Barney Frank

Mr. "roll the dice" on housing now says Fannie and Freddie should be shuttered.

In the Fox Business interview, Frank also was critical of public policy that promoted homeownership at any cost. He also said the federal government should not be a "backstop" in guaranteeing mortgages.

"There were people in this society who for economic and, frankly, social reasons can't and shouldn't be homeowners," Frank said. "I think we should, particularly, stop this assumption that you put everybody into homeownership."

HOLY SHIT. Did he just say that there are some poor folks who should be denied loans and be gently led over to the craigslist rental ads?

Barney Frank is now more right-wing than George. W. Bush on this issue. I don't know what Barney Frank will do when it turns out that rejecting people's loans on purely economic criteria looks sort of racist, but he will worry about that after re-election I suppose.

But actually its not that bad. He still wants to subsidize housing, just make it explicit, and he also wants to subsidize rents. (Not like we already do that via Section 8 housing, but whatever.

Poland: 2 - Communism: 1

I have been reading European history lately. Did you know the Communists in Russia made a military attempt in 1920 to bring the wonders of socialism to all of Europe via Germany via Poland?

After a lot of touch and go, the Reds lost the war.

Yeah, Stalin made up for that a bit in '39 and then in 45' but one of those counts as a draw.

1989 makes it 2-1. This from a country that was once obliterated by Germany, Austria, and Russia,

Apparently the lesson should be not to forget Poland.*

*Hey, is this applicable in a trivial pursuit sort of way to 2000-2010?