Debt Crisis

This is going to get worse before it gets better. The House GOP was NOT supposed to be in this position, and now we enter a period of real danger. Boehner has to go back to the drawing board on a new bill, and Harry Reid will be fully entitled to stop it.

But he won't. Instead, he'll amend the bill with tax hikes (probably mostly symbolic) and send it back to the House, where Boehner is going to have to take his own poison pill by passing the bill with democratic support. The GOP will be depowered, Obama will get his way while staying out of the way, and then Democrats will own the debt problem and the resulting cuts, which Republicans won't be able to protest over because THEY weren't able to get their own act together.

But the long game matters more, and I don't have confidence in anything but this: the GOP is now composed of four interests: Neocons, Business leaders, Social Cons, and Libertarians, and things between them aren't going to get any prettier. Democrats have got to grow a spine and start behaving with some pragmatism.

Home News

Awwwww, thanks Williams (click link for multimedia):

Slack (who hails from Decatur, Ga.) played pieces by Talcott Banks, George Alfred Grant-Shaefer, George Harrison, Robert Wadsworth Lowry, Richard Rodgers, and Howard Shore, as well as some of his own original compositions. Students, staff, and faculty enjoyed the concert from picnic tables, dorms, and offices across campus.

During his years at Williams, Slack had served as a leading figure for the Guild of Carilloneurs, a campus organization that ensures the chapel’s bells are played three times a day and on relevant special occasions. Slack and the other ringers use the Thompson bells to play everything from “The Mountains” to the Harry Potter theme music.

While the Thompson Memorial Chapel tower is one of the most recognizable figures of the Williams campus landscape, its bells are undoubtedly a staple in its soundtrack. To see a section of Slack’s performance and an inside look at the chapel’s chimes, watch the video below. To learn more about Williams bells and their ringers, read this 2005 Alumni Review article.

In my own Google Reader:

http://josephshoer.com/blog - A Williams grad with great nerdy posts.

http://www.lettersofnote.com/ - awesome historic letters

http://thisisindexed.com/ - webcomic published each morning, 3 second of whimsical humor
http://ephdetour.com/ - Chris, JJ, and Tony baking across Amurika. Chris's writing is great.

http://xkcd.com/ - duh

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/ and http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/ -awesome news picture blogs (look at them, you'll understand)

http://www.salon.com/technology/ask_the_pilot/index.html - A pilot talks about the idiocy in his industry. Useful and entertaining.

http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/ - Ethan is a Williams '93 with awesome big ideas.

Online Questionaires

I just signed up at Americans Elect, but managed to botch one of the questions they asked when I misread the answer. The site is going to have no clue what to do with my views now....