The Up-or-Down Vote on Obama's Presidency

The money in Washington is on Health Care legislation not passing this year. FRANK RICH is hedging his bets on this issue. But he articulates forcefully that Obama needs to create an overarching narrative before it is too late for his presidency.

WEDNESDAY'S health care rally was one of President Obama's finest hours. It was so fine it couldn't be blighted even by his preposterous backdrop, a cohort of white-jacketed medical workers large enough to staff a hospital in one of the daytime soaps that refused to be pre-empted by the White House show.
Obama's urgent script didn't need such cheesy theatrics. At last he took ownership of what he called "my proposal," stating concisely three concrete ways the bill would improve America's broken health care system. At last he pushed for a majority-rule, up-or-down vote in Congress. At last he conceded that bipartisan agreement between two parties with "honest and substantial differences" on fundamental principles wasn't happening. At last he mobilized his rhetoric against a villain everyone could hiss -- insurance companies. In a brief address, he mentioned these malefactors of great greed 13 times. More...

An Amazing Nordic Tale

David Brooks reports an amazing Nordic Tale that I want to see made into a movie.

The Hard and the Soft (NY Times)

The United States, a nation of 300 million, won nine gold medals this year in the Winter Olympics. Norway, a nation of 4.7 million, also won nine. This was no anomaly. Over the years, Norwegians have won more gold medals in Winter Games, and more Winter Olympics medals over all, than people from any other nation.
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Somebody's Mother

by Mary Dow Brine

The woman was old and ragged and gray
And bent with the chill of the Winter's day.
The street was wet with a recent snow
And the woman's feet were aged and slow.
She stood at the crossing and waited long,
Alone, uncared for, amid the throng
Of human beings who passed her by
Nor heeded the glance of her anxious eye.
More...

Tiger Woods 15-minute Apology

Parts of the 15-minute "mea culpa" are cheesy. But other parts are remarkable. Tiger claims that he never took performance enhancing drugs and that his wife never hit him.

Romance in the Age of Facebook

Here is a great story by Joe Flint in the LA Times about the challenges about starting and ending a romance with facebook.

More than just Facebook friended

Two longtime acquaintances connect on the website, and it's like a whirlwind -- it sweeps them up together and then hurls them apart.

It was my first romance of the Facebook era. With it came the promise of contact, the ecstasy of connection, the neurosis of being able to peer into her world when she wasn't looking and the torment of trying to figure out what she was thinking through her status updates and posts. More...

The First Solid Data on what drove Voters in the MA Senate Race

I definitely did not see it coming that the Democrats would lose Kennedy's senate seat in Massachusetts. Here is the first solid information why the Republican candidate, Scott Brown, won the election. Click on More to find out who the man behind the stunning political upset is.

Brown's Massachusetts victory fueled by frustration with Washington, poll shows
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen (Washington Post Staff Writer)

Dissatisfaction with the direction of the country, antipathy toward federal government activism and opposition to the Democrats' health-care proposals drove the upset election of Republican Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts, according to a new post-election survey of Massachusetts voters. More...

How to Train the Aging Brain

Here are some useful tips for middle aged people on how to get their brain to perform better.

By BARBARA STRAUCH (NY Times)
I LOVE reading history, and the shelves in my living room are lined with fat, fact-filled books. There's "The Hemingses of Monticello," about the family of Thomas Jefferson's slave mistress; there's "House of Cards," about the fall of Bear Stearns; there's "Titan," about John D. Rockefeller Sr.
The problem is, as much as I've enjoyed these books, I don't really remember reading any of them. Certainly I know the main points. But didn't I, after underlining all those interesting parts, retain anything else? It's maddening and, sorry to say, not all that unusual for a brain at middle age: I don't just forget whole books, but movies I just saw, breakfasts I just ate, and the names, oh, the names are awful. Who are you? More...

Now Obama crashes a Party

Health care reforms is hanging in the balance. This is not a good time to have to fly to Copenhagen to salvage even a minimal agreement to contain global warming. President Obama had to resort to some unusual diplomatic tactics: to crash private negotiations. The NYT provides details.
The deal eventually came together after a dramatic moment in which Mr. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton burst into a meeting of the Chinese, Indian and Brazilian leaders, according to senior administration officials. Mr. Obama said he did not want them negotiating in secret. The intrusion led to new talks that cemented central terms of the deal, American officials said. ... But Mr. Obama, who left before the conference considered the accord because of a major storm descending on Washington, noted that the agreement was merely a political statement and not a legally binding treaty and might not need ratification by the entire conference. Mr. Obama said before he left Copenhagen that he was confident that a final accord would be reached here. He looked weary and his eyes were bloodshot as he left the conference center for his motorcade to the airport. More...

Free Ride in the Presidential Flight Simulator

So your mother told you that one day you also can be president ...She exaggerated a bit your chances of getting into the White House -- nothwithstanding the recent episode with Michaele and Tareq Salahi. But today you can step into the presidential flight simulator and make a decision about how to handle the request of your generals to increase signanficantly the troops fighting in Afghanistan. The first article will take you behind the scences of the process that led to the decision over a three months period. Make your decision. Then think about how you would address the country. Give a little speach to anyone who want to listen. Next you can read or watch how Obama did address the nation. Finally, you can read to diametrically opposed reactions. David Brooks cheers your decision wheres Frank Rich finds it fundamentally flawed. After taking the ride, tell your mother whether you still want to be president.

How Obama Came to Plan for 'Surge' in Afghanistan
By PETER BAKER (NY Times, Dec 6, 2009)
WASHINGTON -- On the afternoon he held the eighth meeting of his Afghanistan review, President Obama arrived in the White House Situation Room ruminating about war. He had come from Arlington National Cemetery, where he had wandered among the chalky white tombstones of those who had fallen in the rugged mountains of Central Asia. More...

Background: A Novelists explains what just happened in Switzerland

Switzerland's Invisible Minarets

By PETER STAMM Winterthur, Switzerland
THREE years ago I was invited to the Tehran International Book Fair; afterward I traveled around the country. The mosques I visited were so empty as to give the impression that Iran was as secular as Western Europe.It wasn't until I took a trip to a place of pilgrimage in the mountains that I saw large numbers of the faithful. The traffic started piling up even before my group reached the town of Imamzadeh Davood. A few of the pilgrims were making the trek on foot, together with the sheep they intended to sacrifice. The narrow streets were bustling just as at Christian places of pilgrimage: booths crammed with junk, groups of teenagers taking pictures of each other, every nook and cranny packed with candles lighted by believers in the hope their wishes would be fulfilled.
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Hot: The Party Crashers Speak!

