U.S. Govt Shutdown and Finnish Saunas

Two serious reads with seriously interesting article. First, non-serious stuff.

• Why Finland loves saunas. (BBC) Interesting.

Excerpt:

The only Finnish word to
make it into everyday English is "sauna". But what it is, and how much
it means to Finns, is often misunderstood - and it's definitely not
about flirtation or sex.

In a dimly lit wood panelled room, naked men sit in silence,
sweating. One beats himself repeatedly with birch branches. Another
stands, takes a ladle of water and carefully pours it over the heated
stones of the stove in the corner.

• Absurdistan, D.C.: How Republicans are threatening to turn Washington into a failed state. (FP) 

•  Why hitting the debt ceiling is so much worse than a government shutdown. (Slate) 

Excerpt:

A government shutdown is
problematic but decidedly noncatastrophic. Not because the government
isn’t important, but because the prevailing interpretation of the law is
specifically designed to avoid catastrophe.


The debt ceiling is another matter. Nobody really knows what will
happen if we breach the debt ceiling because it’s never happened before.
And everyone worries that it will be awful because nobody’s created any
legal provision for not making it awful. A breach is sometimes
characterized as a default on the national debt. But it’s actually
weirder than that. (End of excerpt)

A graphic from the Economist on the U.S. government finances.