Barak Obama's Black Problem

Last December, barely a month after his election as US Senator, the east coast press devoted reams of paper to the potential First Black President. He was hailed throughout the minority community as a sure thing, a rising star, a can't miss African American. Liberals dream about a candidate like Mr. Obama, eloquent, from average roots, minority, and liberal as Teddy Kennedy. To top it all off, he is from the midwest, young and handsome. There is only one problem;

Barak Obama is colored.


If you read that paragraph in the Washington Monthly you would be rightly stunned. I daresay Jesse Jackson would be shaking the place down with his Rainbow Coalition and Farrakahn would be threatening a black uprising if the Monthly didn't apologize.

Why then is the following paragraph, from Amy Sullivan, acceptible?

Last December, barely a month after Bush's reelection, George Will devoted a column to Romney's potential, and a quick succession of profiles in the Weekly Standard, National Review, and The Atlantic Monthly appeared in the spring. Who could blame them? Romney has had a successful business career (he is known to most Americans as the man who saved the Salt Lake City Olympics). He comes from noble moderate Republican lineage (his father was governor of Michigan). He is attractive (the National Review sighed over his "chiseled handsomeness"). And he grabbed national headlines—and the attention of social conservatives—by standing up to the Massachusetts Supreme Court's legalization of gay marriage. Just as Democrats are always looking for a liberal nominee from a red state, Republicans dream about a candidate like Romney: a social conservative from the most cerulean of blue states who can please the base while not scaring off moderates.

There's only one problem. Romney is a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS).

Sucks to suck...

I was talking to my buddy last night about the 2008 Presidential race. I am what I am and he is a slowly moving to the center lefty. I told him, I have no clue who the heck I will vote for, and if McCain is nominated it just may have to be the Democrat (or Pat Buchanan).

Anyway, I told him I assumed a emocrat would win, it just seems to go that way, and he told me he wasn't so sure but that if a lefty doesn't win, "what with all that's been going on" the democrat party is dead. I couldn't agree more. If the Republicans can somehow win in 2008 imagine the shockwave that would send through staunch socialists like Kennedy and Kucinich! It would literally be the stake through the heart of their idiotic ideology.

Jonah Goldberg has a nice column today about how terrible it is to be a democrat, amidst the low approval ratings of a Republican president, and still have absolutely ZERO power:

Of the myriad civic, legal and political lessons to be drawn from Thursday's assured vote to confirm Judge John Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court, the most glaring is how much it just plain stinks to be a Democrat these days.

George W. Bush is at his lowest approval level of his presidency, Iraq will not likely be a political winner for the foreseeable future, congressional Republicans are balking at his agenda and, in response, Bush is throwing money out the window as if he's afraid it might catch fire. Yet his thoroughly rich, white male nominee has passed with barely a scratch.

We'll see how weak they really are in a week or so, when the next conservative white male is nominated to associate justice...

Congratulation La Crosse

La Crosse has been named the sixth best Oktoberfest destination in the United States. Pretty impressive for a place that lately has only been in the news because some lunatic parents blamed guys drowning in the river at bar time on a serial killer, and not on the most likely cause, guys falling into a river while taking a leak on their way home from the bars. I've been to La Crosse, I've gotten drunk in La Crosse and I can guaranty one of those scenarios is the correct one.

But I digress, here is what Askmen.com has to say about La Crosse's Oktoberfest Party:

The town of La Crosse began organizing Oktoberfest events in 1961, and over 40 years later, the festivities are better than ever. Famous for its numerous parades, La Crosse's version of Oktoberfest is a light-hearted, relaxing event where friendly people get together to eat the notoriously great bratwurst and down beer as if it were water. Yes, the people of Wisconsin know how to make Oktoberfest their own and 175,000 people gather to experience it with them.

To top it all off, a three-hour Maple Leaf Parade and a Miss La Crosse/Oktoberfest beauty pageant round out the festivities, proving that a visit to La Crosse is worth the trip.

Must-do: See the world's largest six-pack at the City Brewery.

Again, congratulations to all the good folks in the nort'west.

WI Librarians Naked for the Kids?

Seriously, I know sex sells, but northern Wisconsin librarians getting mostly naked for a calendar? That is definitely a new one on me.