Couple Crashes Obama's First State Dinner

Crashing a party that you are not invited to takes guts. Crashing Obama's first state dinner take more than nerve. Before you decide to imitate Michaele and Tareq Salahi and crash the next state dinner, wait and see what happens to the couple. DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer, reports:

WASHINGTON - Crashing a state dinner at the White House apparently takes a security breakdown as well as some kind of nerve. The Secret Service is looking into its own security procedures after determining that a Virginia couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, managed to slip into Tuesday night's state dinner at the White House even though they were not on the guest list, agency spokesman Ed Donovan said. More...

Why is American history so murderous?

Jill Lapore reviews in the New Yorker a number of books that try to explain why the US is so violent in international comparison. Historians have shown that the murder rate in America has always been higher than in Western Europe. Why?

Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, who met three years ago in a Hartford drug-treatment center and shared a room in a halfway house in between stints in prison, were both seasoned burglars, though Hayes, a forty-four-year-old crack addict, was quite a bit older than Komisarjevsky, who was twenty-six, and the great-grandson of a Russian princess. In the spring of 2007, both men were paroled. More...

China the next America?

David Brooks (NT Times) files this perceptive column in the wake of President Obama's visit in China.
When European settlers first came to North America, they saw flocks of geese so big that it took them 30 minutes to all take flight and forests that seemed to stretch to infinity. They came to two conclusions: that God's plans for humanity could be completed here, and that they could get really rich in the process. This moral materialism fomented a certain sort of manic energy. Americans became famous for their energy and workaholism: for moving around, switching jobs, marrying and divorcing, creating new products and going off on righteous crusades. More...

Avoiding Cancer: What works and what doesn't

How singing up for the military can save your life

Now here comes an incredible story. Did you ever know about these fridge benefits of ROTC programs?

Thieves in Milwaukee Show a Patriotic Side, Declining to Rob Army Reservist. By SUSAN SAULNY (NY Times)
Kyle Windorski, a 21-year-old college student in the Army Reserve, was walking home Tuesday morning on the east side of Milwaukee when four men with stocking caps over their faces forced him into an alley at gunpoint and demanded cash. In an account confirmed by the Milwaukee police, Mr. Windorski said the men ordered him to the ground on his stomach, and he was helpless as they fished his wallet out of a pocket. They counted his $16 and by their raging tone, he could tell they were not happy. More...

A New Interpretation of Dreams

The NY Times published today a facinating article on how scientists have developed a new interpretatin what dreams are for.

A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain (By BENEDICT CAREY)
It's snowing heavily, and everyone in the backyard is in a swimsuit, at some kind of party: Mom, Dad, the high school principal, there's even an ex-girlfriend. And is that Elvis, over by the pinata?
Uh-oh. Dreams are so rich and have such an authentic feeling that scientists have long assumed they must have a crucial psychological purpose. To Freud, dreaming provided a playground for the unconscious mind; to Jung, it was a stage where the psyche's archetypes acted out primal themes. Newer theories hold that dreams help the brain to consolidate emotional memories or to work though current problems, like divorce and work frustrations. Yet what if the primary purpose of dreaming isn't psychological at all? More...

11.08 pm: House Passes Historic Health Care Reform

Poem by Peter Schneider: The Thumb

In a nanosecond David lost his thumb,
the one his mother painted
with pine pitch when he was four
to keep him from forever sucking it.
Unable to distinguish human flesh
the McCormick silo filler
sliced it off--
nail, bone, knuckle--
and blew it skyward
an ounce of humanity
in a thousand tons of silage. More...

Generation Gap in Music Tastes

Frank Rich: In Defense of the 'Balloon Boy' Dad

This is one of the best columns Frank Rich (NY Times) has written in a long time. I am not sure, however, if he does not exaggerate the decline of the media's critical abilities. At the turn of the 20th century, America's journalist were clearly not anywhere close to the role model that Rich is painting for us. Maybe 30 years ago things were better but clearly not 100 years ago.

FOR a country desperate for good news, the now-deflated "balloon boy" spectacle would seem to be the perfect tonic. As Wolf Blitzer of CNN summed up the nation's unrestrained joy upon learning that the imperiled boy had never been in any peril whatsoever: "All of us are so excited that little Falcon is fine." Then came even better news. After little Falcon revealed to Blitzer that his family "did this for the show," we could all luxuriate in a warm bath of moral superiority. No matter what our own faults as parents, we could never top Richard Heene, who mercilessly exploited his child for fame and profit. Nor could we ever be as craven as the news media, especially cable television, which dumped a live broadcast of President Obama in New Orleans to track the supersized Jiffy Pop bag floating over Colorado. More...

Where your Amazon books reside before coming to you

On this Day in 1819, 23-year-old John Keats wrote a love letter

considered one of the most beautiful ones ever written. I discovered this listening to the daily podcast of the Writer's Alamac. Here are the written words:

My dearest Girl,

This moment I have set myself to copy some verses out fair. I cannot proceed with any degree of content. I must write you a line or two and see if that will assist in dismissing you from my Mind for ever so short a time. Upon my Soul I can think of nothing else -- The time is passed when I had power to advise and warn you again[s]t the unpromising morning of my Life -- My love has made me selfish. More...

Beautiful Poem by Sonia Gernes

Golden

for my parent's fiftieth anniversary

In the old photographs, it is always autumn.
Colors fade to the sepia of remembered thought:
my mother in a flapper dress, my father
proud beside the Model A. They glow
in the light of dreams that I can never know.

More...

The Emmancipation Paradox: Women have become unhappier since 1972

Maureen Down (NY Times) reports stunning data and speculates why the libration of women seems to have made them unhappier while men have become happier.

Women are getting unhappier, I told my friend Carl.
"How can you tell?" he deadpanned. "It's always been whine-whine-whine."
Why are we sadder? I persisted.
"Because you care," he replied with a mock sneer. "You have feelings." Oh, that. More...

