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My family and I went to the VA hospital for Christmas services, during which the kindly chaplain said goodbye to the veterans to whom he had been ministering. Like a record number of federal government employees, he has decided to retire this year. Because the federal workforce is older than the general population, a certain [...]
Archive for December, 2011
December 26th, 2011
Category: Airline Industry and Travel, Religion and Politics
An out of control passenger, foaming at the mouth, tried to open the exit door of an airplane at 30,000 feet. This could have been a disaster, but fortunately, there was a hero on board. Give it up for practicing Muslim Jabir Hazziez Jr. (h/t Steve Benen)
December 26th, 2011
Category: Commerce and its discontents, Financial crises
A story in today’s New York Times talks about how U.S. financial firms are stepping in to buy up assets that European banks are being forced to shed. But it buries the lede: that government regulation deserves the credit for leaving them in the financial condition to do so.
December 26th, 2011
I know we have some readers with legal training, and this question is directed to them. Some of the films I recommend each Friday on this site are not readily available from NetFlix/libraries/stores but have been posted online in their entirety. I don’t want to rip off people who make movies, nor do I want [...]
December 26th, 2011
Category: Britain, Language and usage
The Economist has a priceless article on euphemisms, which correctly cites the British as masters of the craft: British newspaper obituaries are a rich seam: nobody likes to speak ill of the dead, yet many enjoy a hint of the truth about the person who has “passed away”. A drunkard will be described as “convivial” [...]
December 25th, 2011
Category: Personal moment
I believe it was Calvin (not the theologian, but the one who hangs with a tiger named Hobbes) who said that “people who are nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children”. In that spirit, I re-purpose this post which many people told me they enjoyed when it first appeared. This is a holiday experience that [...]
December 24th, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
What Jamie Malinowski said. There’s reason to think that Obama will become more combative over time; I hope he also becomes more partisan, since we want to take back the House as well as re-electing the President. And I wouldn’t want to underestimate the problem Obama’s skin color creates for any strategy that involves expressing [...]
December 24th, 2011
Category: Personal moment
to our readers, our authors, their families, and everyone any of you care about. It is a wonderful holiday, whether you have snow or palm trees, accreting everything worth working for – generosity, family reconnection, lights, peace, music, good food – and marvellously resistant to competition, commercialization, and small-minded whining of every kind, even to [...]