The idea for the "Desperate Librarians" 2006 wall calendar came about because Craig Lahm is retiring after 32 years of running Kaukauna's library, and his colleagues in the Outagamie Waupaca Library System wanted to come up with a different kind of gift.

Twelve of them decided they would use photographs of themselves to make a simple calendar that they would print at a Walgreens. But after the librarians took their idea to Countryside Photographers in Seymour, they decided to professionally produce a calendar and sell it as a fund-raiser.

That's when six of the 12 librarians bailed out. But five middle-aged library directors and a 32-year-old assistant each put up $200 and posed provocatively, using oversize books to cover what their clothes usually do.

Proceeds benefit the public libraries in Weyauwega, Clintonville, Marion, Seymour and Manawa as well as Waupaca.

If you ask me, this should NOT have been done...

Porkbusters

I am terribly busy and so I am probably the last to post about this, but it is incredibly important. We all know what Mr. Delay had to say last week about there being "no fat" in the budget. Turns out the blogosphere has mobilized yet again, behind Instapundit and TTLB, to gather a comprehensive and ever expanding list of pork projects listed in searchable fashion here.

This is really fascinating to check out the various projects and how much they actually cost. It seems that so far, all Wisconsin really cares about are bike trails, odd?

Currently, Wisconsin is listed for $37 million in wasteful federal spending.

The site has helpful hints as to how to find pork, how to contact your senators and congressmen, and a list of every representative and their pork busting status; if they have commited to cutting spending or not.

This is the type of thing that bloggers can very successfully accomplish. By firing up enough people, and calling out representatives on individual projects with a loud enough voice, we can more than likely end, if not postpone to brighter days, this frivilous spending.

National Talk Like A Pirate Day

Just an FYI, today is national talk like a pirate day, so avast ye matey's and mind your wenches, many a swashbuckler will be roaming about using the Top Ten Pirate Pickup Lines...

0 . Avast, me proud beauty! Wanna know why my Roger is so Jolly?

9. Have ya ever met a man with a real yardarm?

8. Come on up and see me urchins.

7. Yes, that is a hornpipe in my pocket and I am happy to see you.

6. I'd love to drop anchor in your lagoon.

5. Pardon me, but would ya mind if fired me cannon through your porthole?

4. How'd you like to scrape the barnacles off of me rudder?

3. Ya know, darlin’, I’m 97 percent chum free.

2. Well blow me down?

And the number one pickup line for use on International Talk Like a Pirate Day is …

1. Prepare to be boarded.

Guess the Film

That the following quote came from:

"Marching and heiling, heiling and marching. In him is planted no seed of laughter, hope, tolerance or mercy. For him - only heiling and marching, marching and heiling. The grim years of regimentation have done their work. Now he's a good Nazi. He sees no more than the party wants him to. He says nothing but what the party wants him to say. And he does nothing than what the party wants him to do. And so he marches, with millions of comrades, trampling on the rights of others. For now, his education is complete. His education... for death."

Read the whole fascinatging piece here (thanks to Tom McMahon, who has hands down the best blog tagline I have seen).


By the way, if you said it is from Education For Death: The Story of One of Hitler's Children, a freaking Walt Disney cartoon, you are right, and possibly need to get outside for a bit.

Louis Farrakhan: Giant Jackass and Race Baitor

I'm super busy and deathly tired from a weekend where I got less than five hours but this needs to be read, maybe finally African Americans will realize people like this HURT their cause, not help.

"I heard from a very reliable source who saw a 25 foot deep crater under the levee breach. It may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry," Farrakhan said.

Also online

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Gilton Balanos lived in the very neighborhood Farrakhan was talking about.

"I think that's ludicrous," Balanos said. "When this happened we were caught by surprise. Individuals, the government and everybody were caught by surprise."

Farrakhan also said that the Red Cross’ response to the disaster was inadequate. Red Cross Spokesperson Pam Dagle said "there was no basis for the criticism."

How could you listen to this and not want to punch him in the teeth?

Hunger Strikers Pledge to Die in Gitmo

Good, may they be successful in their efforts.

More than 200 detainees in Guantánamo Bay are in their fifth week of a hunger strike, the Guardian has been told.

