Earlier today, the House of Representatives passed a bill—by a vote of 247-161—providing states $16B in emergency funding to shore up their Medicaid budgets and $10B in an effort to stave off teacher layoffs. The bill is slated to be signed by the president this evening. According to Democratic estimates, the bill is expected to save 290,000 jobs, including 140,000 teachers’ positions. Republican House Representative Mike Pence of Indiana wasn’t a fan of the bill. When asked by ABC’s Top Line what the Republican strategy would be for teachers who have lost their jobs, his response is,...
Continue reading...August 2010
New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. This is a daily feature dedicated to these folks: one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today’s is from Bob “Day Job” Hebert, who in his column “The Horror Show,” writes: The politicians’...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Good morning, folks. Levi is running for mayor in a new reality show. For real. Anyways, here’s your morning constitutional: More than 700 are dead due to a devastating landslide in the remote Zhouqu county, Gansu in northwest China. The House is back in session today to vote on a teacher and Medicaid package and a border security bill. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced some controversial budget-cutting proposals Monday, including completely getting rid of the U.S. Joint Forces Command. Fred Kaplan calls it a good start, but inadequate. The Federal Reserve is meeting today to discuss...
Continue reading...Book Rec
I picked up The Myth of You & Me at the library based solely on the title. I was not disappointed. This novel, by Leah Stewart, chronicles the unraveling of a friendship between two women, and more to the point, the intense bond they shared before falling out. The action takes place when the women are adults and looks back on their teenage years in frequent flashbacks. The story is told from the perspective of Cameron, and is propelled forward by several unanswered questions about the demise of her friendship with Sonia– a friendship so close the...
Continue reading...How I'm pretty sure I went to college with Rand Paul
Sure, he might be the sober new leader of the libertarian wing of the Republican party, but, after reading this, I’m fairly certain I must have gone to college with Rand Paul:* The strangest episode of Paul’s time at Baylor occurred one afternoon in 1983 (although memories about all of these events are understandably a bit hazy, so the date might be slightly off), when he and a NoZe brother paid a visit to a female student who was one of Paul’s teammates on the Baylor swim team. According to this woman, who requested anonymity because of...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. This is a daily feature dedicated to these folks: one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today’s is from Paul “The Little Professor” Krugman, who in his column “America Goes Dark,” writes: So...
Continue reading...Mad Men, "The Good News"
Stephanie: “Nobody knows what’s wrong with themselves, but everybody else can see it right away.” Despite finding themselves in a precarious financial position as New Year’s approaches, 1964 was a good year for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. It has not been a great year for most of our characters’ personal lives, however. The episode focuses mainly on Don, Joan, and Lane — each of them dealing with the loss or potential loss of someone they love. Don discovers that his best friend, Anna Draper, the one person who knows absolutely everything about Don and still loves him,...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Monday, 9 August 2010
Good morning, everybody. Pop-Tarts World, a Pop-Tarts store, has opened in Times Square. Now, your morning constitutional: While the Obama administration has been deporting a record number of immigrants who have been convicted of crimes, students who came to the U.S. without documentation have for the most part been spared. Rwandans today are voting to elect their president, and incumbent Paul Kagame is expected to win by a landslide. How Paul Kagame has used the law to muzzle Rwanda’s media. Even with unemployment high, some companies are having trouble attracting applicants. Chrysler doing better, although not quite...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today’s is from Paul “The Little Professor” Krugman, who in his...
Continue reading...Poem of the Week
One of my recent Netflix picks was Bright Star, the biopic about the poet John Keats and his lady love Fanny Brawne. I thought it was lovely–sad at the end, of course, but also unabashedly romantic. I could now present to you a poem by Keats, but that would be too obvious. Instead, here\’s one about the poet. Keats by Christopher Howell When Keats, at last beyond the curtain of love’s distraction, lay dying in his room on the Piazza di Spagna, the melody of the Bernini Fountain “filling him like flowers,” he held his breath...
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