"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
In the news
It seems like whenever the news is good, the stock market tanks. Unemployment down? Stocks plummet. Wages up? Stocks plummet. Orders for durable goods up? Stocks plummet. New home starts up? Stocks plummet. And now the new administration gets a stimulus package stuffed with tax cuts through the senate . . . and stocks plummet. […]
First of all, Barack Obama needs to replace Rahm Emanuel: discovering that Timothy Geithner, Tom Daschle, and Nancy Killefer were tax cheats was his job, and he failed to do it. He certainly wouldn’t be my chief of staff any longer. This whole rich-people-don’t-pay-taxes thing has got to stop. We’ve been having our noses rubbed […]
Is it just me, or does anyone else think this Hero Pilot stuff is spinning out of control? I dunno, it hits me as wrong. Mawkish, lowest common denominator, on-display-for-your-beer-guzzling-delectation wrong. I’m surprised Sullenberger’s going along with all this. It’s like Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche: real pilots don’t strut around like peacocks when they […]
At 10:06 MST, Barack Obama became our new president. I don’t usually check the clock when important things happen, but I did this morning. My overwhelming impression, watching the crowds in DC? America’s finally coming to after an eight-year stupor. Have you ever seen such an outpouring of optimism and goodwill? Now we wait to […]
Wow. Just wow. Who doesn’t need a bit of good news once in a while, especially lately? The incredible and ongoing story of US Airways Flight 1549 delivers the feel-good in spades. Of course I’m heavily prejudiced in favor of fighter pilots, and the actions of the former fighter pilot in question, the captain of […]
Did they just have a coup in Canada? It sure sounds like it: parliament was about to vote out the current prime minister, Stephen Harper, and put in someone else, and Harper . . . with the blessing of the colonial governor (i.e., someone who represents the Queen of England) . . . has shut […]
In the comment thread to my Choosing Day post, I responded to a reader by saying, in part: “In the weeks leading up to Nov 4th, I’d see polls on the internet that consistently showed Obama winning the electoral count with considerably over 300 votes to McCain with 170 or so. Yet the media felt […]
Until a few months ago, our local Ford dealer was all about trucks. He kept several on display on a raised semicircular platform out front where passing drivers could see them. Not the regular F-150 pickups you and I might buy; but the huge F-250s and F-350s ranchers, horse breeders, and NASCAR fans favor. Then […]