Statements from prisoners in the camp which were declassified by the US government on Wednesday reveal that the men are starving themselves in protest at the conditions in the camp and at their alleged maltreatment - including desecration of the Qur'an - by American guards.

The statements, written on August 11, have just been given to the British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith. They show that prisoners are determined to starve them selves to death. In one, Binyam Mohammed, a former London schoolboy, said: "I do not plan to stop until I either die or we are respected.

It could be worse Mr. Mohammed, you could have your head sawed off and the decapitation broadcast throughout the world...just to give you some perspective.

Like the kling klang king of the rim ram room...

In less than 24 hours I will be landing in Vegas and partaking in a whirlwind tour of debauchery. Days will be spent alternating between the sportsbook and the pool watching games and watching ladies. I can't go wrong.




The purpose of this post is not to gloat, but to allow you to follow along with me on my odyssey of football betting in real time. The games I will post in a few moments are the games I am leaning to right now, they may change they may not, but here is a taste of the action I am looking at (lines are as of a few hours ago):

PRO

Cincy -3.5
Minnesota by 6
Denver by 5
Arizona getting 3
St. Louis giving 6 (if this game stays below a TD it is a lock that I will be taking it).
Colts giving 3 is a lead pipe lock

COLLEGE

Texas getting 1 at Ohio State
Boston College giving 27.5 to Army
Notre Dame getting 7.5 at Michigan (knee-shaker)

Over/Under

Buffalo/Texas under 38
Chiefs/Jets under 37.5 (depends on the T. Green news pregame).

Well, kids, wish me luck!

More State of LA Failure

Radio Blogger:

"MG: Well, the Red Cross, Hugh, had pre-positioned a literal vanguard of trucks with water, food, blankets and hygiene items. They're not really big into medical response items, but those are the three biggies that we saw people at the New Orleans Superdome, and the convention center, needing most accutely. And all of us in America, I think, reasonably asked ourselves, geez. You know, I watch hurricanes all the time. And I see correspondents standing among rubble and refugees and evacuaees. But I always either see that Red Cross or Salvation Army truck nearby. Why don't I see that?

HH: And the answer is?

MG: The answer is the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security, that is the state agency responsible for that state's homeland security, told the Red Cross explicitly, you cannot come.

HH: Now Major Garrett, on what day did they block the delivery? Do you know specifically?

MG: I am told by the Red Cross, immediately after the storm passed.

HH: Okay, so that would be on Monday afternoon.

MG: That would have been Monday or Tuesday. The exact time, the hour, I don't have. But clearly, they had an evacuee situation at the Superdome, and of course, people gravitated to the convention center on an ad hoc basis. They sort of invented that as another place to go, because they couldn't stand the conditions at the Superdome.

HH: Any doubt in the Red Cross' mind that they were ready to go, but they were blocked?

MG: No. Absolutely none. They are absolutely unequivocal on that point."

I haven't really heard much about this, but if the state FEMA people were keeping out the "calvary" why the hell was the state FEMA guy on TV crying about "the calvalry isn't here yet!?"

Where Bodies Are Being Counted, Michael Moore Sees Loot to be Made

I wonder if he sits around, eating buckets of chicken, just hoping for the next American death. Any death will do. School shootings? Lets make Bowling for Columbine. Michigan suicides? Lets make Roger and Me. Terrorist attack? Fahrenheit 9/11! Well, it looks like the Master of Deathploitation, the King of Cinema Chaotica, the biggest individual profiteer of American sorrow and pain is gearing up to fatten his wallet off yet another coupld thousand American lives.

Will Michael Moore turn his cameras on Katrina?

The controversial filmmaker is “seriously considering” turning the devastating storm and its aftermath into a documentary, says a source. “It has all the elements that made ‘Fahrenheit 911’ such a powerful film,” says a source. “The political outrage, the human suffering, and the incredible footage.”

As long as there is politics to play, suffering to profit from, and damn compelling footage, Michael Moore will be there to try and make millions.

On your mark... SCOTUS trading begins in earnest!

Intrade is taking your iron as the world buys up pieces of various nominees. Currently most of the action is on Edith Brown Clement and Alberto Gonzales, with Michael Luttig getting some scraps.

