I think Fareed Zakaria’s efforts to look on the bright side of the economic crisis probably go too far, but I certainly agree with this point:

The financial industry itself is likely to shrink, and that’s not a bad thing, either. It has ballooned dramatically in size. Curry points out that “30 percent of S&P 500 profits last year were earned by financial firms, and U.S. consumers were spending $800 billion more than they earned every year. As a result, most of our top math Ph.D.s were being pulled into nonproductive financial engineering instead of biotech research and fuel technology. Capital expenditures went into retail construction instead of critical infrastructure.” The crisis will stop the misallocation of human and financial resources and redirect them in more-productive ways. If some of the smart people now on Wall Street end up building better models of energy usage and efficiency, that would be a net gain for the economy.

Indeed. I mean, in principle taking a large proportion of quantitatively skilled people and having them apply their technical chops to the financial markets could be a good thing if doing so ushered in an exciting new era of genuinely superior financial wizardry. But instead, Keynes observation that “The game of professional investment is intolerably boring and over-exacting to anyone who is entirely exempt from the gambling instinct; whilst he who has it must pay to this propensity the appropriate toll” seems just as true today as it was two or eight decades ago. Meanwhile, smart scientists and engineers are still producing useful stuff.

Michael Pollan has a great long piece in The New York Times Magazine making the case for farm policy reform a vital component of any serious agenda about the environment and public health. A glance at the problem:

Right now, the government actively discourages the farmers it subsidizes from growing healthful, fresh food: farmers receiving crop subsidies are prohibited from growing “specialty crops” — farm-bill speak for fruits and vegetables. (This rule was the price exacted by California and Florida produce growers in exchange for going along with subsidies for commodity crops.)

This is clearly insane. One can debate whether it ever made sense to subsidize agricultural products and whether it really makes sense to subsidize any of them today. But clearly if we are going to subsidize agricultural production, we ought to be subsidizing the production of healthy food. If the money currently spent on making sure that cheap corn and soy are as plentiful as possible were instead redirected to subsidize the production and sale of fresh vegetables, the United States of America could be a much healthier country.

Jack Cashill at The American Thinker observes:

In short, Ayers had the means, the motive, the time, the place and the literary ability to jumpstart Obama’s career. And, as Ayers had to know, a lovely memoir under Obama’s belt made for a much better resume than an unfulfilled contract over his head.

Yes, that’s right, it’s an article whose thesis is that Bill Ayers is the real author of Dreams From My Father. I found it via an enthusiastic Andrew McCarthy whose recent posts at The Corner seem to have been designed to make K-Lo look like the picture of intellectual rigor.

Of course the speculations gets really interesting when we consider the possibility that Ayers was the assassin Hillary Clinton hired to kill Vince Foster.

Jeffrey M. Frederick isn’t some random yahoo or blog commenter. He’s the Chairman of the Virginia Republican Party. And here’s Karen Tumulty’s report on his official campaign activities:

No Democratic presidential candidate has carried Virginia since 1964, and most election years both campaigns pretty much ignore the state. This time, however, McCain is running behind Barack Obama in statewide polls, thanks in large part to the head start he got on the ground there. “We haven’t seen a race like this in Virginia — ever,” said state GOP Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick. “The last time was 40 years ago, and they didn’t run races like this.”

Indeed, Frederick, a 33-year-old state legislator, hadn’t even been born yet. But earlier this year Frederick unseated a moderate 71-year-old former lieutenant governor (who also happens to be Jenna Bush’s father-in-law) to become head of the Virginia GOP, promising “bold new leadership” for a state party recently on the decline. [...]

With so much at stake, and time running short, Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points — for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: “Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon,” he said. “That is scary.” It is also not exactly true — though that distorted reference to Obama’s controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. “And he won’t salute the flag,” one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, “We don’t even know where Senator Obama was really born.” Actually, we do; it’s Hawaii.

That is pretty bold.

Meanwhile, Mark Salter enjoys a fine whine:

“I think there have been quite a few reporters recently,” said Mr. McCain’s closest adviser, Mark Salter, “who have sort of implied, or made more than implications, that somehow we’re responsible for the occasional nut who shows up and yells something about Barack Obama.”

Occasional nut, head of the state party, whatever.

Scientists working in China have announced the completion of the project to sequence the entire giant panda genome. That’s perhaps good news for panda fans such as myself everywhere. At the same time, one has to worry about the possibility of China arming itself with advanced, genetically enhanced panda warriors. Initially, they’ll disarm and confuse their opponents with massive cuteness. But then, just as enemy soldiers are busy trying to take snapshots, they enter panda attack mode.

Something along the lines of Kung Fu Panda is definitely something to be concerned about.

Nagourney & Bumiller report:

After a turbulent week that included disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin and signs that Senator John McCain was struggling to strike the right tone for his campaign, Republican leaders said Saturday that they were worried Mr. McCain was heading for defeat unless he brought stability to his presidential candidacy and settled on a clear message to counter Senator Barack Obama.

The concern here is touching, but it seems pretty obvious that McCain’s problems have less to do with his campaign tactics and “message” than they do with events in the world. Either McCain is the victim of bad luck, or else he’s the victim bad conservative policies producing bad results, but however you see that it’s pretty far-fetched to think that more clever campaign gambits could have pulled this out for him.