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" My own support of the notion of a platinum coin is based solely on a paraphrase of the philosophy once voiced by the late Norman Mailer as regards to Oliver Stone&amp;#039;s JFK and the Warren Commission \u2014 sometimes, the only antidote to bullshit is superior bullshit. If the Republicans are going to play continuous monkey-mischief with the debt ceiling \u2014 endangering the economy over what is essentially a stunt \u2014 then it&amp;#039;s not unreasonable to counter this with a better stunt \u2014 to wit, creating the platinum coin. At least, it&amp;#039;s a solution that relies upon the engaged imagination, something that has been sadly lacking in our politics at every level for quite some time now. Ah, but as we all chuckle at the barbed aptness of the retort, and come to the inevitable conclusion that the only real choice for the face on the platinum coin is Elvis, we have reckoned without a humorless dumbass named Greg Walden, who apparently represents that part of Oregon where humorless dumbasses grow. Walden has announced that he is going to introduce an actual bill to stop the production of the platinum coin because, well, let him explain it. My wife and I have owned and operated a small business since 1986. When it came time to pay the bills, we couldn&amp;#039;t just mint a coin to create more money out of thin air. We sat down and figured out how to balance the books. That&amp;#039;s what Washington needs to do as well. My bill will take the coin scheme off the table by disallowing the Treasury to mint platinum coins as a way to pay down the debt. We must reduce spending and get our fiscal house in order,&amp;quot; Rep. Walden said. Is the congressman suggesting that the U.S. stop printing money until we have the budget in balance again? (Paul Krugman just had a stroke.) And, unfortunately for Congressman Walden&amp;#039;s humorlessly dumbassed theory, the U.S. government is not a small business. It would be a substantial inconvenience to the rest of us if the U.S. government closed down and was replaced in the strip mall by a Jiffy Lube outlet or a tattoo parlor. (It appears that Jonathan Chait was struck by the same flaw in the Walden Theory Of Why Stuff Is All Alike.) More to the point, however, is the fact that Congressman Walden is such a humorless dumbass that he can see no other way out of our current fiscal quandary than to make people suffer. He&amp;#039;s sure as hell not talking about paring down the Defense budget. He&amp;#039;s so intent on enforcing austerity on people he&amp;#039;s never met that he&amp;#039;s trying to make illegal any attempt at an alternative, even the whimsical ones. I leave the final word to that esteemed educator, Vernon Wormer, dean of Faber College: NO MORE FUN OF ANY KIND!  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a17859/platinum-coin-bill-010813/?src=rss>