The Confusatory

The Economist v. The Budget

This week’s Economist has a four-piece discussion of the United States’ budgetary woes:

There’s a detailed piece about the Congressional supercommittee’s utter failure to effect any real reform, even with a procedural layup unlikely to be seen again for years (no amendments and no filibusters allowed, and yet, no deal emerged which took advantage of this).

There’s a look at the long-term issues with America’s fiscal policy, which stem mostly from an inability to fix an issue for good, and a tendency to instead make decisions-of-the-week which pay only lip service to the idea of structural budgetary changes.

The defense budget may yet come under the knife, which, while the idea of such is beginning to find traction with some Republicans in the presidential running, was never the intention:

The law was a pistol Congress pointed at its own head in order to frighten itself into cutting the deficit… In the event Congress failed to scare itself enough, which means that it reached no agreement… the pistol might go off after all.

And finally, the lovely state of California (where this writer currently hails from) is in the throes of a procedural magic show to try and fix what ails it, politically:

… the state legislature does not [currently] work, both because ballot initiatives have pre-empted it and because the extremists on right and left can block, but not agree on, any reform of consequence.

And to think, all this was read this morning over one (very good) cup of coffee. (It would be prudent to eat something as well, now that I mention it. But prudence is the (missing) point of these discussions, so maybe it’s best that I not.)

Required Reading

There’s been a plethora of lovely articles I’ve read with Instapaper over the past few weeks. Here’s a few of my most favorite.

Gender and Society

There’s been a lot of noise lately, both in my social circle online and in my head, about gender interactions and socialization patterns in communities. I’m still mulling a lot of it over, but in the meantime, you should read a few things that people have linked:

There’s 13 ways of looking at Liz Lemon.

Privilege is a word that sneaks out whenever there’s a discussion about an issue that women complain about and men dismiss. It probably doesn’t mean what you think it means.

Minding gender and social norms while interacting with little girls is harder than you think, but it’s very much worth the trouble.

Drugs

You should know something: the world is full of drugs which are not as dangerous as your high school drug education class would make them out to be. Read about the man who (re-)discovered Ecstasy and fooled around with hundreds of other psychoactive drugs, including such curiosities as:

… another [drug], DIPT, created no visual hallucinations but distorted the user’s sense of pitch.

His publication of “Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved” in the 80s ended his (until then) favorable relationship with the D.E.A., including the loss of his Schedule I license.

Then there’s the curious stories about LSD’s use in the 1950s, and its past and present day uses in psychiatry, despite being Schedule I.

Finally, read Sam Harris’s discussion of Ecstasy and LSD, which include an incredibly interesting first-hand narrative of taking psilocybin and LSD.

Socializing Online

Socializing on the internet is complicated. There’s the gap between who you are and who you say you are. Maciej has a great post about why the social graph is neither. And there’s a piece that’s quite ironically all about what didn’t get written when the author wrote about quitting Facebook.

Everything Else

Living on the razor’s edge between bankruptcy and guilty riches from others’ misfortune: reinsurance and its effect on risk management.

An ugh field is a mental blind spot you develop when you try to think about something you don’t like. Try to avoid them, or at the very least, notice when you’re in one.

When all you have is problem-solving, everything looks like a problem. Eight changes as a result of just a few weeks of meditation, including this one which is worth quoting wholesale:

You know the old adage, “To a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”… I’m a problem-solver, and so everything tends to look like a problem that I can solve with just the sheer will of my introspection. Meditation, by distancing me from my problems, has turned everything from nails into more unique and nuanced objects. I now see many alternatives to problem-solving, including letting go, coping, seeking support, relaxing, or simply embracing my flaws.

And a friendly reminder: you can follow anyone’s liked items (including mine) on Instapaper by selecting “Friends…” under the Friends top-level menu.