Koganbot Sibling To Work For Toby Keith Fan

My brother is about to be hired at OMB* as a Senior Counselor To The Director "or some such title." Richard says that "senior" means that he's the oldest. The director-to-be,** Peter Orszag, is reported to be a country music fan - this from the New York Times of November 18, 2008:

In a June 2007 appearance on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," Mr. Orszag's paraphrase of a country star's hit song disarmed Mr. Dobbs, who was unsuccessfully pushing Mr. Orszag, as the Congressional Budget Office director, to validate his own views that illegal immigrants impose high costs on taxpayers. "Well, Lou, as Toby Keith would say, that's not how it is," Mr. Orszag said. The host, taken aback by the unlikely allusion from the bespectacled economist, replied, "You rock on, Mr. Director!"

(But Orszag wasn't paraphrasing the song, he was quoting it exactly. The title itself, not to mention the refrain, is "That's Not How It Is" - Toby's best song, by the way, though it was never a single, let alone a hit.)

Richard will work in the Old Executive Office Building, which is part of the White House aggregation of buildings (the White House is flanked by the Old Executive Office Building and the U.S. Treasury, with tunnels connecting them all). He says this probably means he can't wear blue jeans to the office or walk around in his socks at work.

I hope no one holds against him the ignorant things I say on this livejournal when I'm trying to understand economics.

*Office of Management and Budget.

**Orszag and a bunch of other cabinet nominees are slated to be confirmed this afternoon.

President Obama

12:06 PM, EST. I just clapped my hands.

I am ready to lead once more: Thomas Kuhn 1, Dilettante Research Revived

Am embarking on a project of rereading Thomas Kuhn and so I'm starting a Thomas Kuhn reading group here in Denver. The group so far consists in its entirety of me and my friend David (the fellow who taught the intro to philosophy course I audited last semester) and isn't likely to grow, so I'm adding an online component. As always, I'm open to anyone posting here whether you've done the reading or not and whether you feel "qualified" or not. You'll likely stimulate my ideas even when your own aren't worked out. That said... well, see below.

Believe it or not I find this stuff real easy (about a hundred times easier than figuring out and articulating why I like Cassie's "Turn The Lights Off" and Heidi Montag's "No More"). And what's impressive about its easiness is that Kuhn is addressing himself to the hardest practical topic there is, how to go about understanding a mode of thought that you had not previously been acquainted with.

I'm going to experiment to see if these posts can function as a proto-Department Of Dilettante Research, which means I'll put thought into how to be a teacher, how to stimulate your ideas. So in some instances I'll be asking questions but temporarily holding back my own answers until you've had a chance to start on yours, my belief being that ideas you work out for yourself will stick with you better than ones you simply read or memorize. And this also means that if you want to learn much you're better off doing the reading and doing what I tell you.

( No, you must explain this in full, now! )

( reading list )