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Tim Pawlenty and Michelle Bachmann probably wish they hadn’t written pardon letters for Frank Vennes. So do the victims of his con game.
Archive for May, 2011
May 22nd, 2011
Category: Sports
Before free agency and big money ruined professional baseball, I was a devoted fan of the game, during which time I developed tolerance and even affection for outstanding athletes who could barely put two words together when interviewed. Reporters used to handle this situation with softball (no pun intended) questions such as “What’s it like [...]
May 22nd, 2011
Category: Israel, Middle East Politics
Every year I become more alarmed about Israel’s future, not least because of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s intransigent response to a changing world
May 22nd, 2011
Category: Watching Conservatives
Have reporters started to notice? Jacob Weisberg has.
May 22nd, 2011
Category: Airline Industry and Travel, Psychology
I fly enough that it became sensible about a decade ago to buy an ongoing membership in my preferred airline’s “club”, which offers peace, quiet and free coffee away from the crush in the terminal. At one of the airline’s hubs, the club was remodelled a few years ago, bringing in very nice furniture, more [...]
May 21st, 2011
One of the pleasures of living in the East Bay is the off-leash dog park at Point Isabel, where we will go with ours later today. On the way home, the devil has placed a temptation. If there’s a parking place in the shade, we can stop at Costco and load up on staples at [...]
May 20th, 2011
James Fallows urges the press not to pay too much attention to Newt Gingrich’s already-floundering Presidential campaign. Comparing it to Donald Trump’s effort, he argues: if Gingrich coverage turns into Carnival Barkers Part Deux, we’ll end up giving headline attention to disputes that have more to do with reality-show celebrity than with how Republicans will [...]
May 20th, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
Looking for the secret recipe for communicating with other? This field experiment offers some clues.
May 20th, 2011
Category: Post-disaster reflections, Woolgathering
Obviously, we should be blogging furiously in the remaining day. On the other hand, there’s other stuff I really want to do while I can, like learn Arabic and change the oil in my car, so I will have to be brief. Here are some useful updates of the sort for which you naturally turn [...]
May 19th, 2011
Category: Watching Conservatives
Between Trump’s antics and Blingrich’s, they’re starting to make Sarah Palin look like a reasonable human being. And with Huckabee out, unless Bachman gets in Palin might grab virtually the entire true- wingnut vote while Romney and Pawlenty and maybe Daniels split the votes of the people who hate the poor and the planet but [...]