Dorothy Rabinowitz Defines Barack Obama

Great writing distills the essence of a situation, pulling together references and experiences from all points of the compass. This article, by Dorothy Rabinowitz of the Wall Street Journal, is great writing.

OS is simultaneously grateful for her work, and profoundly envious. He's never come close to this level of craft. Still, he proudly share this essay with you, because she puts her finger on the pulse of the Obama administration, and unblinkingly relates what she concludes:

In the 1967 film "A Guide for the Married Man," a husband, played by a peerless Walter Matthau, is given lessons in ways to cheat on his wife safely. The most essential rule: "Deny! Deny! Deny!"—no matter what. In an instructive scene, he's shown a wife undone by shock, and screaming, with reason: She has just walked in on her husband making love to a glamorous stranger.
"What are you doing," she wails, "who is that woman?"

"What woman, where?" the husband serenely counters, as he and the tart in question get out of bed and calmly dress.

So the scene proceeds, with the distraught wife pointing to the woman she clearly sees before her, while her husband, unruffled, continues to look blankly at her, asking, "What woman?" Confused by her spouse's unblinking assurance, she gives up. Two minutes later she's asking him what he'd like for dinner.

For much of the past four years, the Obama administration's propensity for asserting views of reality wildly at odds with those evident to most rational citizens has looked increasingly like a page from that film script. 

Ms. Rabinowitz has nailed it. On. The. Head.

Bulls-eye. Full marks. 10 for 10.

God bless her.

OldSouth 's Economic Epiphany: DaFed Undertakes QE Round 2

Epiphanies arrive uninvited, unexpected, and sometimes resemble a good ole-fashioned slap upside da head.

Today's WSJ coverage of DaFed's newest effort to save civilization was one of those moments. An epiphany.

The Federal Reserve is close to embarking on another round of monetary stimulus next week, against the backdrop of a weak economy and low inflation—and despite doubts about the wisdom and efficacy of the policy among economists and some of the Fed's own decision makers.

The skies opened, the angels sang, the sun peeked above the eastern horizon, bathing OS in the light of revealed wisdom:

Damn! So THAT's how it's done! (Sound of palm slapping forehead in amazement.) I just sit at my computer, and CREATE money to go buy stuff with! Silly me...

Oh Nooooooooooh Mister Bill!: Columbia U's President Calls for Government Underwriting Of The Press

What is it about people high in academia that causes them to simply abandon common sense?

Both the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission are undertaking studies of ways to ensure the steep economic decline faced by newspapers and broadcast news does not deprive Americans of the essential information they need as citizens. One idea under consideration is enhanced public funding for journalism.

Bollinger briefly bows in the direction of those who fear the implications of a state-funded media, but soothingly assures mere uninformed proles like me that there is nothing to fear.

Just leave it to ThePeopleInChargeOfSuchThings.

It's worked so well to date, right?