Electric Car Alert: I want to take the Tesla for a Spin

Just read a story in the New Yorker about the development of an all-electric car by the California startup company Tesla. Despite the difficulities of refuelling the car quickly, I would love to experience driving this all electric car. Here is Tad Friend's report on his test drive:

IT'S ELECTRIC!
This week in the New Yorker, I write about Elon Musk and his company Tesla Motors, which last year began producing the Roadster, the only highway-capable electric car currently on the road. (Subscribers can access the full article.) In April, while I was reporting in Silicon Valley, where the company is based, I spent a few days test-driving the car, an experience both familiar and strange. Once you slide into the Roadster--which, for me, at six feet tall, required some forethought--you're in a standard sports-car cockpit, one just large enough to fit two people and a loaf of bread. There is no video-game-style joystick or futuristic trackball; the car feels like a car. Only the lack of a glove compartment and the crappy, off-the-shelf JVC stereo-and-navigation system indicate that Tesla was hurrying to get the car out the door. More...

4.6 million to lie forever on top of Marilyn Monroe

I don't know any man who was young in the early 1960s and who did not have a crush on Marilyn Monroe. As this generation is starting to face death, one rich man can be with Marilyn for eternity. The DailyNews reports:

Even in death, Marilyn Monroe is still snagging millionaires.

An unidentified deep-pocketed fan who clearly prefers blonds placed the winning $4.6 million bid Monday in an eBay auction for the crypt directly above the sexy screen icon's grave. Beverly Hills widow Elsie Poncher put her husband's strategically positioned crypt on the auction block with a starting price of $500,000. Bidding soared to $4.5 million three days later.
"Here is a once in a lifetime and into eternity opportunity to spend your eternal days directly above Marilyn Monroe," the eBay auction description boasted. Richard Poncher was buried face down, looking at Marilyn, when he died 23 years ago at age 81, the posting revealed. His 80-year-old widow said she decided to move his remains and sell the valuable vault at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park cemetery. More...

The Pope's Letter

PM: Is is always better to read someone in the original. I am looking forward to reading the Pope's encyclica Caritas in Veritate to see whether he has to something say that politicans and business leaders can use to guide their actions.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today I wish to reflect on my Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. Some forty years after Pope Paul VI's Encyclical Populorum Progressio, it too addresses social themes vital to the well-being of humanity and reminds us that authentic renewal of both individuals and society requires living by Christ's truth in love (cf. Eph 4:15) which stands at the heart of the Church's social teaching. More...

MJ: Bigger in Death than in Life

Michael Jackson Explained

Robert Hilburn pieces together for the best account to day why Michael Jackson is dead.

Michael Jackson: the wounds, the broken heart
Pop music critic Robert Hilburn recalls the years when the public turned its back on the singer. 'I'm lonely,' a 23-year-old Jackson said.

I'll always regret that the last conversation I had with Michael Jackson ended with him angrily hanging up the phone -- at least I've long thought of Michael's mood that day more than a decade ago as angry. I now realize the more accurate description would be "wounded." Michael was at times among the sweetest and most talented people I met during my 35 years of covering pop music for the Los Angeles Times.
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Michael Jackson Rules iTunes Sales today

Is killing a fly sufficient to scare dictators into submission?

1978: Letter from Iran

Letter From Iran published in December 1978, right before the fall of the Shah. In the article, just posted on The New Yorker's Web site, Joseph Kraft writes about an interview with the Shah:

He looked pale, spoke in subdued tones, and seemed dwarfed by the vast expanse of the room, with its huge, ornate chandeliers and heavy Empire furniture. He wore a double-breasted suit whose blackness suggested mourning. He started with an apology. He was sorry to have kept me waiting. The American and British Ambassadors had been in to see him. "They tried to cheer me up," he said. "As if there were anything to be cheerful about."

I expressed surprise at--and, indeed, felt some suspicion about--this show of gloom. There had been demonstrations in many parts of the country, and strikes, but Teheran, apart from the university, seemed calm, and the Army was in thorough control. Moreover, the opposition was headed by the Moslem clergy, and they were clearly divided. Surely, I said, the factions could be played off against each other.

"Possibly," the Shah said, shrugging his shoulders in an elaborate show of disbelief. [...]

If worst came to worst, I went on, there was always the Army. The military was strong, and its leaders were loyal. The Shah said that force had its limitations. "You can't crack down on one block and make the people on the next block behave," he said.

"The most surreal day of my life"

The case of Rod Blagojevich reveals that I have limited understanding of the human psyche. This guy is unbef*kinglievable! Read this story by the Associated Press that just came over the wire.

Blago guest stars in 'Rod Blagojevich Superstar'. By RUPA SHENOY. CHICAGO - Standing on a chair with his arms raised as if he were being crucified, ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich opened a comedy show Saturday evening lampooning the rise and fall of his own political career.
Blagojevich, who has pleaded not guilty to wide-ranging federal corruption charges, made what one cast member described as a "surreal" guest appearance on The Second City's "Rod Blagojevich Superstar."
The show, a takeoff of the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar," was supposed to end June 14. But production officials extended the show -- which portrays Blagojevich as greedy, tactless and hair-obsessed -- to Aug. 9 because performances kept selling out. More...

Obama nominates a " 'Kid From the Bronx' With Hopes and Doubts"

Just like Obama's own biography, the life of Sonia Sotomayor is an inspirational story. It will be interesting to see how the Republicans will treat her in the nomination hearing.

NEIL A. LEWIS (NY) reports: Sonia Sotomayor, who would be the Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice, brings to the confirmation experience the kind of rich personal story that has always been deeply gratifying to Americans, the journey from humble beginnings to a respected position of great influence.As she was presented by President Obama at the White House on Tuesday morning, she referred to herself as "a kid from the Bronx." But it was Mr. Obama who provided many details of her history as a child of a city housing project who lost her father at an early age and saw her mother work two jobs to put her and her brother through professional schools. More...

David Brooks dissects the Decline on the Republican Party

The only columnist who I follow every week is David Brooks. Maybe you should too.

