Category: Bits and Pieces

AP reports another study on global warming.   Interestingly, the AP report is fairly balanced, and even ends with a comment by a person on the other side. Personally, I’m too ignorant of the science to have any idea who’s right.  But let me suggest a couple of layperson thoughts. First,

Let her explain: it’s time for a Mid-Summer Song or Something Festival dedicated to POTUS. If you’re not musically inclined, please chime in with a poem, an ‘ode’ maybe a limerick – aw heck, arrange the words and message to send a message. Obviously, after three and a half years

Opened my morning paper to find this column by Jim Litke.  In this emperor-has-no-clothes account, Litke describes the inclusion of utterly unqualified token Arab women at the Olympics as the sham that it is.  I was struck by two things.  First, the contrast between this account and NBC’s craven coverage of these tokens

Help! I sent someone (a committed Liberal) and article wherein noted anti-Jihadi crusader, Andrew McCarthy, made the charge that the U.S. was now funding Hamas through its aid program to the Palestinians. My Liberal friend posed that this is a pretty serious charge…can it be proved? I’m stuck in the

When the Olympics started I asked the Bookwormroom readers how interested they were and the answers were lukewarm at best.  Yet, the television ratings for the Olympics have been extremely strong.   For example, at 10:00 on Thursday night, the Olympic ratings were over 10 times those for the next highest show

Let’s see if I can do a better job of embedding a video my Dad e-mailed me than I did with the slide show: http://vimeo.com/12933322 One can only wonder what Obama would do in a true military crisis when minutes and even seconds count.

Under the category of origin of phrases, all within just a few pages of each other:   “No time like the present.”  Mary de la Riviere Manley (1663-1724). “He laughs best who laughs last.”  Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726). “Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.”  William Congreve (1670-1729). “Heaven hath

I’m struck by the loose use of language we’ve come to accept, sometime without even thinking about it.  For example, consider the word “free.”  How often have we heard a mail-order offer: buy one and get a second one free “just pay shipping and handling”?  Typically, the product is some

I haven’t been providing quotes lately, but I found my Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations the other day.  I opened it at random and came across these George Eliot quotes that seemed worth sharing:   “There’s no real making amends in the world, any more nor can you mend a wrong subtraction

Please help me with something.  In discussing the ground zero mosque last night with my son, he asked me to find authority for the proposition that the mosque was being built as a part of a Muslim tradition of building mosques at the site of their victories.  As the most

Sadie found the article quoted below (Thank you, Sadie!).  It makes some sense and would be particularly easy to do in counties like the one I live in (Alameda, CA) which include a major inner city (Oakland) and large suburbs (Fremont, Union City, Hayward).  It would be a bit harder

Some good reading on a hot summer day: Council Submissions The Right Planet – Obama’s Islamic Agenda The Noisy Room – Romney Tells Israel: “You Built That!” The Independent Sentinel – U.S. Fast Becoming A Totalitarian State While the Media Ignores the Story The Colossus of Rhodey – The difference

“Tea Party Longshot Wins Senate Primary” read the headline.  The more conservative candidate easily won a senate primary in Texas. What can you all tell me about this race and what, if anything, does this Texas result mean nationally?

Sadie sends along this message (Thank you, Sadie!): Milton Friedman was born July 31, 1912 – 100 years ago today. Do you have a favorite quote of his? Here’s mine: If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of