Always good to have another viewpoint: this from Krugman:

About that good news: not that long ago the U.S. economy was in free fall. Without the recovery act, the free fall would probably have continued, as unemployed workers slashed their spending, cash-strapped state and local governments engaged in mass layoffs, and more.

The stimulus didn’t completely eliminate these effects, but it was enough to break the vicious circle of economic decline. Aid to the unemployed and help for state and local governments were probably the most important factors. If you want to see the recovery act in action, visit a classroom: your local school probably would have had to fire a lot of teachers if the stimulus hadn’t been enacted.

What I keep hearing from Washington is one of two arguments: either (1) the stimulus has failed, unemployment is still rising, so we shouldn’t do any more, or (2) the stimulus has succeeded, G.D.P. is growing, so we don’t need to do any more. The truth, which is that the stimulus was too little of a good thing — that it helped, but it wasn’t big enough — seems to be too complicated for an era of sound-bite politics.

But can we afford to do more? We can’t afford not to.

High unemployment doesn’t just punish the economy today; it punishes the future, too. In the face of a depressed economy, businesses have slashed investment spending — both spending on plant and equipment and “intangible” investments in such things as product development and worker training. This will hurt the economy’s potential for years to come.

Deficit hawks like to complain that today’s young people will end up having to pay higher taxes to service the debt we’re running up right now. But anyone who really cared about the prospects of young Americans would be pushing for much more job creation, since the burden of high unemployment falls disproportionately on young workers — and those who enter the work force in years of high unemployment suffer permanent career damage, never catching up with those who graduated in better times.

Even the claim that we’ll have to pay for stimulus spending now with higher taxes later is mostly wrong. Spending more on recovery will lead to a stronger economy, both now and in the future — and a stronger economy means more government revenue. Stimulus spending probably doesn’t pay for itself, but its true cost, even in a narrow fiscal sense, is only a fraction of the headline number.

O.K., I know I’m being impractical: major economic programs can’t pass Congress without the support of relatively conservative Democrats, and these Democrats have been telling reporters that they have lost their appetite for stimulus.

But I hope their stomachs start rumbling soon. We now know that stimulus works, but we aren’t doing nearly enough of it. For the sake of today’s unemployed, and for the sake of the nation’s future, we need to do much more. 

There are few actors that can become a multitude of persons and pull it off.  Anna is one of these. She even plays males and is believable. She’s a huge presence––even on West Wing when she appeared everyone else disappeared into the background.

Edie Sedgwick: Years ago I read whats-his-name’s book on her and was captivated. I’m always hesitant to see a film about someone’s life after I’ve read about it, just as I am about seeing a film based on a novel I’ve read. I have pictures in my mind that don’t correspond to the film’s.

I remember the Hemingway sisters well. The beautiful one destroyed herself; the talented one had a thing with Woody Allen and made some decent films. 

I had to stop watching the videos half way through. I felt as though I was spying on a therapy session. It hurt me to watch. I have questions: Why would you succumb  to an interview like this? Why would you decide to have all these children in the first place if you knew that you wouldn’t be able to afford them? (as Kate said). Now she’s locked in financially and has to continue because of this?  I used to watch the program because I was fascinated by how this couple would cope with their brood. As the twins developed I detected an anger in them–-more in Mattie––and a disrespect to the parents. I would imagine having a twin is one thing, but then having, suddenly, six more siblings is another. Fame can be destructive; the Gosselins are prime examples. 

I hesitate to comment on Rush only because I think he’s off his chump. I will say I agree with Mr. Wow’s aghast at no socks. I don’t think he ever wears a tie––perhaps it interferes with his blow heartiness-cuts off the old windpipe that needs all the air it can get.

Dear Sura: I have read your post twice because there is so much in it. Your problems with your daughter, who is now embarking on her fifties, seems to have been ongoing for a long time, and you ask the questions in your last paragraph in an almost desperate tone. In every family there are patterns and one of the patterns in your family seems to be a discord between mothers and daughters. You evidently came to some kind of understanding with your own mother and provided her at the end with a life she thrived in. Knowing what it feels like to be at odds with a parent, what is causing your own daughter to hang on to this discord? Is it something that was sown long ago–––that marriage of turmoil you mentioned? And why were your grandsons having tantrums? Could she be putting the onus on you for what maybe has gone wrong in her own life? If the stuff  that’s in a family’s baggage doesn’t get emptied out, in time it becomes heavy and cumbersome causing strife and sorrow.

What good news! Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins in a new BBC production––but to have to wait until 2011? Oh, dear. Both of these women are so marvelous.

Your suggestion for a super duper Christmas gift would be great if one would be willing to shell out $75 to delve into the pictorial images of the rich and famous. Alas, I am not one. Neither is anyone I know.

BALLS & BABES

Karen: What’s this I hear about Obama’s not having any females playing in his basketball games?

Leslie: Huh?

K:  Jeez––––aren’t you news savvy?

L: Don’t you dare be condescending to me, missy, I think I know a hell of a lot more than you do about what’s going on in this world!

K: Well, excuse me! I just meant that this seems to be a big deal.

L: To whom, pray tell?

K: The person that wrote it up in the Washington Post. It’s supposed to be a slap down on how Obama views women.

L: Are you kidding me? The poor guy can’t have a game  of basketball without considering whether women should be on his team?

K: Yeah, I guess.

L: If there are women in his administration that want to play ball then get the hell together and play your own damn game.

K: You don’t have to get so angry––I was just reporting.

L: I need another glass of wine––to go with my whine, and by god, if I hear one more thing about what Obama should do, shouldn’t do, has done and shouldn’t have, will do and better not do, I am going to march down to the White House, go right into the oval office and present this President with the best basketball I can buy and say, "Mr. President, do whatever the hell you want cuz the ball is in your court!" 

Thanks for the memories! I love Sesame Street, still the best children’s program (and for us big people) ever; innovative, clever, imaginative, outstanding in its field. How lucky our children and grandchildren have been to reap this glorious harvest.

My Uncle Walter married Edina Duma whose father owned a large diary (Verifine) in our Wisconsin town that distributed milk products including cheese and ice cream to all parts of Wisconsin. When old man Duma died Walter took over, eventually expanding the dairy and when his three sons grew up brought them into the business. As kids we were taken to some of the farms that produced the milk, got to have a go at milking the cows, ride some of the horses –––the smell of manure still lingers. I, too, remember   the horse drawn milk cart, the box by the back door with milk bottles and cottage cheese, the way the cream rose to the top and was frozen due to the cold, cold winter season. In 1975 Verifine began producing the plastic milk jug. It was a gamble on an innovation the Midwest had not yet tried, but it certainly paid off.

We had  the same mailman for all the years I was growing up. When I became a teenager and would get letters from a boyfriend, he would ring the doorbell to let me know. During the winter months my mother would always bring John into the kitchen for a cup of coffee and a chat. When he finally retired after 40 years, he was written up in the local paper along with his picture which I have in one of my albums to remind me of a time when our mailmen became part of the family.  "Those feet have walked approximately 88,000 miles in the last 35 years. that’s roughly the equivalent of walking to San Francisco and back 18 times," said John who never drove a mail truck, but if he had, he would never have gotten those cups of coffee, nor would we have had the great affection for him that we had. Progress sometimes stymies cozy connections.