One irrepressible man's squint at the metaphorical signposts, songbirds, soapboxes, street musicians, and hot dog stands of life.
Criticism, lyricism, polemics, performance, and making change... all with mustard.
An event like this occurs every 40 years, just about how often it rains in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
In 1928, after making his famous statement (”I do not choose to run for president”), Calvin Coolidge skipped the Republican convention in Kansas City. In 1968, with much of the country agitated about the Vietnam War, Lyndon Johnson chose to absent himself from the Democratic convention in Chicago. This week, George W. Bush missed his party’s convention in St. Paul.
First there was Troopergate (re Palin’s sister’s ex-husband)…followed quickly by Abstinence Problems (Palin’s 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy).
Now, up pop allegations that Palin and her husband are secessionists. As yet entirely unconfirmed, the head of the Alaskan Independence Party (a legally authorized party in the state that historically receives about 3% of the vote), is on the record stating that the Palins were, in 1994, registered members of the AIP and even attended the party’s convention in Wasilla that year.
Why should anyone care? … Continue Reading
She certainly has the form. Does she have the substance?
With the televising of the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960, image as a selector of electability began rising in importance. In our video-deluged world, how one comes across on the screen is critical. It’s what the broadcast industry used to call TVQ: (television quotient—personality popularity ratings, typically measuring familiarity and liking, characterized by viewer surveys asking respondents to tell whether a personality is “one of their favorites”).
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s pick for veep, has an excellent image; she is attractive, charismatic, dynamic, self-assured, aggressive, yet not off-putting. But like the choices made by FDR and Bush the Elder, she was on no ones short list … Continue Reading
The Health & Human Service’s published ruling entitled “Ensuring that Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices In Violation of Federal Law” (HHS 45 CFR Part 88) is now open for comment from interested citizens. (I discussed this ruling in two previous posts: Bush Administration: Contraception = Abortion and Bush Administration: Abortion Definition Removed.) This type of ruling is like an executive order; it does not need Congressional approval to become a part of HHS’s operating manual.
In the draft version, abortion was defined in words that clearly included some contraceptive modalities, thus overtly supporting those health care providers who receive federal funds and who wish to deny … Continue Reading
On August 20, San Francisco Giants starter Matt Cain, after an excellent seven and two-thirds innings against the Florida Marlins, left the game ahead 5-2. Giants reliever Tyler Walker got the last out in the eighth, and with the score unchanged, closer Brian Wilson came in in the top of the ninth. His job: save Cain’s victory.
But Wilson gave up a lead-off double, retired the next two batters, and then gave up a single and a three-run homer to tie the game. … Continue Reading
After several weeks of negative comment throughout the blogosphere, and embarrassingly scant notice in the traditional media, a leaked Department of Health and Human Services draft ruling (HHS-45-CFR) that defined contraception as abortion (see my previous post on this subject) has been finalized.
The text of the final ruling (HHS 45 CFR Part 88) is here.
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt had previously protested in his self-written blog that the brouhaha was completely off-base: … Continue Reading
Mixers…and medicine.
In 1968, Commander Edward Whitehead came to Harvard Business School to give a talk on the continuing importance—in the face of computers and other rapidly advancing technologies—of people in industry. (A similar, and rather drier talk he gave in 1955 is here.)
Perhaps the first CEO to become his company’s advertising spokesman, Commander Whitehead (1908-1978), a World War II veteran of the South Pacific campaign in His Majesty’s Navy, was the President of Schweppes (USA) and … Continue Reading
In mid-July, a draft ruling (HHS-45-CFR) defining contraception as abortion leaked out of the Department of Health and Human Services. Considering its import, the ruling, which would not require congressional approval to become operative, was given remarkably little notice in the press until the Houston Chronicle editorialized on it this week (“Redefining Abortion”) and various pro-choice, pro-life, family planning, and political organizations jumped into action. HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, the only Cabinet-level official with a self-written blog, commented (way too cavalierly, IMO), “I’m delighted to announce that with the help of Planned Parenthood, my blog—for the first time—received more visits than my teenage son’s MySpace page.”
In a guest editorial published in the 8/8/08 issue of Science, the magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Director of Egypt’s Library of Alexandria, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, states:
“Throughout the Muslim world we are witnessing an increasingly intolerant social milieu that is driven by self-appointed guardians of religious correctness, who inject their narrow interpretation of religion in all public debate. Rejecting rationality or evidentiary approaches, they increasingly force dissenting voices into silence and into conformity with what they would consider accepted behavior and speech. Of course, Muslim zealots are not the only ones who try to challenge the scientific enterprise, and in the US, the battles over evolution and creationism continue to rage.” … Continue Reading