The Long Voyage Home By DAVID BROOKS (NY Times)
Republicans generally like Westerns. They generally admire John Wayne-style heroes who are rugged, individualistic and brave. They like leaders -- from Goldwater to Reagan to Bush to Palin -- who play up their Western heritage. Republicans like the way Westerns seem to celebrate their core themes -- freedom, individualism, opportunity and moral clarity. But the greatest of all Western directors, John Ford, actually used Westerns to tell a different story. Ford's movies didn't really celebrate the rugged individual. They celebrated civic order. For example, in Ford's 1946 movie, "My Darling Clementine," Henry Fonda plays Wyatt Earp, the marshal who tamed Tombstone. More...

Hellhole: Is solitary confinement torture?

I knew that humans beings are social creatures and that we need others to reach our highest potential. But I had no idea that the brain completely disintegrates after longer periods of solitary confinement that is now practiced in many U.S. prisons. Read this fascinating story by Atul Gawande in the New Yorker. He happened upon the findings in the mid-fifties, when he decided to save money for his primate-research laboratory by breeding his own lab monkeys instead of importing them from India. Because he didn't know how to raise infant monkeys, he cared for them the way hospitals of the era cared for human infants--in nurseries, with plenty of food, warm blankets, some toys, and in isolation from other infants to prevent the spread of infection. The monkeys grew up sturdy, disease-free, and larger than those from the wild. Yet they were also profoundly disturbed, given to staring blankly and rocking in place for long periods, circling their cages repetitively, and mutilating themselves. More...

I want to join the "Century Club"

I want to be as productive as Elliot Cook Carter at 100. Read this fascinating story about the concert in New York a few months ago.
Alex Ross. (The New Yorker). The last emperor of China had just assumed his throne. William Howard Taft, the President-elect of the United States, was meeting with Theodore Roosevelt at the White House. A deranged veteran of the Philippine war terrorized Edgewater, New Jersey, holding up a hotel. The diva Nellie Melba disembarked from the Lusitania, resplendent in a broad-brimmed hat. Gustav Mahler was about to conduct the last of three concerts at Carnegie Hall, having unleashed his Second Symphony a few nights earlier. And Elliott Cook Carter, Jr., was born in New York City. It was December 11, 1908. A hundred years later to the day, Mr. Carter walked onstage at Carnegie, a little hunched but moving under his own power, More...

A Feature that you don't have in your car

Mr. Gibbs (Obama's press secretary) said, the president was particularly impressed by the many phones inside the presidential limousine. "He thinks the coolest thing about this," Mr. Gibbs said, "is that you can pick up the phone and say, 'I need to reach so and so,' and a minute later, the phone rings and they are on the line."

Day 1: Obama speaks the new White House Staff

Obama Inauguration: Where were you?

The Moment: Reflections on the Inauguration

Unfortunately I am traveling and cannot watch the inauguration ceremonies on TV. All I can do is surf the web to get feeling for the mood in the country and around the world. It is a remarkable moment! Most people seem to share the deep feeling that Obama is the man we need to get us out of the big mess we are in. We all seem to share a sense of gratitude that stars were aligned for him to get elected. The Gods seem to endow a few individuals with talents that are far beyond what we typically see in human beings. Sakespeare's as writer, Mozart as a composer, Michael Jordon as a basketball player, and Tiger Woods as a golfer are commonly recognized as in a class of their own. Barak Obama as politician may join this illustrious list. Over the holidays I read his two books and particularly the first one, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance written in 1995 long before his political campaign started is deeply revealing about Obama. This is the best political autobiography I have read. Obama's first roommate at Columbia recently remarked that Obama toyed with the idea of becoming a novelists. He does write like one. Just like everyone else who has come in touch with Obama's voice, I feel I can trust the man to do the best for us. Of course, I also fear that no individual can solve the pressing issues that are plaguing the world. But he is our best hope and that is why everyone is so excited. Watching video excerpts from the day I cannot help but notice that his smile is worth almost as much his rhetorical gift. What a moment! Tomorrow the hard day of implementing policies will start. But let's enjoy the moment.
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Human evolution: Why we love Music?

I have been waiting for a piece on the origins of music for a long time. Read this interesting report in the Economist on the scientific debates on why most of us like music so much.

Biologists are addressing one of humanity's strangest attributes, its all-singing, all-dancing culture.

"IF MUSIC be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it." And if not? Well, what exactly is it for? The production and consumption of music is a big part of the economy. The first use to which commercial recording, in the form of Edison's phonographs, was to bring music to the living rooms and picnic tables of those who could not afford to pay live musicians.
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Obama speech to kick off inauguration celebrations in Washington

The Last Word on George Bush courtesy of MAUREEN DOWD & The Economist

I am getting ready to write a few words on the Obama inauguration. I don't want to waste more words on George Bush, Jr. So I am letting Maureen Dowd write the final words on him.

The Long, Lame Goodbye
As Barack Obama got to town, one of the first things he did was seek the counsel of past presidents, including George Bush senior.

As W. was leaving town, one of the last things he did was explain why he never sought the counsel of his father on issues that his father knew intimately, like Iraq and Saddam.

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Five Living Presidents: What distinguishes them...

Look at this picture carefully. What distinguishes the current (Bush junior) and the future president (Obama) from the ex presidents? The little America pin on their jackets. Apparently the ex-presidents are not worried that anyone would question their patriotism.

Oh, Liza... John Lahr is too sharp for you

Just read John Lahr's review of Liza Minelli's new show "MORE ABOUT ME" in the New Yorker. I felt bad for Liza because the review is almost too penetrating. But it is a joy for the reading public.

Liza Minnelli’s new show, “Liza’s at the Palace,” her second comeback, begins and ends with Minnelli in a pin spot, striking her iconic triumphant pose: legs apart, right arm raised, fingers reaching to the sky. But is it a hail—or a heil? The show feels more like a rally than a recital. Minnelli has jazz in her voice but not in her soul. She is all chutzpah and calculation. Although she has vast amounts of energy and an overwhelming desire to please, she has, strange to say, very little sense of fun. Instead of taking you on a journey with her renditions, she continually brings you back to her, to the legend of her collapse—the divorces, the drinking, the depressions—and to her theatrical pedigree, which includes her godparents, Ira Gershwin and Kay Thompson, who more or less take care of the second act. More...

What George Bush learned during his Presidency

Kimberly Strassel: I ask the president what he's learned from his time in office -- not from a policy perspective, but as a person. His answer is unsurprising from a man who has always talked openly of his faith -- though that, too, has earned him criticism.

