I've spent some time thinking about the brouhaha regarding former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair's plagiarism. If you're not familiar with the story, head over to MediaMinded -- he's done a fine job of covering the issue. I must confess that, while the Blair story was on my radar, it didn't really catch my […]
I'm sure you've probably heard about it by now, but former secretary of Education, drug czar and author of "The Book of Virtues," has been outed as a high-stakes gambler. (Full disclosure: I have, on occasion, bought lottery tickets supported California's schools.) Frankly, it's not quite the big story some have made it out to […]
If by "intellectual" you mean "useful idiot," then you're right. It seems as though some leading intellectuals, including Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, singer Harry Belafonte and actor Danny Glover have come out to support Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's crackdown on political dissent. Glover, by the way, is MCI's pitchman for their local and long-distance […]
I just finished reading Simon Singh's "The Code Book." It covers the history of cryptography from Mary Queen of Scots to modern encryption that is used to ensure the security of things such as online shopping. While the book does talk a little about the math of cryptography, the non-math reader should have no problem […]
I recorded (for posterity) a re-airing on C-SPAN of Saturday night's Democratic presidential candidate debate. Just a couple of quick thoughts about the debate. The first is a comment made by Sen. John Edwards that "anyone sitting at this table would be a better president than Bush." I suspect that the vast majority of the […]
Last month, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, among others, decried the "slashing" of the Department of Veterans Affairs budget. Krugman and others care about this issue because they see it as a way to attack President Bush, who is largely popular among America's military. I pointed out at the time, that the claims were […]
Former NOW president Patricia Ireland has been named CEO of the YWCA. For the acronymically challenged, that's the Young Women's Christian Association. I'll take a poll on Sunday, but I think most of the young, Christian women I know won't be impressed.
Back at the beginning of March I made a graphic for the San Diego Union-Tribune's Sunday Insight section. Well, it turns out that it won the paper's in-house award for best graphic for the month. (I don't know what they were thinking.) Anyway, if you're interested, you can take a look at it here. Warning. […]
The Wall Street Journal's Dorothy Rabinowitz has an excellent column today on why Michael Moore, Janeane Garafalo, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon just don't matter. On April 14 in Vermont, for example, mourners gathered for the funeral of 21-year-old Marine Cpl. Mark Evnin, killed in action on the drive to Baghdad. A thousand people attended […]
Looks like they're going to charge up to eight more Enron executives for fraud. Sorry, Ken Lay isn't one of them.