This comment buried in a thread over on a Megan McArdle article deserves our attention. McNamara May 20, 2009 1:48 PM
Well, back in the 1990s, we all knew that if we threw buckets of money at CMU grads who had a hazy business plan, nothing could go wrong, and we'd all get all get something for nothing.
That was a bubble, and it was stupid. And while we didn't know better at the time, we sure did know better in retrospect, so it didn't really count as getting suckered. We certainly weren't EVER going to let it happen again!
So, in 2000, we discovered that the bubble was stupid. But then we all realized that if we just threw buckets of money at real estate with only a hazy notion of a business plan, nothing could go wrong, and we'd all get something for nothing.
Of course, we know now that that was a bubble. But since we do know it now, it didn't really count as getting suckered. Because we're smart people here. We know what bubbles look like: They involve McMansions! We certainly aren't EVER going to let that happen again!
Now, of course, we've gotten over all that stuff. The bubble is over. The other bubble, I mean. That one's over, too. So now we've finally grown up, and soberly come to the realization that the only responsible, sane way for us all to have nothing go wrong and get something for nothing, is to throw buckets of money at the federal government and let them run everything, with only a hazy notion of a business plan.
We are facing an unusual time in recent history. Two of the oldest and most successful insurgencies in recent times, the FARC in Colombia and the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) in Sri Lanka, are on the brink of complete military defeat.
Both have lost their most senior and charismatic leader and much of the top command structure, both suffered the effects of top level defections and morale, and both suffered the catastrophic loss of geographic space in which to operate. Both have existed for several decades.
Although neither is completely destroyed (and the FARC retains the capacity to launch military strikes and controls some territory), both will leave lasting legacies for non-state actors, whose repercussions are being felt today and likely will be for years to come. [..]
#1
As argued or inferred times long ago, the ultimate battlefield of the WOT = WAR FOR OWG-NWO/SOC WO/COMMIE WO etc. is and will be the USA, the USSA = USR, itself - HAVE SEEN NUTHIN' TO DETRACT FROM THAT.
D *** NG IT, BEFORE THE OWG-NWO, BEFORE OLIVER STONE + TEXAS-SIZED ASTEROIDS [ or USAr Soldier AL FORE wid his Vietnam M16] THERE WAS MADONNA > I KNEW THAT, DIDN'T EVERYBODY!!!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
