February 2010 Archives

This was a huge topic in my book, but it's become a bigger topic of late. I will tell a story I know of from the past (that is in my book). Even though I am dealing with a similar situation now, I want to make it perfectly clear that any stories I tell are from the fairly distant past and are only related to current events in topic and not any general or specific...

On this president's day I thought I would just do a short blurb on where we have gone as Americans. George Washington was a very tall man, but a man with wooden teeth. He also may not have been the best orator in the world. Abraham Lincoln was a good speaker, but perhaps pound for pound our ugliest (physically) president. Yet, most historians and casual observers put them in our top five. Now, I present...

President Obama, in the name of the Nobel Peace Prize, put a stop to this, NOW:"MARJA, Afghanistan -- An errant American rocket strike on Sunday hit a compound crowded with Afghan civilians in the last Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province, killing at least 10 people [the number now stands at 12], including 5 children, military officials said....The strike came after American Marines and Afghan soldiers had been taking intense small-arms fire from a mud-walled compound...

I was driving along minding my own business when I heard a radio ad that almost made me pull over and lose my breakfast. Unfortunately, I don't know how to capture such ads here, but if anyone has heard this ad and wants to throw it in here they can go ahead. Kay Bailey Hutchinson released this as and it might be the most brilliant one I've heard at the state level in years. It...

I heard something on NPR this morning that irked me, to say the least.Since PBO took office over a year ago, there are still some 200 or so positions that are to be filled by his appointments. He has named people to these positions--don't misunderstand--but apparently there seems to be a little problem in getting the various Director-level folks into these positions. The little problem is ... partisan politics on the part of the Republicans.Positions...

The latest scheme to make the Wall Street fat cats even fatter (with our money, of course), courtesy of their friends at the Federal Reserve:"During the financial crisis, it [the Fed]  bought hundreds of billions of dollars of real-estate loans and securities from banks to reduce mortgage rates and ease the pressure on bank balance sheets.  This, in turn, pumped hundreds of billions of new dollars into the economy, which has helped the banks-and bankers-to...

I have spent much of the last year or so writing either on the Chronicle or here about this and that. Most of the time the topic has trended to education, but I hate to dominate the conversation with shop talk. Recently, our conversations have trended towards poverty, welfare, and NASA. Now, those are three you normally don't see in the same sentence. It's high time we take stock in where we are and where...

Saints win after a 43 year long drought.  It was a great game, battled until the last minute.Good for New Orleans....

Installed now in The Curve at the Barbican in London, artist Celeste Boursier-Mougenot, an aviery filled with zebra finches and electric guitars makes for an interesting sight-sound experience.  I really like the one who uses a twig as a guitar pick on the Les Paul.  Have a look:I'm very busy right now and will post when I can.  Have a great weekend....

Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense back in the 18th century. It made a brilliant case for revolution and if for a brief moment, personified common sense. As time has gone on, common sense has been fading like the gene pool in the Bush family. Today's tale brings us to the lonestar state where our state legislature has become educational experts in much the same way as that new vibrating ab cruncher gets us in shape:...