Not in my experience.

Is she really doing that much right now to attract any attention? I know she's given a few speeches and her daughter has been in the news, but it seems like Palin has kept a pretty low profile since at least January. Am I just in the dark?

Freddie, I'm certainly not suggesting she is off limits. I guess I would just much rather hear nationally relevant content rather than tabloid journalism. Ahhh...but these are the days of our lives.

I mentioned this one today as well. I understand the need that Posner is trying to address...obviously the idea is a bad one. I think ultimately the professional news sources are going to have to come up with a reasonable pricing model and work to develop some tools that will facilitate it.

I think E.D. accurately elludes to two different posting styles. One is to wait until you have made up your mind and write with conviction. That's sort of like college, when papers should never use phrases like, "I think..." or, "It is my belief..." Writing as you think (thinking out loud) is sort of like journaling. That's the way I blog. I'm like E.D. in that I just sort of say what is on my mind and I guess I have dreams that someday my kids or grandkids could read the breadth of my blog and it would document a slow but deliberate evoluton of my own beliefs.

One great thing about the League, for it's members, is that you all have the luxury of not having to write every day. There are times when I would KILL for that. But as a slave to traffic, the monkey is on my back. So I guess the League is accomplishing one of many goals that I know you all had with its founding which is that it accomodates a variety of styles of blogging and merges them all well.

As for trying to understand this President..he remains, for me, a very hard person to predict and see any real pattern with. In some respects a like that. I like that his responses aren't predictable. But of course the boring conservative in me likes a certain degree of certainty.

Sullivan's obsession with her is creepy. I know that's his MO but give it a rest. The woman is going to have to have the public relations makeover of the century to seriously be a contendor in 2012 or 2016. Or the party could nominate her as-is and drift off into oblivian (a return of the Tories anyone?)

Joan - what is the purpose of someone at that income level buying a house? As an investment?

The Tyler Cowen quote can be found here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/business/13view.html

The problem isn't minorities, it's low-income borrowers. A part-time job at WalMart is not the time to start investing in housing.

In fact, the entire content of that quote is on the surface–markets which were previously ignored were served.

The problem is that those markets never should have been opened up to begin with.

The Bernanke quote is public record.

As for the CRA, it was a foot in the door. I'm certainly not blaming it for the entire mess. This was a Perfect Storm of greed at every level of the process, from borrower all the way up the chain. And where there wasn't greed, there was near-willful ignorance.

But it's also important to point out that the CRA did play a role by encouraging risky lending. The fact remains that renting is the best option for low-income folks most of the time. And owning a home is a relatively addition to the American Dream. So federal 'encouragement' of homeownership is both unnecessary and ultimately dangerous.

The CRA lead the horses to the water.

From Ben Bernanke: "...the CRA has served as a catalyst, inducing banks to enter under-served markets that they might otherwise have ignored".

Per Tyler Cowen as many as 70% of the initial loan defaults were due to fraudulent loan applications. The CRA had something to do with that.

While my gut is to agree with you 100% Chris, part of me is curious if for no other reason than we have our first black President and he no doubt grew up with MJ like most people his age. It is kind of interesting, though perhaps a press conference is not the best place to make inquiries.

My deer from this past year is in the freezer above our fridge. It takes up about half of it and that is with a big portion of it also at my brother's house. So I feel you on that. My wife gives me dirty looks everytime we come home from the grocery and it's a geometry experiment to get everything to fit in there. But a guy can only eat so fast!

We've had modest success at reducing the number of deer-related accidents here in KY by culling more female deer.

From the Courier Journal:

Even as national numbers rise, the number of deer accidents on Kentucky roads has been dropping, on average, since at least 2000, when there were 3,333 reported incidents, according to state police records.

Last year, there were 2,900 accidents, and this year is shaping up to be even lower, with only 2,353 accidents reported as of mid-November.

I would suggest if you want to really be pro-active, don't buy a bike. Instead purchase a .270 and a freezer. I'll even share my prized deer jerky recipe with you.

I'll jump in on the education question. With regards to oversight, i.e. how a school system is run, I definitely don't believe in Washington or state governments controlling school districts. Each one is unique and has its own challenges which can't be addressed as well at a higher
level.

With that being said, I am 100% in favor of a national curriculum for a variety of reasons. That would actually improve school systems immensely and as just one example, it would answer your question of a mobile workforce. If parents knew that moving to another state would not effect their children academically, I can guarantee they would be more-inclined to pursue jobs in other places that may allow them to advance economically. (Of course this completely blows Front Porch Republic's love of 'place' out of the water.)

I continue to believe that the person who most effectively unites the GOP will be our President. Sort of like George W. Bush did for the Dems.

My support for food subsidies is that I think it's in the government's interest to enourage over-production. ow to manage that process and who to do the growing is subject to debate. If they could get the same level of production from small family farms, i'd be in favor.

The problem with protectionism is that it almost always drives the cost of goods up. So on principle I don't like it.

Food subsidies are an entirely different issue. I will defend them all day long.

I gave up the WWE after seeing the BJ Penn vs. Joe Stevenson fight at UFC 80 on pay-per-view. Nothing the WWE does compares anymore.

[...] I find myself in an interesting position to view this possible debate. I am a child of both sides and I have always found it to be a strength. [...]

[...] I find myself in an interesting position to view this possible debate. I am a child of both sides and I have always found it to be a strength. [...]

I would add that the size of one tent is often reactionary to the perceived failures of the other tent. For example: What does a upper-middle class gay accountant in San Francisco have in common with a lower-class black cab driver in NYC? They both perceive the Republican Party to be hostile towards their needs/wants. So in my opinion the path to success for the GOP is to bleed off the inevitable dissidents who joined Obama's big tent by anticipating who they will be and creating policies that appeal to them. He promised so much that it's a given he is going to disappoint some people.

What about the army, police, CIA, FBI, etc? Aren't they all 'big government' appendages? Conservatives love those things.

Ahhh..I think I'm seeing your point Mark. And I'll even give you an example. I just had a big email debate with my brother the other day about gay marriage. Both of us are generally opposed but we disagree on how to combat the spread of gay marriage. I believe conservatives must be convincing on the floors of statehouses and sway public opinion. He prefers constitutional amendments. I think his solution is too extreme and actually non-conservative. He says because my solution is doomed to failure it is a defacto acceptance of gay marriage. So if I understand your point, my view represents the 'moderate' one in this debate, even though we have the same end goal.

Am I understanding you correctly?