Obviously, pretty much every lawyer/judge close to the President is being mentioned for the opening and as always, I expect the President to pick someone a little unexpected. A woman, maybe. A minority, who knows? Will he allow those quota considerations to cloud his judgement, almost certainly not. Has the left given him any credit for his appointments of minorities to cabinet level positions, of course not. They have ridiculed Condi and Colin as Uncle Tom's and other disgustingly derogatory terms so I would expect Janice Rodgers Brown to get the same treatment should she be nominated. She may be dark skinned but since she has different opinions than Eugene Kane, she just aint black enough.

Bench Memos over at NRO has some solid coverage, including a nice little essay here.

If this interpretation is correct — that the President made his decision to appoint Justice O'Connor's replacement based solely on merit and judicial philosophy in the long-term best interests of the nation — then it seems reasonable to suppose that he will make the same decision the same way the second time around. Nothing says this will point him to another white male, as the short list of the country's best available conservatives surely includes women and minorities, but it means the white males won't be categorically excluded from consideration either.

If that's so, here are a couple of new names to keep your eye on as dark horse candidates if the President tries to replicate the Roberts model: Steve Colloton, a judge on the Eighth Circuit, and Jeff Sutton, a Judge on the Sixth Circuit. Both are brilliant former Supreme Court clerks; both have long records of public service, Colloton primarily as a prosecutor and Sutton primarily as a Supreme Court and appellate advocate; both are widely respected, right to left, with plenty of supporters among Democrats of good faith; both are supported by influential home-state Republican Senators on the Judiciary Committee; both are young men in their mid-40s; and both were originally appointed by this President and thus are seen as part of the Bush judicial "family." Some controversy attended Judge Sutton's confirmation, because he is closely identified based on his work as an advocate with the Supreme Court's new federalism jurisprudence. Colloton sailed to confirmation with no problems at all. Whether their time is now or in a future Republican administration, they're worth adding to the evolving lists of credible candidates

Personally, I can't wait! Football season and SCOTUS season! Honestly it is almost too much to comprehend.

13% of Americans Think President Bush has a Weather Machine

Just kidding (the Cheney caused Katrina nutters are out there though), but only 13% of Americans think President Bush is "most responsible for the problems in New Orleans." Over 50% think Bush did an adequate job (10% great, 25% good, 21% not good, not bad). On the other hand, 42% were not at all please with the President's response (18% bad, 24% terrible).

CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 609 adults taken September 5-6 shows:

Blame Game -- 13% said George W. Bush is "most responsible for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane"; 18% said "federal agencies"; 25% said "state and local officials"; 38% said "no one is to blame"; 6% had no opinion. -- 29% said that "top officials in the federal agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be fired"; 63% said they should not; 8% had no opinion.

MORE

Government Performance -- 10% said George W. Bush has done a "great" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"; 25% said "good"; 21% said "neither good nor bad"; 18% said "bad"; 24% said "terrible"; 2% had no opinion. -- 8% said federal government agencies responsible for handling emergencies have done a "great" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"; 27% said "good"; 20% said "neither good nor bad"; 20% said "bad"; 22% said "terrible"; 3% had no opinion. -- 7% said state and local officials in Louisiana have done a "great" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"; 30% said "good"; 23% said "neither good nor bad"; 20% said "bad"; 15% said "terrible"; 5% had no opinion.

via Drudge

"Cold But Effective"

Using a technique seemingly much more effective than the proposed "force em at gunpoint" rescue strategy proposed for New Orleans (honestly, are we really going to make rescue workers into murderers?) Virginia rescue workers are using the "Magic Marker Strategy."

Instead of relying on a "Good Samaritan" policy - the fantasy in New Orleans that everyone would take care of the neighbors - the Virginia rescue workers go door to door. If people resist the plea to leave, Mr. Judkins told The Daily Press in Newport News, rescue workers give them Magic Markers and ask them to write their Social Security numbers on their body parts so they can be identified.

"It's cold, but it's effective," Mr. Judkins explained.

That simple strategy could have persuaded hundreds of people to save their own lives in New Orleans. What the city needed most was coldly effective local leaders, not a president in Washington who could feel their pain. It's the same lesson we should have learned from Sept. 11 and other disasters, yet both liberals and conservatives keep ignoring it.

It's nice to see that SOMEONE put some thought into effective rescue strategy's, and the different situations that may arise.

