The New Economics of Well Being and Happiness

Just got back from 3 days at Claremont Colleges in CA where I was tempted to abandon all Chicago ties in order to enroll in a PhD for positive psychology. Penny and George, we must discuss some day; I feel like you both must have some expertise on the subject? Relatedly and meanwhile, I love how this article is applicable to so many disciplines in which so many of us work: sustainability, economics, education, nonprofits, art, philanthropy ... good stuff.

The New Economics of Well Being and Happiness
http://theconversation.edu.au/wellbeing-happiness-and-sustainability-hallmarks-of-a-new-economic-paradigm-6301

Not a Done Deal Yet...Yet

I know that we're all enjoying the chaos of the GOP nomination race and hoping that Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich continue beating each other up for a while longer. But, the math is starting to look more promising to Romney after he won Ohio and 5 other states last night. But, that doesn't mean the fun is over.

Santorum has a couple reasons for staying in the race. First, he's narrowly lost Michigan and Ohio to Romney despite Mitt outspending him 4 to 1 in those states. Second, he correctly surmises that if Gingrich drops out, the conservative wing of the GOP will unite behind him. Ultimately, Santorum still looks to be heading for defeat (which is hard to feel bad about) and is going to face increasing pressure from the party to bow out but he can still do some damage.

Late Middle-Aged Male Experts on Female Reproductive Health

If you haven't seen this already, I think you'll all enjoy it.

Women's Health Experts Speak Out from Judd Nelson

Quote of the Day

This one comes by way of a Maureen Dowd column, marking the first time in at least two years that I've found anything she wrote interesting. Anyhow, she quotes GOP strategist, Alex Castellanos, as saying: "Republicans being against sex is not good. Sex is popular." Alex may look like the bad guy in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," but he's got a point.

Really GOP Women, Really?

Today Slate reports that support among GOP women is growing for...Rick Santorum. I don't have words.

The Sorrows of (Not-so) Young Mitt

Mitt's campaign looks to actually be in trouble. There have been other surges by other candidates but Santorum's rise is different. When other candidates rose in the polls against him, Romney could outspend them by factors of ten and beat them down. He's doing it again against Santorum in Michigan. But, for a a couple reasons, it may be less effective this time around.

Charlie Pierce outlines the first one in this post. Romney has already tacked so far to the right to try to win the base that he can't attack Santorum where he's really weak, i.e., his crackpot conservative stances. As Charlie puts it, "Romney has sold so much of his political soul to the wingnut base of his party on these issues that his positions on them are now indistinguishable from Santorum's...."

The second reason, put forward here, is that Mitt can't seem to crack into small donors and his well-heeled donor base may actually be running low on cash, or at least the will to spend it on Mitt. Of course, those people will probably come back for the eventual GOP nominee but that might not matter to Mitt if his well runs dry now.

more from Michigan...

Wow, didn't see this coming. An article by my friend and former neighbor suggests that poor Mittens is struggling in his former homeland.

Santorum to Female Soldiers: Don't Get Your Panties in a Bunch

We've been mostly pre-occupied with Romney and Gingrich in our examinations of the GOP nomination race but with Santorum once again gaining momentum, we, unfortunately, have to pay attention to the esteemed asshole from Pennsylvania. Yesterday, he gave everyone a reminder of just how retrograde his beliefs are when asked about the Pentagon's announcement that it plans to put more women near the front lines. I'll let the linked blog post and accompanying video do the heavy lifting but it essentially boils down to Santorum thinking that women's "emotions" would be problematic in combat. This primitive screwhead is currently polling second in the nomination race.

The Elevator Pitch

Via the Maddow Blog (which I highly recommend by the way), comes word that the Obama-Biden camp has a pitch for their campaign:

"Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive."

Putting aside the question of crowing about another human's death (I'm definitely squeamish about that), I think this pitch could be awfully effective for a couple reasons: 1) It's pithy, memorable, and specific, unlike "Win the Future," 2) The first part is basically "America, Fuck Yeah!" which is always a popular stance, and 3) It highlights accomplishments that are unquestionably the president's.

Rep. Hoekstra Warns Michigan of Yellow Peril

If we lived in a different media market, we would have seen a Super Bowl ad that has the political world talking. No, I'm not talking about Will Ferrell's ad for Milwaukee's Best beer. I'm talking about Rep. Pete Hoekstra taking a page late 19th century nativist politics, and airing this:



Hoekstra seems to have spent most of the day basically telling people that they're wrong to see this as racist. My big question is how he found an actor willing to play that role.