A small aside

In Josh Marshall's (much longer) post on what to do about bondholders of too-big-to-fail institutions, I couldn't help but notice this (emphasis added):

...as I spoke to economists who are extremely knowledgeable and I think not at all inclined to be carrying the water of the bondholders, what became clear to me is that it's not just a question of our having no good theory of how to unwind a crisis like this, 'we' also don't have a good handle on the facts of the situation, which makes everything much more perilous. Sort of like defusing the time bomb without having put the bomber on the rack long enough to have him tell you how it works.

It just sort of freaks me out how the use of torture in 24 and by our government has permeated our cultural consciousness to where this kind of simile is naturally in reach when discussing a pretty unrelated subject. I know this is so not what the post is about--and on that I don't have much in the way of an opinion--but it struck me.