They really shouldn't say such things out loud.

Funny, though: U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion. The Onion truly is America's finest news source. My favorite paragraph:

As news of the nation's collectively held delusion spread, the economy ground a halt, with dumbfounded citizens everywhere walking out on their jobs as they contemplated the little green drawings of buildings and dead white men they once used to measure their adequacy and importance as human beings.

Voting and class

Another great post from Andrew Gelman on whether or not people vote against their own interests (spoiler alert: they don't). Written in reaction to this awful BBC article, it serves as a useful reminder to check the occasional fact.

Update: on a related note, this from factcheck.org, on non-elder health insurance coverage rates.

Tim Pawlenty dishes just what Tea-partiers want to hear

Bruce Bartlett has an excellent take-down of Presidential wannabe, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. I agree completely, except for the conclusion:

Tim Pawlenty is not ready for prime time. He may think he has found a clever way of appealing to the right wing tea party/Fox News crowd without having to propose any actual cuts in spending, but it isn’t going to work. It’s too transparently phony even for them.

The first sentence is fine. I don't think that last part is true: Pawlenty's reason-free rhetoric is just what many of the Tea-party types seem to want to hear.