"I've learned that God is good. All the time."

PM: Hallelujah. We paid a very heavy price to afford Georgie this personal learning experience. The very fact that Georgie became president is strong evidence that God sometimes does not pay attention. :)

Historians will have to call in an army of psychologists to figure Bush's brain out. Read the full he full Interview in the Wall Street Journal, click on more.

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The Power is Shifting

I remember reading a reminiscence either by President Truman or Eisenhower about the remarkable change they felt the day after they handed over the presidency: While the day before everyone was most interested in them, no one wanted now wanted to see them. The office has the charisma, not they as individuals. Democracy is about the peaceful handing over of power. George Bush is getting a first strong taste of what every president seems to go through. The NY Times reports:

In an effort to inject confidence into the quavering financial markets, Mr. Obama made certain that his first formal cabinet announcement dealt with the economy, not, as is often the case with national security or diplomacy. In announcing the nominations of Mr. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, and Mr. Summers, a Harvard economist, Mr. Obama sent a signal that he was set to pursue aggressive, yet centrist policies, in crafting moves to help jump-start the economy. He was stretching his economic announcement into a two-day affair, planning another news conference Tuesday to present the rest of his team.

The televised news conference, which came shortly after President Bush made brief remarks at the Treasury Department with Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., created a stark image of the transfer of power that is under way in Washington. Mr. Obama and his new team arrived in a room of dozens of reporters, while Mr. Bush stood nearly alone on the steps of the Treasury Department.
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William Kristol changes his tune after the election

Some conservative commentators had already swung to Obama before the election, but not so William Kristol. Unlike William Safire whose conservative columns I found rewarding to read, Kristol struck me as the mouthpiece of Dick Chenney. His transformation for this reason is all the more stunning. Pollster have long demonstrated that after an election suddenly more people claim that they have voted for the winner than is mathematically possible. Kristol did not vote for Obama, but he sure seems to be pulled by the same psychological forces that make us want to be on the side of the winner. More...

From the Land of Lincoln: Mr. Obama goes to Washington

The following text is President-elect Barack Obama’s letter published in Illinois newspapers Sunday, when he officially resigned from the Senate:

Today, I am ending one journey to begin another. After serving the people of Illinois in the United States Senate — one of the highest honors and privileges of my life — I am stepping down as senator to prepare for the responsibilities I will assume as our nation’s next president. But I will never forget, and will forever be grateful, to the men and women of this great state who made my life in public service possible. More...

The Transformation

Michael Soklove and Frank Rich of the New York Times analyze how Obama achieved his victory.

THE NATION: The Transformation By MICHAEL SOKOLOVE (NY Times)
Early on Election Day morning in the Philadelphia suburb of Levittown, Pa., Joe Sinitski, 48, stood in a long line inside a school gymnasium, inching his way toward three blue-curtained voting machines. He wore jeans, a sweatshirt and a National Rifle Association baseball cap. He said he would vote for Barack Obama, a choice that some months earlier he could not have imagined. More...

We make and watch history: President Obama

At 8pm when the polls closed in California, I was glued in front of my TV screen watching Charles Gibson. Just like many of the other Obama supporters in Grant Park and everywhere around the country, tears rolled down my cheeks when Gibson announced: “We can report that Barak Obama will be the 44th president of the United States.” The cameras swing to Grant Park. People of all colors are cheering and crying. When Wall Street melted down a few weeks ago I said to myself that his was the biggest peaceful event in my lifetime. The election of Barak Obama is even bigger. People all around country realized that history is being made in front of their eyes. I have never experienced anything like this before. The world can look again to America as an inspiration. We are lucky.

ABC TV Declares Barak Obama President

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Obama's Grant Park Victory Speech

The Cliffhanger: Read this before the election is over

If you are not already on the edge of your seat, read this article before we know who is the next president.

How smart is the American voter?
The electorate as a whole may be wiser and more rational than any individual.
By Larry M. Bartels (LA Times)

One of the bestselling books of the 2008 election season has been "Just How Stupid Are We?" by popular historian Rick Shenkman. It presents a familiar collection of bleak results from opinion surveys documenting the many things most Americans don't know about politics, government and history. "Public ignorance," Shenkman concludes, is "the most obvious cause" of "the foolishness that marks so much of American politics." But is that really true? More...

Carl Rove False Predictions

I wonder how long Carl Rove can continue peddling his "wisdom." Frank Rich reports in the NYTimes:

Once Obama wrested the nomination from Clinton by surpassing her in organization, cash and black votes, he was still often seen as too wimpy to take on the Republicans. This prognosis was codified by Karl Rove, whose punditry for The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek has been second only to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as a reliable source of laughs this year. Rove called Obama “lazy,” and over the summer he predicted that his fund-raising had peaked in February and that he’d have a “serious problem” winning over Hispanics. Well, Obama was lazy like a fox, and is leading John McCain among Hispanics by 2 to 1. Obama has also pulled ahead among white women despite the widespread predictions that he’d never bring furious Hillary supporters into the fold.

Read full story "Guess who is coming to dinner"

Blame game: GOP forms circular firing squad

If McCain comes back to win this election, it will be the story of the year. It seems like the people with the McCain campaign don't believe in victory anymore.

Report by: Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen and John F. Harris (Politico.com)

With despair rising even among many of John McCain’s own advisors, influential Republicans inside and outside his campaign are engaged in an intense round of blame-casting and rear-covering—-much of it virtually conceding that an Election Day rout is likely. A McCain interview published Thursday in the Washington Times sparked the latest and most nasty round of Washington finger-pointing, with senior GOP hands close to President Bush and top congressional aides denouncing the candidate for what they said was an unfocused message and poorly executed campaign.

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Reactions to the Third Presidential Debate

Once again the most useful piece of evaluation of the debate comes from the focus group run for Time.com. Amy Sullivan reports:

In politics it is generally not considered a good sign when voters are laughing at you, not with you. And by the end of the third and last presidential debate, the undecided voters who had gathered in Denver for Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg’s focus group were “audibly snickering” at John McCain’s grimaces, eye-bulging, and repeated references to “Joe the Plumber.” More...

OBAMA WINS 2ND DEBATE

McCain has 27 days to find a better way to take on his opponent or he'll be calling him Mr. President.