Randi Rhodes is Completely Insane

Discussing New Orleans and response to Katrina relief efforts


Jim from Wisconsin calls in:

"The Bush administration isn't helping for two reason. Only democratic voters are dying, and the ones that survive are being moved to Texas where they will be told the Republicans saved them and their Democratic governor (Blance) failed them, thus creating a new bloc of GOP voters"
[paraphrased]

Randi's response?

"Oh my Gaawwwwd, you are soooo right."




Is this nut for real? Yesterday I tried to record the show with my MyFi in order to get some of it on here (she doesn't offer archives as far as I can tell, and I get why) but it didn't work.

In describing President Bush yesterday she alternated through "murderous," "psycho," "murderer," "alcoholic," "psycho," "racist," and "moron."

I have no idea how this woman makes it on during prime drive hours. The last week of her show has been like a cross between Art Bell and Teddy Kennedy.

She is also saying that she has seen rats eating people on TV [I have not heard or read that any place else, although some over at Huffingtons page claimed black people were eating each other to survive] and that America is racist because "she doesn't see a white face involved." Wouldn't that mean that the hurricane is the racist?

Just a warning, if the images and the truth of the horrors are enough to get you depressed, don't tune into AAR, which seems to be hyping as much negativity and human evil as it can in order to make the President look bad. Very, very nice.


UPDATE: In the middle of an oddly misplaced rant about this "incredibly and totally white" administration (do I really need to list the folks that aren't white, we all knwo who they are) and tossing around phrases like "illuminati" and "all seeing eye" (I have no idea where she was going with that) Randi Rhodes dropp the obligatory out of place Nazi refrence:

"They're raising good Germans!"

I can't believe it took a full two hours of listening to Air America Radio before I heard a Republicans are Nazis mention. The funny part is, she keeps bitching how President Bush is making this political (he is "murdering" these people because they are "the wrong type of Americans" and they "have democrats representing them") while she constantly laces her completely illogical, tin-foil-hat rants with GOP-bashing.

Jesus

This morning as I was at Bally's, Harry Connick Jr appeared on the TV. I know he is a native of New Orleans so I understood why he was in the city, and why he would be an interesting interview. I have sort of tried to distance myself from the news, part out of necessity (very very busy lately) part out of shock at what is going on in a city I have been to a few times (Mardi Gras has given me some of the greatest memories, and pictures/videos, of my life).

Anyway, Connick was asked about the situation in the Superdome. His response was "it can't be any worse than sitting there for three hours watching the Saints play." I laughed. It was funny because I didn't know the extent of the horror those in the Superdone are facing.

I do now...

A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers...

The Louisiana Superdome, once a mighty testament to architecture and ingenuity, became the biggest storm shelter in New Orleans the day before Katrina's arrival Monday. About 16,000 people eventually settled in...

"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. In her right hand she carried a half-full bottle of formula provided by rescuers. Baby supplies are running low; one mother said she was given two diapers and told to scrape them off when they got dirty and use them again.

At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for.

The hurricane left most of southern Louisiana without power, and the arena, which is in the central business district of New Orleans, was not spared. The air conditioning failed immediately and a swampy heat filled the dome...

There is no sanitation. The stench is overwhelming. The city's water supply, which had held up since Sunday, gave out early Wednesday, and toilets in the Superdome became inoperable and began to overflow.

"There is feces on the walls," said Bryan Hebert, 43, who arrived at the Superdome on Monday. "There is feces all over the place..."

Thankfully, the stadium could be totally evacuated by tonight, and one assumes that the Astrodome and other locations are better prepared to handle the crisis.

Honestly, there isn't much to say, help if you can.

EconoPorn

The New Economist has a bunch of papers and speeches up from the August 2005 Jackson Hole Greenspan Love-In.

Alan Greenspans opening remarks about the role of central banks is especially interesting, if you're into that kind of thing. He outlines the new role central banks are finding themselves playing:

Given our inevitably incomplete knowledge about key structural aspects of an ever-changing economy and the sometimes asymmetric costs or benefits of particular outcomes, the paradigm on which we have settled has come to involve, at its core, crucial elements of risk management. In this approach, a central bank needs to consider not only the most likely future path for the economy but also the distribution of possible outcomes about that path. The decisionmakers then need to reach a judgment about the probabilities, costs, and benefits of various possible outcomes under alternative choices for policy.

