"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
In the news
Earlier this month, our friend Mary Anne flew to Tennessee to visit her mother and sister. All would have been well had not United routed her homebound flight through Denver. We can thankfully say we don’t know anyone who died in, or narrowly escaped from, the World Trade Center towers on 9/11, but we can say […]
Woo-hoo, the Arizona no smoking proposition passed (the real one, not the one sponsored by R. J. Reynolds). I can hang around in bars again! As for the election in general, I, for one, welcome our new congressional overlords. Try not to screw up, okay? And while you’re at it, try not to screw us […]
When you have company it’s hard to make time for peripheral activities like blogging. But we did take time to fill out our ballots and mail them in, allowing us to smugly state: we voted. Control of congress will go to the party with the most energized voters. We’re energized. We hope you are too. […]
So the British foil another terror plot, one similar to a previous terror operation planned by Al Qaeda. I’ve said this before: Israel’s war with Hezbollah and Hamas aside, for Europe, the UK, and the USA, there’s one clear target in the war on terror. His name is Osama bin Laden. When are we going […]
When I post entries here, I categorize them: culture, current events, politics, motorcycling, flying, war, etc. Usually it’s a no-brainer. But sometimes I drift into areas that are more difficult to pin down. Example: suppose I write about the terrorist bombings in Mumbai and the frightening events in Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon. How do I […]
Oh dear God . . . from Lawrence Kaplan at The National Review: Even by the degraded standards of everyday life in Baghdad, this report from CNN’s Nic Robertson comes as a shock: One international official told me of reports among his staff that a 15-year-old girl had been beheaded and a dog’s head sewn […]
This is revealing: “If the town complains and says no, the committee can ask the principal or the director of teachers to approach the teacher and say, ‘Look, this is not the subject to be taught here in this town, or in this place, because we know we have been humans from the beginning, ‘” […]
China heckler at White House prompts Bush apology. Okay, someone managed to get into the press stands and shout at Chinese President Hu Jintao. Isn’t this normal behavior in the United States of America? Isn’t this, in fact, constitutionally protected behavior? Maybe not: The Secret Service charged Wang with disorderly conduct under local statutes. The […]