digamma.net - notes

Milton Friedman, Rutgers College Class of 1932, died on Thursday.

Reason’s memorial is full of links that I’m sure will tell you all kinds of cool things about him, so I won’t go into what was great about him.

Instead, I’d like to make two points in his defense from progressives who hate him. First, if you think Friedman was somehow opposed to poor people, you really need to read the chapter “Alleviation of Poverty” in his classic Capitalism and Freedom. I firmly believe that if we ever get effective anti-poverty policy, it’ll reflect the ideas in that chapter.

Furthermore, if you think the draft was a bad thing, thank Milton Friedman we don’t have it anymore.

I can’t bring myself to care about college sports, but I hope that in his last days Friedman was enjoying our alma mater’s undefeated football team.

You know how the tobacco companies have to pay for those ads about all the bad things they’ve done?

Governments should have to do that.

What can I say about Babel? When I heard it had cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto (25th Hour, Brokeback Mountain, Amores Perros) , music by Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback’s guitar riff), and performances by Gael Garcia Bernal and Brad Pitt, I figured it would be great. And it was great.

If you didnt like those other films, maybe you won’t like Babel. Also, you stink.

Cindy Fuchs is smarter than me and says the rest of what needs to be said.

I have no idea what will happen today.

One prediction: if the Senate breakdown is 49 Republicans and 51 Democrats including Sanders and Lieberman, Lieberman will vote for Republican leadership, giving Vice President Cheney the tie-breaking vote.