Lipstick on a Pig? EESA 2008 Dressed up for Senate
The full text of the Senate's version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is available here.If you download the .pdf, you'll see that the 110-page version has swelled to 451 pages,...
View ArticlePatriotism for Grownups: An Open Letter to Lisa Schiffrin
After reading Kino's diary on Lisa Schiffrin's latest comments on "Patriotism for Kids," I couldn't resist the temptation to drop Schiffrin an email. After all, I'm getting pretty tired of right-wing...
View ArticleState Employees' Public Option in Nevada Costs 76% of National Average
For the 2009 Plan Year, 7/08-7/09, the annual average state health insurance premium for the State of NV self-funded public employee’s benefits plan was $8,169.40 (Source: State of NV, PEBP Utilization...
View Article"Justice and Population Biology" and HCR
Reading veritas curat's diary, "Justice and Population Biology," reminded me of an interview I heard on NPR recently with Lionel Shriver about her new book, So Much for That. A NYT article about the...
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"Here Comes the Sun": POTUS in Las Vegas (Photo Diary)
Rain in Las Vegas, NV, is almost always a blessing. With an annual average rainfall of about 4 inches, less in recent years with the ongoing drought, and Lake Mead's accelerating disappearing act, we...
View ArticleWhat Now? Reading Basho in the Wake of Disaster
In the year we know as 1689, poet and teacher Matsuo Basho embarked on a 1500-mile walking tour of northern Honshu, Japan. Leaving his home in Edo, modern-day Tokyo, Basho and his traveling companion,...
View ArticleAn "Easter Egg" at the Royal Wedding: Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Secret...
Count me one of the estimated two billion British royal wedding watchers. Sleeping in, I was content to view BBC America’s first rebroadcast of the event. A dedicated Anglophile and long-time admirer...
View ArticleLiar, Liar: Has Mitt Romney read "Atlas Shrugged"?
I imagine that he has not. But I know that his running-mate Paul Ryan has. And since Ryan has made a personal fetish of the book, at one time setting it above the Bible in his estimation of the moral...
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For Trayvon
This photo collage blends images of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Trayvon Martin with a slogan expressing the need for renewed civil rights activism following the Zimmerman trial's "not guilty"...
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"Because they are hard": Do we have "the right stuff" for the "Sanders...
Over 50 years ago, speaking at Rice University in Houston, Texas, President John F. Kennedy proclaimed an American identity characterized by a restless desire for progress. He reminded his audiences...
View ArticlePower corrupts...
Matt Thompson over at The Atlantic, examining the testimonies by Dr. Ford and Justice Kavanaugh, reminds us that Thursday’s Senate hearing—and, most likely, the supplemental FBI investigation just...
View ArticleBad poetry for a dark day...
ExtinguishedThe Puppet and the Perjurer conspired a cagey planTo stack Supreme Court justice with support for Putin’s man.The Gamble case is coming: it threatens to upholdThe rights of states to...
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