Meanwhile, in the real world

The famous Chinese curse says, “May you live in interesting times.” We’re cursed, all right.

• Item: Dick Cheney survives an assassination attempt while visiting the war zone. Not surprising at all that an attempt was made. Not surprising, either, that people would be trying to kill him. What is sad is that a number of people posting to the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington’s compendium of nonsense, were openly sad that the assassins were unsuccessful. There’s a term for that sort of thinking: sick. Back in the day, Bill Clinton used to drive me absolutely nuts. But I never wanted him dead.
• Item: Stock market takes a 500 point nosedive on Tuesday. Correction or harbinger? Hard to say. But at this writing the market has recovered over 100 points. That’s because many stocks are available for a sale price today. I am concerned about the default rates in consumer lending, especially since a lot of people who used exotic mortgages to get into a house are going to be very overextended if they don’t refinance. It bears watching, especially since many of these mortgages have been securitized, so the effect of defaults and foreclosures will have larger ripples in the overall economy. I don’t think the bears are appearing yet, though.
• Item: Joe Lieberman hints he might caucus with the Republicans. There’s a reason why the Democrats have been pushing their agenda like crazy since the beginning of the year; they know their window may be short. Lieberman is probably the most powerful man in Washington. As Glenn Reynolds might say, heh.
• Item: Badgers lose two games and Brian Butch. Tough week in Madison. Bo Ryan is a resourceful fellow and he does have some other players who can fill in for Butch, who appears to be out for the rest of the season with an elbow injury. If the Badgers can make a run in the conference tournament, I’d say they will be okay. But this dream season may be turning nightmarish.