Silly relief for this wonk

rdan

I have been chasing information on the budget deficits and potential impacts, the US trade deficit, and the cap and trade arguments linked to HR 2454 Waxman-Markey bill of hundreds of pages. Mostly it was figuring out how assumptions in data and baselines (such as the CBO reports) made a difference in the shrillness of the discussions on many blogs, including here. Then I visited David’s blog and laughed out loud. Cleared my head for a new try.

David Zetland at Aguanomics helped lift my spirits a little today from a tired and unreflective male perspective I suppose. I was tired of being an uberwonk at that moment, with too many details and charts, and it fit the bill.

22 June 2009

Monday Morning Smile

Indian Chief Two Eagles was asked by a white government official, “You have observed the white man for 90 years. You’ve seen his wars and his technological advances. You’ve seen his progress, and the damage he’s done.”

The Chief nodded in agreement.

The official continued, “Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong?”

The Chief stared at the government official for over a minute and then calmly replied. “When white man find land, Indians running it, no taxes, no debt, plenty buffalo, plenty beaver, clean water. Women did all the work, Medicine man free. Indian man spend all day hunting and fishing; all night having sex.”

Then the chief leaned back and smiled. “Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that.”

hattip to JWT