Cindy's Brain

Byron York uncovered an interesting tidbit about Mother Martyr Sheehan, namely that she is being directed by a professional protestor and world class bitch and moan artist.

A notice on Cindy Sheehan's website, meetwithcindy.org, asks for donors who might be able to offer a camper, or an RV, or just money, for Sheehan's upcoming cross-country tour, scheduled to begin Wednesday in Crawford, Texas, and end in Washington at the big antiwar demonstration scheduled for September 24. At the end of the note, readers with something to offer are asked to "please call organizer Lisa Fithian."

Fithian is a legendary organizer who operates in the world of anti-globalism anarchists, antiwar protesters, and union activists; an advocate of aggressive "direct action" demonstrations, she protested the first Gulf war, played an important role in the violent shutdown of Seattle during the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting, was a key planner in protests at the Republican and Democratic national conventions in 2000 and 2004, and organized demonstrations at trade meetings in Washington, D.C., Prague, and Genoa.

An interesting way to make a buck, and Byron makes it sound like she is The Man when it comes to stirring things up, and that seems to be the image she cultivates:

"When people ask me, 'What do you do?' I say I create crisis, because crisis is that edge where change is possible."

Fithian is not exactly in line with the Wailing Mom image Sheehan has been trying to cultivate:

In an July 2001 interview with The International Socialist Review, Fithian — who told NRO she's been arrested "probably at least 30 times" — spoke of moving beyond the tradition of civil disobedience as practiced by Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.; her inspiration, she explained, was not so much those leaders as the anarchist movement in Spain in the late 19th and early 20th century. And that meant different ways of doing things. "Nonviolence is a strategy. Civil disobedience is a tactic," Fithian said. "Direct action is a strategy. Throwing rocks is a tactic."

"I guess my biggest thing is that as people who are trying to create a new world, I do believe we have to dismantle or transform the old order to do that," Fithian continued. "I just fundamentally don't believe it will ever serve our interests as it's currently constructed."

If this woman comes blowing into your town with Sheehan, better board up the doors and windows:

I have no issue with property destruction. I think sometimes it’s appropriate, sometimes it’s not. Again, I look at it strategically. Does this help us or does it hurt us? Does it help us achieve our goal, or does it not? We’re in a society where property is idolized, so a lot of people don’t get it yet that it doesn’t really matter. It’s just glass or products.

It’s exactly what we do in training. We try to help people understand that what’s violent to one is not violent to another. And what might be violent in one situation might not be violent in another situation. It’s very subjective.

The windows being broken in Seattle had absolutely nothing to do with whether we shut down the WTO or not. It didn’t add value in that sense.

Nothing like spending you life going from city to city trying to stir up a good ol riot! Quite a wagon you hitched yourself to Cindy.

Fuel: Time to relax

Yeah, gas is a touch higher for the next few days. Will it stay above $3.00, absolutely not. Will it ever get below $2.00, no clue. All over the medias today we are getting predictions of $3.50+, with almost no effort by any media outlets to contradict the predictions the "experts" are floating out doomsday scenarios. Econopundit offers some perspective:

Oil spiked to $70.80 a barrel in overnight trading, before closing at $67.20 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up $1.07 but short of the record close of $67.49 set Thursday. Prices for wholesale gasoline and natural gas leaped as well.

"This is unmitigated bad news for consumers," said Peter Beutel, an oil analyst with Cameron Hanover.

The fact is (as Paul Krugman might say) we don't really know how an anticipation of higher energy prices will actually play out in our economy.

Left over from the 1970's is the "stagflation principle" -- the idea that higher energy prices pushes the economy's aggregate supply curve to the left (simultaneously raising price levels and lowering equilibrium output and employment).

But left over from the 1980's is the "Lucas supply curve" -- the idea that anticipation of higher prices cause some firms to anticipate higher profits and consequently hire new workers faster than otherwise.

And to complicate things even more (ahem!) both principles can operate at the same time and to some degree cancel each other out.

So play it cool, don't hyperventilate, keep thinking about the sick and homeless and let the economy continute to do what it does best. You may be surprised.

The invisible hand is an amzing thing, best to just let it work its magic.