A Raging Moderate
August 31, 2006 on 9:11 pm | In Main, Media, National | 2 Comments
Photo of David Gergen courtesy of him.
For those of you who recall my post on X-treme Politics and my position as a moderate (for lack of a better word), here is a recent interview Stephen Colbert did with David Gergen, a White House advisor to both Republican and Democratic presidents.
As only he can, Colbert punctures the very viability of moderates and the extent to which they can shape the debate — any debate. It has been posted on Youtube. Click here to see it and tell me what you think. Even though it has fun at the expense of people like Gergen and me, I think it’s laugh-out-loud funny. Here is the link again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWvr0eRZhd0
Take it away, Jake.
Tuesday’s Random Thoughts
August 29, 2006 on 1:39 pm | In Main, Media, National | 4 CommentsI just heard on Air America that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has challenged President Bush to a one-on-one televised debate.
“The debate should be uncensored in order for the American people to be able to listen to what we say,” Ahmadinejad was quoted by the BBC as saying.
Great, I thought, two arrogant politicians with low approval ratings who can’t speak English trying to win the hearts and minds of Americans fed up with escalating violence in the Middle East. Bush vs Ahmadinejad — uncut. You can’t make this stuff up.
* * * * *
There is a scathing piece today in the Washington Post by media critic Howard Kurtz on coverage of the misadventures of confessed JonBenet Ramsey killer John Mark Karr. Here’s how he starts off:
Will every anchor, correspondent and producer who shamelessly hyped the John Mark Karr story now apologize for taking the country for a ride?
Don’t hold your breath.
This was such a sham, from the opening moments, that it instantly goes down with the greatest media embarrassments in modern history.
Gee, Howie, tell us how you really feel. Sure, it is an embarrassment in the sense that there was inordinate attention focused on a guy with a highly suspect background. And there were plenty of breathless reports that the real killer had been found. But let’s not get carried away. This doesn’t even come close to the Jayson Blair scandal, for example.
Who Needs Encouragement?
August 26, 2006 on 3:21 pm | In Education, Main | 3 Comments
It happens every year around this time. As a former teacher and as someone with two little kids, I start thinking about school, which gets me to thinking about education, which gets me to thinking about how to improve our schools.
I guess I’m mostly happy with my own kids’ school. Still, in a lot of ways I dread thinking about education because on some levels it seems hopeless and depressing.
Be that as it may, I noticed and read an article that appeared on the op-ed page of The Hartford Courant Monday, Aug. 21. As I write this, the link is still active. Click here to read it.
Headlined “Teachers Need Encouragement, Too,” and written by Dorothy Rich of the MegaSkills Education Center in Washington, the piece argues that we need to attract and retain the best teachers possible. Who could disagree with that? How do you do it, she asks?
Answer: Not the way we are doing it now. Criticism and blame do not result in better teachers, only more discouraged teachers.
True again, but this is not unique to teaching. And I guess that’s one of the problems I have with her whole piece and with the profession of which I used to be a part.
The Fund Kerfuffle Revisited
August 24, 2006 on 5:27 pm | In Main, Media | 1 Comment
Photo of John Fund courtesy OpinionJournal.com
Those who have been following this controversy are probably wondering why I hadn’t followed up yet with a response to a recent message from John Fund, who earlier this week lifted some of my material for his weekly column in Opinionjournal.com, The Wall Street Journal’s online opinion pages.
Well, I have been holding my fire in an attempt to give Fund the benefit of the doubt. I have read and enjoyed his column for years and I know that even the best of writers (including yours truly) can make mistakes.
The first posting on this matter is directly below this one, so if you need background, go there first. But suffice it to say that Fund’s response to my inquiry about using my material without attribution raises more questions than it answers.
Funder’s Keepers?
August 21, 2006 on 1:36 pm | In Main, Media | 7 CommentsNote: Go to end of this entry for an update and message from John Fund.
Do great minds think alike or did someone from a prominent national publication borrow my material without asking or crediting me?
