text: Grieder on Rick Perry–I Need More | Modeled Behavior
  Wednesday ~ August 17th, 2011 in Society	Erica Grieder is frustrated by some of the discussion surrounding Rick Perry
  Wednesday ~ August 17th, 2011 at 11:45 am
  I don't think Rick Perry is going to lynch the members of the Fed any more than I thought Obama was going to withdraw the US from NAFTA (remember that one?).
  Reply	Wednesday ~ August 17th, 2011 at 11:57 am
  A Low Bar to Clear « Crazy Pills
  […] Smith is not enthusiastic about the current crop of GOP candidates. What is necessary is that the Global Financial system is […]
  Reply	Wednesday ~ August 17th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
  "smart about politics " and a complete moron on all other issues. He's now saying global warming is a conspiracy of data manipulation by scientists. He's a head stuck in the sand right wing nut. Keep praying for rain Rick and asking for Fed assistance to battle fires. We'll keep tallying those record high temps and conserving our drinking water you want to waste for natural gas recovery.
  Reply	Wednesday ~ August 17th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
  The purpose of a political rhetoric in our system is to rally the base, so that they can raise money and obtain a nomination. On the right, any criticism of the government is good criticism. And, you aren't the audience. Any pollster or campaign advisor (which I have been) will advise a candidate that anyone that is economically savvy enough to make the judgements that you (Karl) do, is statistically insignificant. We just figure that you'll make precisely the judgments you have made.
  The only people that determine the outcome of an election are the people in the middle who are uncommitted and who make their decisions late in the game largely by whether they 'like' someone, and by testing the thoughts and feelings of those around them.
  Hence why it's our job as public intellectuals to influence as many of the people who are as conceptually near to us as possible so that those in the middle have wise counsel to choose from.
  Reply	Wednesday ~ August 17th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
  BTW: I realize which generation that you're part of, but it might be worth considering the fact that current political behavior is being driven by the fact that people place greater value on their social status than money or the financial system. **If the left is willing to drag down an economy in order to obtain its political ends, then why would the right not be similarly willing?** So take your proposition for financial stability with a grain of salt. That is the ambition of a minority of people. Social status is more important than money. People demonstrate higher loss aversion to status than to money. Because it is not money they fear losing, it is the status that money provides them.
  And they are not necessarily wrong to think this.
  Reply	Wednesday ~ August 17th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
  In my experience, people that say nutty things usually are nutty, and Perry says a lot of nutty things.
  Reply	Thursday ~ August 18th, 2011 at 9:58 am
  I don't think it quite correct to refer to our government as the "First Republic of the United States," at least not if you are riffing on the French predeliction for numbering such things. The American First Republic would have run from 1776 to 1789, under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Though weak by modern standards, the Confederation was plainly a national government under any theory of statehood, and its achievements included winning the war for American independence. It deserves pride of place.
  The ratification of the Constitution of 1787 should be understood as initiating the American Second Republic, which endures to this day.