… Maybe you can help me understand this argument, people say opposition to [Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance nominee Antonio] Weiss is unreasonable because, wait for it, he likes poetry,” Warren said. “I’m actually not kidding on this one. Supposedly because he helps publish a literary magazine called the Paris Review we should trust that he will zealously pursue financial reform. Now I confess, I don’t read many literary magazines but, really?”

–  Sen. Elizabeth Warren

Not only does Weiss like poetry but he’s also a trustee of Frick Collection.   Civilized people simply do not oppose poetry-loving Frick trustees.  It doesn’t matter what the job is.  It’s simply not done.  She’s a senator for goodness sake.  What part of “advise and consent” does she not understand?   (“Consent”, Senator.  “Consent.”  Don’t be a such a buzzkill.)

(Some background here, here and here.)

The trouble with growth is that it will eventually stop. The trouble with advocating a planned rather than a disastrous stop is that people like wealth. Busy people don’t have the time or inclination to think it through. The pressures of the here and now trump any long-term thinking. People defend what they have and want to increase what they can get. We don’t have a civilization of compromise and collaboration, and as long as people are frantic to make a buck, they can’t even find time to imagine one, never mind a sensible path toward it.

– Michael Tobis

Profit’s great if it’s a score that tells you how well you did; it’s terrible if you’re pursuing it as a goal.

– Graydon

What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?

“Extremism in the defense of substantive argument is no vice, and moderation in the avoidance of derptitude is no virtue.”

– Jim Hansen