Your FSA/OWI Photo of the Day

Wheat farm, Walla Walla, Washington. Russell Lee, 1941. Spacious skies and amber waves of grain, no?

Your FSA/OWI Photo of the Day

At the risk of political incorrectness, I have to say that I would probably allow her to check my electrical assemblies... just for safety's sake, of course...
Woman aircraft worker, Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, Calif. Shown checking electrical assemblies. David Bransby, 1942.

Econ 1 pop quiz

OK kids, what's wrong with the logic of Joe Nocera, respected NY Times columnist?

On Monday, I finally spoke to [climate change expert James] Hansen. His knowledge and sincerity are easy to admire, even if his tactics are not. He told me he would like to see oil companies pay a fee, which would rise annually, based on carbon emissions. He said that such a tax could reduce emissions by 30 percent within 10 years. Well, maybe. But it would also likely make the expensive tar sands oil more viable. If you really want to eliminate expensive new fossil fuel sources, the best way is to lower the price of oil, which would render them uneconomical. But, of course, that wouldn’t exactly lower demand either.

Hint: Key terms for your answer include tax wedge, consumer price, producer price.

Conclusion: Nocera is clueless on the most basic economics of environmental policy. Depressing.

Ronald Dworkin, RIP

I don't know enough about legal theory to judge his work in that area, for which he was best known, with any confidence. But I found his views on distributive justice and equality particularly attractive. The seminal essays are "What is equality?" parts 1 and 2. There remain plenty of challenges in developing a coherent theory of equality of resources or opportunity, but he made progress. Somewhere in this argument lie the foundations of a version of egalitarianism that Americans in particular can live with, and thus the basis in ideas for an American kind of left-liberalism. And I will surely miss his combative court reporting in the NY Review of Books.

Just get rid of the guns

This article kind of clinches it for me. Two facts:

• Two-thirds of U.S. gun deaths are suicides.
• "Suicidal acts with guns are fatal in 85 percent of cases, while those with pills are fatal in just 2 percent of cases."

What about the legitimate uses of guns? I could never shoot a wild animal myself, but I have no strong objection to hunting. After the ban, people who like to hunt can take up archery, which is after all more sporting. Fans of the Second Amendment can figure out how to make sure we have a well regulated militia. (Hint: professional police and armed forces under strict democratic civilian control.) The rest of us can enjoy living in a more peaceful and civilized society. 

I suppose I should be gratified...

... that David Brooks finds merit in Obama's plans to expand and improve preschool education. Yet his willful ignorance and smugness never fail to infuriate: "Head Start," he writes, without qualification, "has been chugging along since 1965, and the outcomes are dismal." James Heckman, who is approximately five times smarter than David Brooks and also happens to be an expert on the subject (and no liberal), noted in a recent interview "...there are several papers that are showing very favorable Head Start effects. It’s very mixed, it’s not like it’s universal across groups." Huh.

They made us wrestle in PE class...

... when I was a kid. Like many, I HATED it. But I will say that I learned enough about the sport to know that wrestlers are truly extraordinary athletes. Lots of countries participate and are pretty good at it. And it is fun to watch, at least once every four years. So even setting aside the long tradition, the decision to cut it from the Olympics is too bad.

Kenny Garrett on the Grammys!

With Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke. Granted, only for about 30 seconds. If you need a bigger dose as an antidote to the truly execrable "fun.":