--John Dickerson in Slate.com

Click on more to read the analysis of how undecided voters reacted to the debate. More...

Missed the entire campaign? No problem. Slate sums in up in 4 min

The State of the Presidential Race

It is to early to open up the champaign bottles, but at the least the trends is going into the right direction. I am going to buy a good bottle for November 4 and let's hope the final numbers allow me to drink it.

Posted by: Peter on Oct 04, 08 | 5:55 pm | Profile [0] comments (519 views) | 

Reactions to the first Presidential Debate

I thought that McCain was very weak during the Republican convention. He exceeded my expectation today. He was quite good in separating himself from Bush. I don't agree with McCain and I want Obama to win the presidency. But today's debate was a tie in my view. Once again MCain proved that he can speak intelligently about foreign policy but simply recycles Ronald Reagan statement on the economy. The most interesting summary of reaction to the debate was published on Time.com. More...

John McCain: Drama Queen

I don't remember a time in my life time were a non-violent event caused so dramatic a situation as the financial crisis that is unfolding in the U.S. right now. Mickey Kaus captures well on Slate.com the fickleness of John McCain:

Drama Queen: No convention today! ... OK, it's on! ... The economy's sound... No, wait, it's going to fall apart unless I go to Washington tomorrow! ... We need a commission! ... We need to fire somebody! ... Get me Andrew Cuomo! ... I want ten more debates! ... But let's postpone the one we've scheduled! ... Do you get the impression a McCain presidency would be a bit exhausting? ...

JUICY BITS: Cheney Unchained

The best details from Barton Gellman's new book on the vice president.

By Juliet Lapidos (Slate.com)

It's often said on late-night TV that given Dick Cheney's cardiovascular problems, George W. Bush is just a heartbeat away from the presidency. In his new book, Angler, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman suggests that this joke contains more than just a grain of truth. By immersing himself in details about national security and numerous other hot-button issues that the president was too lazy or too incurious to study, Cheney often managed to position himself as the real "decider." More...

John Dickerson's Five Greatest Political Ads

Meet the real Sarah Palin

One of the reason John F. Kennedy was so popular were his great looks. I can understand why evangelical Republicans are ecstatic about the nomination of Palin. But why she is popular in the entire Republican party cannot be explained by her record. I suspect her good looks and her outgoing personality are an important factor. But now the vetting of Sarah Palin has started in earnest. The New York Times sent a number of reporters to Alaska to find out about her history as a mayor and governor. (Click on "More" to read the story "In Office, Palin Hired Friends and Hit Critics.")The American people have re-elected George Bush after it was very clear what kind of administration he was running. It will be interesting to see whether they will elect someone to be a heartbeat away from the presidency who has so similar instincts as George Bush junior. More...

Hurrican Ike Makes Gigantic Waves

Image of Hurricane Ike on September 10, 2008, downlinked by the crew of the International Space Station, flying 220 statute miles above Earth.

Posted by: Peter on Sep 12, 08 | 10:03 pm | Profile [0] comments (564 views) | 

Alaska Lawmakers to Subpoena Palin's Husband

The only question is whether Palin's husband will be called to testify before the November election or afterwards. Alasaka will get more attention in the next seven weeks than anytime in its history.

By Gene Johnson (Associated Press)
ANCHORAGE, Sept. 12 -- Alaska lawmakers voted Friday to subpoena the husband of Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, after an investigator called Todd Palin "a central figure" regarding the governor's dismissal of the state's director of public safety.
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Palin overshadows McCain

I watched large portion of Sarah Palin's speech last week while waiting at the airport for my delayed plane. The first couple of minutes after I tuned in she seemed a bit wooden. But then she loosened up and launched into the good lines crafted by very skilled speech writers. The Republicans want to pull off what Bush junior did four years ago: to convince the voting public they would be more secure under him than under the Democratic candidate, which of course was a complete fantasy. Palin's performance was universally hailed as a great performance and a new media star was born and McCain weak speech made him into the sideshow. After Palin's speech, McCain came out onto the stage. I had never seen his fully body live. His upper body was very stiff, and he looked a bit like a Robot waving his hands, perhaps a consequence of his injuries in Vietnam. Palin's youth made him look ever older. As Frank Rich points out in the article below she offers a great distraction from the weakness of John McCain as the Republican presidential nominee. It is too early to tell how she will play out over the next 2 months. Eight years ago I was a fan of McCain. The evidence starts to get stronger by the day that he is temperamentally not fit to be president. More...

The Story Behind Palin's Selection for VP

Having search the internet, it is not clear to me that Sarah Palin has received a full vetting. McCain is making a big gamble. In two months we will know whether the move was brilliant or stupid. Here is the best background article on the nomination.

The story behind the Palin surprise
By: Jonathan Martin (Politico.com)

John McCain on Friday announced a running mate whom he met only six months ago and with whom he spoke just once on the phone about the position before offering it in person earlier this week.
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Obama gives an electrifying speech in Denver

What a finale! A few days ago after Hillary Clinton gave her magnificent speech, I worried that Obama speech would appear anticlimatic. But he outperformed everyone else at the Cconvention and reminded us why he is the person to lead America forward. Even readers of the Wall Street Journal agreed that he gave a fantastic speech. Click on "More" to see details of the reader poll.

You read watch or read the most highly watched convention speech on NYtimes.com.
You can see the introductory film preceding the speech on Youtube.com
and read Andrew Sullivan's reaction.
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Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, and a Surprise Visitor on Stage of the DNC

This is the first time that I have watched more than a few minutes of the Democratic Convention. I am driven by the curiosity of a theatre critic: How is the event staged? What is the party doing to avoid disaster in November? Will Hillary or Bill be the spoilers there are rumored to be? If this is not the year to beat Republicans, when will there ever be a a chance again? I just watched Bill Clinton's speech. It was good but Hillary's speech yesterday was even stronger. Joe Biden's speech was very different. He took on John McCain the most and his style was very different. It was powerful stuff. Then came the surprise visitor: Barak Obama. Effortlessly he got he took control of the crowd after two masterful orators. Unlike the Republican commentator Peggy Noonan (click on more), I think the event tomorrow night in the stadium will be a big success. Obama has the magic touch. More...

