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A Bundling Deal
Once upon a time (1850), when the country was about to break out into civil war, the Senate introduced the concept of bundling laws together. A bill would contain something that each side really wanted, and something that each side disliked, and that way both sides would hold their noses and actually get some of the people's business done. And with ( Read more... ) -
A Sesquicentennial for the Fourth
150 Years Ago Today ( Read more... ) -
Drone Filibuster
Well, Senator Rand Paul managed to figure out a way to get himself in the news again. He filibustered the Senate, holding up the functioning of the U. S. government (in a time of war, no less) for thirteen hours while he demanded a clarification of whether the Obama administration thought it was okay to use drone attacks on American citizens on ( Read more... ) -
Bond at the Oscars
Apparently I showed good taste in liking the song "Skyfall". It has just become the first song from a James Bond movie to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. (And the movie won one-and-a-half Oscars, picking up a tie for Best Sound Editing.) But I had to feel a little bad for Shirley Bassey, whose voice was only a shadow of what it used to be as ( Read more... ) -
Cannons and Drones
Today (Feb. 17) the Los Angles Times published yet another salvo in the editorials and columns complaining about drone attacks. Especially, everyone seems to be concerned about the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, who because he held American citizenship supposedly needed to be tried first. Really ( Read more... ) -
Oh, The Disappointment
Responding to an online petition, the White House has rejected the idea of building a Death Star:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20997144
(But it would have done wonders for the unemployment problem . . . ) -
2012 Deflected
Okay -- I figured out why the world didn't end on Dec. 21st. Evidently the Fates decided to use their karma to instead make the Los Angeles Clippers the best team in pro basketball. (14-game winning streak -- as an L. A. resident, I can state that's an equally mind-boggling event!) -
Another non-end of the world
Oh, look at that . . . nothing happened. *sigh* Now we're going to have to pay the credit card bills for the Christmas presents ( Read more... ) -
A Step Towards Abolition
December 1, 1862: The U. S. Congress re-convened, and received Lincoln's second annual message. Unlike the State of the Union Address of modern times, the missive was delivered in written form, and read by a clerk. The full text is available at
http:// ( Read more... ) -
Skyfall and Bad Writing
**Spoiler Alert -- Do Not Read If You Are Planning To See Skyfall**
So now I've seen the movie -- and it was great, but with flaws. The acting ranged from competent to outstanding: I especially loved Judi Dench's delivery of the closing lines of Tennyson's "Ulysses". The cinematography was beautiful; the best of any Bond film yet. And the many ( Read more... )