never had a manic episode. In any case, the current typology of mental illness almost certainly will change. No current diagnosis ...

Document Size:	5604
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 25 09:56:39 PDT 2011

1418 [lbo-talk] Lack of left due to prescription drugs? -- rank: 1000

On May 24, 2011, at 11:51 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote: > "Depression is anger turned inward." Dr. Melfi > > Google turns up a couple hundred thousand results when you enter this phrase. How old is it anyway? It's a psychoanalytic cliche. Freud has some wonderful stuff on this in Mourning & Melancholia: http://www.scribd.com/doc/18937858/Freudmourning-Melancholia

Document Size:	5157
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 25 09:55:11 PDT 2011

1419 [lbo-talk] Lack of left due to prescription drugs? -- rank: 1000

On May 24, 2011, at 9:44 PM, Gar Lipow quoted: > Like many people, says Rall, I have often wondered why so many Americans seem so emotionally flat and politically apathetic in response to a political and economic landscape that cries out for protest, or at least complaint. Could it be that our society s most angry justifiably angry are being medicated into quiescence? But aren't they people who turned anger unproductively against themselves in the first place? That's America for you - ...

Document Size:	5245
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue May 24 22:27:59 PDT 2011

1420 [lbo-talk] Razon y Revolucion -- rank: 1000

Does anyone know anything about an Argentine group called Razón y Revolución? They'd like to translate my (aging) book Wall Street into Spanish. I'm inclined to say yes, but I would like to know something about them first. Doug

Document Size:	4680
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue May 24 14:09:04 PDT 2011

1421 [lbo-talk] Palin family values -- rank: 1000

[from Politico] PALIN AIDE TRASHES BRISTOL, ERICKSON -- The Daily Caller got its hands on direct messages Sarah Palin aide Rebecca Mansour sent to a a supporter of the former Alaska governor, and they're not pretty. The DC decided to withhold some of them -- it's not entirely clear why -- but what they published is worth the read. Erickson, who runs redstate.com, is a 'greasy dumb ass with a talent for self-promotion,' she wrote. Of Brisol Palin, she messaged 'Two words: Patti Davis. Okay three ...

Document Size:	5771
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue May 24 10:09:04 PDT 2011

1422 [lbo-talk] the Constitution -- rank: 1000

Nice piece on the Constitution here: http://jacobinmag.com/archive/issue2/ackerman.html > That sounds nice and awfully inclusive, but unfortunately the Constitution is much more than that: it is a charter for plutocracy. > > It is a measure of our current ideological morass that liberals, in their own enlightened and open-minded way, still masochistically embrace a throne-and-altar orthodoxy that subordinates the people s will to a virtually unalterable diktat handed down by an ancient ...

Document Size:	5642
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 21 21:57:35 PDT 2011

1423 [lbo-talk] what fiscal emergency? -- rank: 1000

On May 20, 2011, at 1:10 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote: > Nice that it got on CNN. I have a feeling that the tide is starting to turn. Well it's mainly because an old friend got a job there and asked me to do it. I don't think the CNN hierarchy is opening up its cramped collective mind.

Document Size:	4909
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 20 11:17:12 PDT 2011

1424 [lbo-talk] what fiscal emergency? -- rank: 1000

On May 20, 2011, at 1:06 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote: > If you talked about this with people at a tea bag rally how many do you reckon would misunderstand the difference between federal debt and federal deficit? None, probably. I got some hostile email from a HS econ teacher who said that I claimed that the deficit would fall by 2/3 if we did nothing but offered no evidence to support it. When I countered by saying that I was quoting the CBO's semi-official projections, he thought that wasn't go ...

Document Size:	5109
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 20 11:14:25 PDT 2011

1425 [lbo-talk] what fiscal emergency? -- rank: 1000

I break into the bourgeois media! My antidote to deficit hysteria is up on CNN.com: http://lbo-news.com/2011/05/20/what-fiscal-emergency/

Document Size:	4715
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 20 10:21:15 PDT 2011