Hillary Clinton Delivers Great Performance at the Democratic Convention

I just watched Hillary Clinton's speech. For me it was the best performance to date at the convention. The will be a tough act for Barak Obama to follow in two days.

Full text of her speech: I am honored to be here tonight. A proud mother. A proud Democrat. A proud American. And a proud supporter of Barack Obama. My friends, it is time to take back the country we love. Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines.
This is a fight for the future. And it’s a fight we must win.
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High noon in duel for White House

Andrew Sullivan sums up what we can expect of the next weeks until the November election.

The phoney war is over as the US presidential candidates square up for the most compelling contest in a generation. The eagerly anticipated text message arrived on millions of mobile phones yesterday at 3am. With it, many Americans who had registered to be updated with details of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign will have been woken to the news that Joe Biden, the Delaware senator, will be his running mate on the Democratic party’s ticket. Many of them will have got the joke. In the brutal primaries, Hillary Clinton’s most effective ad showed a phone ringing at 3 am - and asked who Americans would trust to answer it in the Oval Office. In picking Biden at 3am, Obama was telling the world that he had chosen a No 2 able to take over in a crisis.
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Only in America

Is John McCain fit to be President?

While everyone was focusing on Obama's world tour last week, Frank Rich puts the spotlight on McCain and raises serious questions whether McCain is ability the see what the priorities of the day are.

How Obama Became Acting President

By FRANK RICH (NYT)
IT almost seems like a gag worthy of “Borat”: A smooth-talking rookie senator with an exotic name passes himself off as the incumbent American president to credulous foreigners. But to dismiss Barack Obama’s magical mystery tour through old Europe and two war zones as a media-made fairy tale would be to underestimate the ingenious politics of the moment. History was on the march well before Mr. Obama boarded his plane, and his trip was perfectly timed to reap the whirlwind.
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Microphone Picks Up Private Conversation Between Obama and British Leader

If this is all I would ever say when I don't know that a microphone is recording me, I would be very happy. The relatively tame headline on ABC News "Microphone Picks Up Private Conversation Between Obama and British Leader on Need for Vacations and 'Thinking' Time" was dramatized by the Drudgereport to "BAM AND CAM: Private Obama Chat with Tory Leader Caught on Mic...'You should be on the beach... You need a break" and then picked up by newspapers around the world as if Obama had a Ronald Reagan moment (Reagan joked he had already given a command to send nuclear bombs to the Soviet Union]. Reading the Drudgereport headline I am thinking, "Oh, my God, Obama must be totally worn out." More...

The visions of Buckminster Fuller

Elizabeth Kolbert (New Yorker June 9, 2008) presents a wonderful portrait of Buckminster Fuller (yes, this a name of a person). My own imagination was fired up when I read some of Fuller's incredible ideas.


Annals of Innovation: Dymaxion Man

The U.S. Pavilion for the 1967 World’s Fair, in Montreal. The inventions that Fuller (in 1959, flying in a helicopter over Ohio) designed had a hallucinatory appeal.

One of Buckminster Fuller’s earliest inventions was a car shaped like a blimp. The car had three wheels—two up front, one in the back—and a periscope instead of a rear window. Owing to its unusual design, it could be maneuvered into a parking space nose first and could execute a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn so tightly that it would end up practically where it had started, facing the opposite direction. In Bridgeport, Connecticut, where the car was introduced in the summer of 1933, it caused such a sensation that gridlock followed, and anxious drivers implored Fuller to keep it off the streets at rush hour. More...

Watching the Supreme Court for 30 Years

LINDA GREENHOUSE covered the Supreme Court for the NY Times during the past 30 years. The review of her experience is a great read and a superb civics lesson.

2,691 Decisions

By LINDA GREENHOUSE (NY Times)
WASHINGTON — Sometime during the first of my nearly 30 years reporting on the Supreme Court, a distinct visual image of a Supreme Court term took hold in my mind and never let go. The nine-month term was a mountain. My job was to climb it.The slope was gentle when the term began, every first Monday in October; the court was busy choosing new cases and hearing arguments, but it was not yet ready to issue decisions. The upward path steepened in January and February, when grants of new cases, arguments and decisions all came at once, competing for attention. Spring brought a breather as the path flattened out again: all the arguments had been heard, and the decisions were sporadic. The steepest climb came, predictably, every June, with the final outpouring of opinions before the summer recess. And then it was over. I could look down from the mountaintop to see the term whole and clear, while off in the distance the next term loomed, another climb. More...

Collateral Damage When Small Men Become Political Leaders

Read this book review and be reminded why George Bush stepping down is going to be a big relief for America. [A day later: Frank Rich also reviews the book and comes to the conclusion that we may be in for an terrorists attack before long. Then all bets about the election are off]

THE DARK SIDE: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals. By Jane Mayer: Doubleday. 392 pp. $27.50

With the appearance of this very fine book, Hillary Clinton can claim a belated vindication of sorts: A right-wing conspiracy does indeed exist, although she misapprehended its scope and nature. The conspiracy is not vast and does not consist of Clinton-haters. It is small, secretive and made up chiefly of lawyers contemptuous of the Constitution and the rule of law. More...

Where has Obama's Magic Gone?

The last couple of weeks my excitement about Obama's candidacy has cooled considerably. BOB HERBERT (NY Times) has articulated well what is bothering people like me. I wonder whether the fund-raising machine will work without a message that is one of change rather than putting together a convenience coalition. Obama has stumbled before and come back. From the beginning the question of Obama's candidacy was whether he would be a transformative president or not get anything done. The good news is that it is almost impossible to be worse than G. W.

Lurching With Abandon

In one of the numbers from “Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye sings, with a mixture of emotions: “We haven’t got the man ... we had when we began.”

Back in January when Barack Obama pulled off his stunning win in the Iowa caucuses, and people were lining up in the cold and snow for hours just to get a glimpse of him, there was a wide and growing belief — encouraged to the max by the candidate — that something new in American politics had arrived.

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The Neural Buddhists

This is one of DAVID BROOKS'S best columns. He has done a lot of reading for you to be able to write about a revolution in our understanding of our brain and what this means for our view of the meaning of life. Enjoy.

