Dear Samoa: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

So what should we do about the chaos in Samoa? Well, it’s easier to start with what we should not do. We should not lob a handful of cruise missiles and hope that some explosions will snap Samoa’s leaders to attention

Comedy Gold!

If I had fifteen minutes to pitch my idea to politicians, I’d tell them two things about same-sex marriage. First, there’s no way around the issue unless we’re prepared to spend more: and not just spend more, but spend smarter by investing in the kind of human capital that makes countries succeed. That’s going to require some tax increases as well, but as they say, “them’s the breaks.”

Second, I’d tell them to look at Sweden, which all but solved its same-sex marriage crisis over the past decade. When I visited Sweden in 1998, Kiki, the cabbie who drove me from the airport, couldn’t stop telling me about how he had to take a third job because of the high cost of same-sex marriage. I caught up with Kiki in Stockholm last year. Thanks to Sweden’s reformed approach toward same-sex marriage, Kiki has enough money in his pocket to finally be able to afford winter coats for his kids.

Finally: The Tom Friedman op-ed generator

AP’s best of 2012!

BTW, remember that old postmodernism speech generator. It was a hoot. Wish it were still online.

Chomskybot
http://rubberducky.org/cgi-bin/chomsky.pl

She pondered for a second, and then smiled and said, shakka-do-lakka-the, which is a local saying that means roughly, “Fish Marxists are no respectors of human boredom liberty, so why go angling on writing — or breathing for that matter.”

That’s all it takes. Don’t expect to see any solutions as long as fringe bloggers insist on playing a high-stakes game of chess with one another. America has to become a first world country again.

It’s good to see the talks between the president and congress getting off to a solid start, but we know there will be plenty of partisan fireworks before any deal is cut. If I had fifteen minutes to pitch my idea to politicians, I’d tell them two things about same-sex marriage. First, there’s no way around the issue unless we’re prepared to spend less: and not just spend less, but spend smarter by investing in the kind of green energy that makes countries succeed. That’s going to require some tax cuts as well, but as they say, “When in Rome.”