...versus "shut up and let Obama do it!" is an interesting dichotomy. If we are the change we have been waiting for, then action (whether through donations made or withheld, words of praise or criticism, etc.) are fundamentally necessary. And if we are just to shut up and put our trust in a man, then we aren't the change we've been waiting for but are instead just the Democratic version of the Republican cult of personality that surrounded Reagan and GW Bush.

Obama came to office at a moment when the Republican ideology had been thoroughly discredited. In many ways, the moment was not that different from what FDR encountered when he came to office in the midst of the Great Depression. FDR took advantage of the moment and pushed through an aggressive progressive agenda and did it in many cases where there Republicans in congress offered not a single vote in support of New Deal legislation.

Bi-partisanship is great when you can get it, but bi-partisanship in and of itself should never be the goal to the exclusion of what actually needs to be done.

Obama had a chance to effect fundamental change. Obama is blowing that chance if in fact he has not blown it already. In every way, he is revealing himself to be a servant of large corporate interests first and foremost. I had hoped for better, but I did not expect it.

David Sirota, if we are to be the change we have been waiting for, it will be people like you who refuse to play the part of sycophant in the current cult of personality that help to bring that change about. I'm not saying that I always agree with you for certainly I do not. But I am saying keep up the work that you are doing. Do not be shouted down. Continue to tell the truth as you see it and make people think even if thinking makes them uncomfortable. Change is never easy.

In a word, no. Bubbles tend to be symmetrical which is to say that they take as long to deflate on the down side as they did to inflate on the up side. And bubbles also tend to overshoot on the downside. This is a pretty well understood phenomenon that is repeated again and again and again with many examples available for study.

The best single online resource for getting a handle on where we are is Chris Martenson's Crash Course. The segment on bubbles is a great place to start and is in fact that segment that noted financial author and DNC Treasurer Andrew Tobias linked to which was how I was introduced to The Crash Course. Cut and paste the link or click my sig.

http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse/chapter-15-bubbles

Please. Please.

Nothing is in the category of "growing" until...well...it actually is. Seeing a spike in durable goods is not unexpected, at least not where I sit. People have put off major purchases (which is what durable goods -- things like refrigerators, air conditioners, new digital televisions, cars -- are) and now there may be some pent up demand showing itself as a temporary spike...which is more or less what I think this number reflects.

I mention A/C units above for a good reason: I live in the south and this time of year is when everything from window units to large new central air/heat pump systems see sales go through the roof. It's hot down here. And humid. Anyway...that's what I think.

Is enduring love and marriage an act of will? Yes. And yes.

There is always temptation. There is always opportunity. There is the boredom that comes from long familiarity which makes things that are new and enticing but forbidden all the more exciting.

Traditional wedding vows, at least here in the states, typically refer to "for better or for worse", for as much as we might all wish that life were a fairy tale and that marriage is the beginning of happily ever after, worse will surely come. The trials of living, of working, of raising children, of accepting the habits of your spouse, of running out of things to talk about, of growing in perhaps different ways and different directions, all of these things and many more are why enduring love and marriage are acts of active commitment and will. At the moments when you are weakest, that commitment and that will are the source of your strength which keeps the dividing line between right and wrong clear.

No doubt there are those who will disagree with Jenny Sanford and with me. But sometimes, love means sacrifice. Sometimes it means resisting the infatuation and sexual attraction of new "love". Sometimes, it means that selfish desires must be resisted. And the source of that resistance? Commitment, and an act of will.