- Proverbs for Paranoids, 3: If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.—Gravity’s Rainbow
‘Is it about a bicycle?’ he asked.—The Third Policeman
Tag Archives: politics
Threads
Picking up a few loose ones …
Armenia
Back in August we heard about the incipient rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey that was to culminate in an imminent restoration of diplomatic relations. On October 10, after a last-minute dispute over wording was resolved with input (shall we say) from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the two countries [...]
Posted in Agora Also tagged Armenia, Cleveland, cycling, ecology, Iraq, Turkey, Washington DC 2 Comments
Won’t
Jacob Weisberg has offered an early, tentative assessment of Barack Obama as president. The first “theme” he isolates is that Obama “sees the middle ground as the high ground.”
Candidates who talk about bringing people together or changing the tone in Washington are usually blowing happy smoke. But Obama’s focus on reconciliation is clearly more than [...]
Chrysostom
We all knew, from the day he burst on the scene, that Barack Obama is a great talker. And great talk can sometimes accomplish a lot. But there’s a reason why we talk about “walking the walk.” And, for better or worse (mostly worse), George Bush appears to be the better walker. (Maybe Obama could [...]
Autobiograffiti
Not only am I getting tired of Facebook (after a mere 13 months of use), I’ve started wondering how much time I’ve already wasted there. It didn’t take very long for me to get fed up and shut down all applications, so if a Facebook bot sends me an egg or kidnaps me or asks [...]
Wasabi
I was looking forward to “crazy” on Tuesday, but didn’t expect so much of teh stupid.
Up until late Monday, Laura and I planned to head down to the Mall at a not-too-unreasonable hour and see what we could see of the swearing-in. We are, after all, just ordinary folk. But a former neighbor (and extraordinary [...]
Auguration
Far be it from me to try and predict how the Obama presidency will turn out. Many of us had a feeling the Bush years would be bad, but did any of us dream it would turn out as disastrous as it did?
I saw a teaser today at the New York Times saying that David [...]
Sundries
The year is rapidly drawing to a close, and activity here has dwindled to a trickle. The world outside continues to undergo sundry shocks and transformations, while life in the basement has become more inward.
After all the excitement and anxiety of the presidential campaign, Barack Obama is off to a solid start. He has already [...]
Anticipation
For someone who keeps asserting that the presidential contest is proceeding pretty much as expected, and who spends much of his time trying to calm the nervous Nellies, I have been spending an awful lot of time lately at FiveThirtyEight.com, watching for signs of disaster. By and large I have been made happy by what [...]
Apostasy
Last week two prominent Republicans spoke at the Democratic National Convention, eloquently explaining why they will be supporting the Democratic ticket this fall.
Former US congressman Jim Leach of Iowa said “it is clear to all Americans that something is out of kilter in our great republic,” and went on to describe four “great debates” in [...]
Escalator