Well, it's almost December 2009, time to start considering some candidates for understatement of the year. Here's one from the veteran team at the McClatchey Newspapers: Economic Summit Unlikely to Burnish Bush's Legacy I thinking they're messing with us. (To see the full pathetic story of the lame-duck Bush, go here. Pic from corps.man]
Monthly Archives: November 2008
P.J. Cracks Back on the Right
Truly funny people can make you laugh (or at least, smile) even when they offend. P.J. O'Rourke is one of those people; horrendously wrong on numerous issues, but still funny. And this week he cracked back on his own beloved "conservative" movement, big time, in the Weekly Standard, in a piece poignantly termed We BlewContinue reading “P.J. Cracks Back on the Right”
What Lifts Us Out of Ourselves Helps Us Believe in the Future
Have been reading through a collection of short pieces by the great Rachel Carson, called Lost Woods: The Discovered Writings of Rachel Carson. Turns out Carson wrote the liner notes for a recording of Claude Debussy's La Mer, and subsequently was asked to give a talk on the connection between the arts and the naturalContinue reading “What Lifts Us Out of Ourselves Helps Us Believe in the Future”
Monsters in the Wilderness: the GOP Regroups
Paul Krugman is not just a Nobel Prize-winning economist. He's also a writer with real power and economy — one of the best columnists in the country. Here's an example, from a Wednesday post: ….for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggestedContinue reading “Monsters in the Wilderness: the GOP Regroups”
The End of Something Old, the Start of Something New
David Brooks, I owe you an apology. After your fervent support for the misguided and mismanaged war in Iraq, I thought you had become a neocon. Your seemingly mindless support of the re-election of Bush in 2004 was the final straw for me. But perhaps I spoke too soon. Since 2005, Brooks has been expressingContinue reading “The End of Something Old, the Start of Something New”
Global Warming: Good News for California Coast?
Four weeks ago in Southern California, Santa Ana winds threatened to drive two fires in Simi Valley — the Porter Ranch and the Sesnon Fire — on a path through the sun-baked hills towards the ocean. But instead of building in strength and destructiveness, as the winds often have in the past, the Santa AnasContinue reading “Global Warming: Good News for California Coast?”
What Was Self-Evident Becomes Undeniable
From Tom Toles and the Declaration of Independence:
The Bigness of Our Problems; the Smallness of Our Character
Christopher Caldwell is that rare bird: a truly thoughtful conservative. His most recent column for the Financial Times reminds us that whoever wins the election tonight will have a huge economic problem to solve, and that we as a people in the West are in poor condition psychologically to face it: We should worry lessContinue reading “The Bigness of Our Problems; the Smallness of Our Character”
And Now for Something Completely Nonpolitical…
From a fascinating book to come out in January 2009 by Roger Deakin, called Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees: Two days into my first camp, on 26 April 1959, we heard the first cuckoo and entered it into the Tomes [his diaries]. Under the strong influence of Robert Frost, I was moved to write aContinue reading “And Now for Something Completely Nonpolitical…”
Could Bandwagon Effect Be Driving Obama’s Rise in the Polls?
Anyone with the slightest interest in the subject of polls this year has heard about The Bradley Effect, in which polls supposedly under-represented racist voters, so that black candidates were likely to fare more poorly than the polls indicated. My favorite statistical analyst, Nate Silver, argues cogently (here) that this effect did exist in particularContinue reading “Could Bandwagon Effect Be Driving Obama’s Rise in the Polls?”
Kit Stolz 