Krugman on Greece, the Euro, and the Lesson to be Derived Therefrom

Krugman explains what the hell is going on with Greece, and why it matters to us.

So is the euro itself in danger? In a word, yes. If European leaders don’t start acting much more forcefully, providing Greece with enough help to avoid the worst, a chain reaction that starts with a Greek default and ends up wreaking much wider havoc looks all too possible.

Rolling Stones subtitulado español 19th nervous breakdown

The joys of YouTube.

Albert King - Move to the Outskirts

Recorded live at the Montreux festival, probably sometime in the early 1980s.

Linda Greenhouse on the Arizona Immigration Law

Linda Greenhouse, the New York Times reporter covering the US Supreme Court and previously known as the sort of mild-mannered journalist welcome on political TV talk shows, actually takes a stand. H/t BarbinMD at DailyKos.

What would Arizona’s revered libertarian icon, Barry Goldwater, say about a law that requires the police to demand proof of legal residency from any person with whom they have made “any lawful contact” and about whom they have “reasonable suspicion” that “the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States?” Wasn’t the system of internal passports one of the most distasteful features of life in the Soviet Union and apartheid-era South Africa?

And in case the phrase “lawful contact” makes it appear as if the police are authorized to act only if they observe an undocumented-looking person actually committing a crime, another section strips the statute of even that fig leaf of reassurance. “A person is guilty of trespassing,” the law provides, by being “present on any public or private land in this state” while lacking authorization to be in the United States — a new crime of breathing while undocumented.

Hitchcock interview from 1964 (part 1)

Like a lot of people, I love YouTube for the obscure treasures that it holds.

Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim

The prominent jazz figure Gene Lees has died. He was not a musician (at least professionally) but a journalist and lyricist. In particular, he wrote the English lyrics for a number of Brazilian songs, including "Corcovado" (as "Quiet Nights"). His passing has been noted by Matt Schudel at the Washington Post, who also included this link to a YouTube clip featuring Sinatra and Jobim performing a medley of Jobim's songs, including lyrics by Lees.

A Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead

Hat tip to Katla McGlynn at the Huffington Post.