How’s this for success of a government program? Cash for clunkers, as the CARS (Car Allowance Rebate System) program is commonly known, has run through the originally allocated $1,000,000,000. In just one week, Americans traded in enough low mileage vehicles in exchange for a discount on a new car to use up all […]
Hey, I’m Sergeant James Crowley and I’m not a racist. Okay, maybe I don’t have any Black friends. But this one time I pulled over a man, who happened to be Black, because he didn’t signal long enough when changing lanes. I walked up to his Cadillac (where’d he get the money […]
Lauren related an interesting story to me this morning. In one of her classes last semester, they were speaking with a student who had recently been visiting an African country. This student told of how discipline is handled over there: plenty of beatings and other corporal punishment, severe enough to bother this […]
When camp is over, like any good camp counselor substitute, I walk through the lunch areas to pick up trash. It sets a good example for the other counselors (who seem more than content to sit around waiting for all campers to be gone so they can leave), it makes me look good, and […]
If healthcare delivered by the private system is so great, then why invest anywhere else? Seriously, for all those people arguing that the only way to have a successful healthcare system in the United States is to let private industry have at it, then they ought to be pouring all their money into the […]
What a trip! Well, mostly, what a return home yesterday. As my paternal grandmother is in the hospital, recovering from what seems to have been a stroke, I wanted to return as soon as possible from our trip. With her health rather stable, it didn’t seem necessary to end our trip early, […]
Finally, a post from Montreal. I’ve been delaying because this is vacation and a day to day recap of what we’ve done would be exceptionally boring. Suffice it to say, we made it after driving and staying overnight in Toronto. We’ve had two whole days in Montreal and have definitely warmed up […]
Republicans surrendered to the charm and exceptional record of Sonia Sotomayor yesterday as her testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee came to a close. Two Republican senators admitted that her record was “mainstream” - how could it not be? She’s currently an appeals judge; the only thing she can go on […]
This is a non-review, because I haven’t seen Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and I don’t intend to. Perhaps it is the fate of all movies crafted after books that people loved: there is nowhere to go but down. The swift, stirring adventure of J. K. Rowling’s wizarding world doesn’t come […]
I had the pleasure of lecturing on Facebook and Twitter to participants of Senior Summer School. Every summer, a large group of 70-90 year-olds gather in Madison, WI (and 7 other locations around the US) to stay in dorms and listen to lectures on a wide variety of topics. If I was going […]
Here’s the one question on my mind: will Jeff Sessions, Republican Senator from Alabama, attempt to use racist arguments against Sotomayor? We know his beefs. 1. He was rejected for a federal judgeship because of his racist comments - including saying that he hadn’t thought the KKK so bad until he found […]
When I first heard about Google Voice, I was intrigued. Now, I didn’t hear about it nearly as soon as other people. I had never heard of GrandCentral. But the thought of being able to unite any phone numbers I might have under one universal number was very intriguing. So much […]
Google recently announced that they are developing their own operating system, which will debut on some netbooks as early as next year. For all those who think Google is the best software company on the planet, this news sent their heads spinning out of control. Plaudits came from across the web, announcing that […]
I was too young to appreciate Michael Jackson in his prime. Further, growing up in a small town meant that Jackson’s increasingly bizarre appearance and actions were the subject of ridicule rather than pity. Jackson’s music touched a lot of people, but I was never one of them. Later, in college, I […]
With the recent announcement of Sarah Palin’s resignation as Alaskan governor, critics are out in force commenting on what this could mean for her political future. While some commentators have called her move risky if she intends to continue in politics (Karl Rove, for example), others have hailed it as “brilliant” or at least, […]