Blood Sacrifice

In today's New York Times, the great sage Paul Krugman neatly outlines Hollingsworth Hound's complicated relationship with the Deficit Hawk:

"Notice, in particular, how suddenly Republicans lost interest in the budget deficit when they were challenged about the cost of retaining tax cuts for the wealthy. But that won’t stop them from continuing to pose as deficit hawks whenever anyone proposes doing something to help the unemployed."

He also writes about the economic sacrifices demanded in the name of invisible "bond gods" that reminded me of this Tom the Dancing Bug from a couple of years ago.  Of course, he's talking about very specific "gods," the gods of budget deficit control that must be appeased to avoid a phantom borrowing crisis. I was referring to the general way we view the economic crisis compared to the way the Mayans reacted to the crises that eventually toppled their civilization.  But the last panel in the strip makes for a nice illustration to his piece.