I carped about this once before, but that was a year ago or more. I know that TPM is, among other things, a commercial enterprise. I know that means it has to raise money. I wish it would do this...
When I learned the sad news that PseudoCyants had died, I wrote a comment as many did. He was a giant in the Cafe. Generous in giving his time and insights, scrupulously fair and always thoughtful, his voice is missed. ...
I'm feeling the need to get away--have a little vacation. My temper is running shorter than it usually does, and that's a very good sign. Laughter is the best medicine, as I've been told more than once. This made me...
Maybe it's the August heat which makes it especially hot inside the "big tent" that the left populates. But I'm seeing a lot of calling for this and calling for that which strikes me as representative of that frustration. Two...
wordles are more than games The summer winds on, we've a new Supreme Court Justice, and in a week or so I'm going to imitate Chaucer, though he did his bit in the spring:. Off I go on pilgrimage...
I'm going to quote this verbatim, maybe just adding some bold and italics for emphasis. This came from my bank today:Sovereign Santander Bank.SKIP YOUR NEXT LOAN PAYMENT AND FREE UP SOME CASH: Dear____________Re: loan # ending in _____As a valued...
Acerebral a. Without a brain. A word for which there would at first sight appear to be no use, since no entity to which there would be anyh point in applyng the term could in fact possess this attribute. ...
This is going to be a quickie. I know, I've promised that before, but this time, maybe I'll keep my word. As is often the case, I'm a penny short and a day late to the debate about WikiLeak's document...
the eighth question Awhile back, I posed some simple questions in a highly unscientific survey. The questions related to issues of geographical mobility, a subject which has interested me for a very long time. I asked quesions I've asked...
I while back I wrote a piece about how the American Dream has bifurcated into a Horatio Alger version and a Martin Luther King version, and how the Alger version had led to a segregation by social class which made...
I'm writing this without access to preview. Apologies in advance for links which don't work, typos, grammar glitches, etc. etc. Yesterday Bluebird asked a very interesting question in response to a post I created. "When did choosing the lesser...
Short and sweet, or maybe just short. A recommendation of a book by the novelist, Sinclair Lewis--some of you may have heard of him, or even been forced to read a novel or two of his--too bad it took forcing,...
Memorial Day has been problematic for me for a very long time. When I was a teenager, a quartet of jet fighters performed stunts over the cemeteries of Minneapolis, which I thought a bit strange--I thought it stranger when two...
It's early days yet, but I've found another place which in which it is going to be fun to hang out. No, not instead of but in addition to. It's called Coffee Party USACOFFEE PARTY MISSION STATEMENT: The Coffee Party...
Two websites named Demos--one in the U.S. the other in the U.K. Almost like two countries separated by a common language as you-know-who said. I visit them both on occasion, and spent some time at the U.K. version today. I've...
I spend less time blogging here than I once did, though I remain a pretty faithful reader. It may be cyclical--when time expands, so does blogging time, after all. But it may be symptomatic of a recurring unease I feel,...
Does one's political virginity grow back? I've had a first time about once a decade since the last 1950s. Hubert Humphrey spoke at my high school in Minneapolis and started the process of weaning me away from family politics. I...
There are times I despair of American popular culture--both for what it is and that it wears the name American. I support it, unwillingly, because I chat on the internet. Here's what I'm supposed to consider of note this morning:Star...
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee...
I'm in the mini-Apple, attending my 50th high school graduation reunion, which, if nothing else, will confirm that the old guy I see in the mirror is as real as the young guy looking from behind the eyeballs at him.I...