I pose this question because as I was eating my lunch today, I was reading two or three national news articles I had picked off the Internet, including a piece by John Fund on The Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal.com. Fund, who is currently on leave as a member of The Journal’s editorial board, writes OpinionJournal.com’s “Political Diary” column.
Fund wrote an interesting piece on President’s Bush’s failure to communicate more clearly his vision for the future, especially on the war in Iraq. Then he complained about the contemporary caricature, popularized by many mainstream Democrats, that Bush is stupid because he is inarticulate.
Historic District Pizza: Tasty vs. Tasteful
August 18, 2006 on 11:38 am | In Local, Main | 12 Comments
About three weeks ago (this would be in the middle of the night, right after I reluctantly killed the bat), I was reading my email when I ran across a tip that Dean Diamond was buying 24 Millerton Road in Lakeville and that he planned to open a pizzeria there.
I didn’t think much of it. There was nothing yet in the assessor’s office about the transaction and it sounded quite preliminary. So I shelved the item, thinking I would write about it in a few weeks or ask Dean about it the next time I saw him.
Then early this week we at The Lakeville Journal received a couple of unexpected letters to the editor from two neighboring property owners who were aghast — indeed, almost indignant — that a “fast-food joint” would be allowed to operate in their historic neighborhood.
Continue reading Historic District Pizza: Tasty vs. Tasteful…
Tweedledumb or Tweedledumber?
August 16, 2006 on 11:33 am | In Main, National | 15 Comments
I heard an interesting discussion the other night on KGO, a San Francisco talk radio station I listen to late in the evening on the Internet. I say late in the evening because that’s the time-slot assigned to Gene Burns, the best radio talk show host I’ve ever heard — period.
The subject of Gene’s show that evening was Mike Wallace’s shaky 60 Minutes interview with Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Then the topic turned to the raging war between Israel and Hezbollah and the responsibility (if any) of the U.S. in stopping it. One caller infuriated Gene by insisting that there was nothing the U.S. could do because President Bush was simply “an idiot.”
Sorry, No Blueberries To Spare
August 14, 2006 on 11:11 am | In Main, Scenic Photos | 2 Comments
I went out into my backyard yesterday to my blueberry bushes, expecting to pick a bunch and feast on them that night or this morning for breakfast.
But instead of the hundred I expected, I barely managed to get 15 or 20. And I don’t think the birds have been stealing them — not anymore than usual anyway. Even the berry bunches behind the black netting were sparse.
Could it be that my ever-curious and berry-munching daughter has been picking them on the sly? I don’t think so. For one thing, she denies it. And for another, there is a paucity of berries even on the upper sections of the bush that are out of her reach.
The Tale of a Sore Loser
August 12, 2006 on 1:44 pm | In Main, State | 5 Comments
The following is a sneak peak at an editorial I wrote for The Lakeville Journal. It will appear in the Aug. 17 print edition. The photo is courtesy of Joe’s Senate Web site.
When a politician loses a battle, listening to his concession speech can be a most revealing moment. Such is the case with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who lost the Democratic primary last week to upstart challenger Ned Lamont.
“I am, of course, disappointed by the results,” Lieberman told his supporters at the Hartford Hilton. “I’m disappointed not just because I lost, but because the old politics of partisan polarization won today. For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand.”
Lieberman is correct in his assessment of the hyper-partisan atmosphere in contemporary politics. But what’s more partisan and polarizing than rejecting the decision of the voters of the party you claim loyalty to? What’s more divisive than attacking the victor who now has the backing of most of the Democratic power brokers statewide and nationally?
Running Against The Wal-Mart Tide
August 10, 2006 on 4:13 pm | In Main, National, Wal-Mart | 6 Comments
I admit it. I have long been fascinated by Wal-Mart. Business success stories always interest me, but the chain founded in 1962 by Arkansas entrepreneur Sam Walton grew steadily into the largest retailer in the world and the second largest revenue-producing corporation as of this year.
Such a meteoric rise would in itself be enough to hold my frequent attention. But Wal-Mart has in the last couple of years become the object of strong criticism (some of it justified) for its labor practices, environmental record and the effect its hulking stores can have on host communities.
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