In 1996, Tom Wolfe wrote a brilliant essay called “Sorry, but Your Soul Just Died,” in which he captured the militant materialism of some modern scientists. To these self-confident researchers, the idea that the spirit might exist apart from the body is just ridiculous. Instead, everything arises from atoms. Genes shape temperament. Brain chemicals shape behavior. Assemblies of neurons create consciousness. Free will is an illusion. Human beings are “hard-wired” to do this or that. Religion is an accident. More...

Picture of the Week: Chaiten volcano rain over Chaiten, Chile

Posted by: Peter on May 11, 08 | 3:53 am | Profile [0] comments (696 views) | 

David Brooks Explains the Reemergence of the Conservative Party in the UK

I had not followed British politics and until I read this column by David Brooks, I did not know why the Tory party won the local elections in Great Britain last week.

The Conservative Revival

For years, American and British politics were in sync. Reagan came in roughly the same time as Thatcher, and Clinton’s Third Way approach mirrored Blair’s. But the British conservatives never had a Gingrich revolution in the 1990s or the Bush victories thereafter. They got their losing in early, and, in the wilderness, they rethought modern conservatism while their American counterparts were clinging to power.

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It is definitely over for Hillary Clinton

It was an exciting day of politics. I stayed glued to news coming in over the internet. After Indiana had already been called for Clinton, it seemed like the voters of Gary might come out so strongly in favor of Obama that he might take the state after all. Contrary to reports that Hillary will fight on until the convention, I think she might drop out as early as tomorrow. Does she want to ruin her career in the senate. More...

Hillary Clinton, Fairy Princess

Timothy Noah on Slate.com walks you through the numbers why Hillary Clinton does not have a real shot to win the Democratic nomination. If she wins it in the end, Hillary Clinton will be a true princess and Timothy Noah will be transformed into an ugly frog, living unhappily ever after.


Can we please stop pretending she has a plausible chance to win the nomination?

"Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."
—former President Bill Clinton, Jan. 11, 2008. Clinton was criticizing Sen. Barack Obama's claim to have opposed the Iraq war more consistently than Hillary Clinton. This claim was, Clinton said, "the central argument for his campaign. 'It doesn't matter that I started running for president less than a year after I got to the Senate from the Illinois state senate. I am a great speaker, a charismatic figure, and I'm the only one who had the judgment to oppose this war from the beginning, always, always, always.' " More...

Behind every Animator lies an Actor

It did not occur to me until I read the obituary of Ollie Johnston, apparently one of Disney's finest animators, that behind every good animator lies a good actor.

Ollie Johnston, last of Disney's elite animators, died on April 14th, aged 95
IF YOU interviewed Ollie Johnston in the last years of his life, sooner or later he would start to change. The trim body, lean as a whippet's, would begin to prowl and strut, then round on you with an accusing, pointing arm, just like the evil prosecutor in “Toad of Toad Hall”. Or he would cock his head, gyrate it, fidget and twitch, for all the world like the rabbit Thumper as he explains to Bambi why he doesn't like clover greens. He would skip and stumble to play little Penny carrying a slithering cat in “The Rescuers”, or tilt stiffly from side to side like a waiter-penguin from “Mary Poppins”.

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What Does a President Really Do All Day?

This is a great reflection by Joel Achenbach (Washington Post) on the job of the president and how it has changed over the past 200 years. It makes you wonder. No one can really prepare for this job. My preferred candidate is still Barak Obama. But I recognize that we are all taking a leap of faith that our choice will be able to make the right decisions.

A simple and deceptively tricky question: What does a president do?

If you had to put together the Help Wanted ad for the position of chief executive, what would you write? Something like: "CEO needed to supervise 3 million employees. Must be at least 35, native-born, willing to work at home. Spectacular public failures likely." More...

Discovery Channel: I Love the World

Catholic Heaven & Hell: The Pope Visits America

I consider myself an honorary alumnus of the catholic church since as child I went to catholic mass, was asked to go to confession even though at the time a had nothing to confess, and served as an altar boy although I did not belong to catholic faith. Like any alumnus of an old successful institution, I like to receive updates on where the organization is going. As I have written before, the current Pope is an smart fellow and I was curious how he would handle his visit to America.
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The Pregnant Man

I wondered how is it possible. Has technology advanced so far that female organs and an embryo were implanted into a man's womb? See this mind-bending story from the Oprah Show on YouTube.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Two Girls Strolling By

When I was going for lunch today, two girls strolled by and one said to the other: “I have to figure out to how say to him graciously, ‘It’s over.’” The most expressive part about this statement was her face. The girl was relieved that she had figured out for herself that she needed to end the relationship. She had gained a sense of liberation. At the same time she still felt some tenderness towards the poor John who was going to lose his girlfriend for good. Did he have any inkling what was going to happen later in the day?

The Fall of Eliot Spitzer

Last week I was reminded again of the sage observations that real life generates stories that no fiction writer could ever imagine. Who would have thought that the prosecutor who went after prostitution rings would fall with lightening speed precisely because he was involved with the kind of ring in his previous role as attorney general of New York? To his credit he stepped down swiftly after his sky-high hypocrisy rendered him politically impotent. What made this sex scandal different the Lewinsky affair or senator Craig's airport arrest was that from beginning to end it only took 48 hours. Spitzer in my mind was even more reckless than Clinton. Clinton only jeopardized being an effective president while the Republicans were trying to use Lewinsky affair to throw people out of office. Clinton stayed and continued to be a high popular elder statesman until he momentarily became the bulldog for his wife's pre-presidential bid. But Spitzer threw-away his entire political career that might have led to the presidency for 22-year old hooker. Unlike many other politicians, he already had a beautiful wife. Why? Why are politicians often so reckless? N. R. Kleinfield of the NY Times provides some answers. More...

Stealing 11 days from history

It is a leap year again. I barely noticed it until I read this fascinating article.

A Great Leap Forward By CHRIS TURNEY

WHEN Frederic, the hero of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance," learns that his Feb. 29 birthday means that he is not 21 years old but 5, he figures he'll have to serve out his apprenticeship to the Pirate King for 60 more years, and swears to the love of his life that he will return in his 80s and marry her. Such are the tales that have always been told about today's date. But now we're in the 21st century, and time is measured according to oscillations of vaporized atoms of cesium-133. Why do we still need something as oddly quaint as leap year? More...

Meet the Renaissance Man: Benjamin Franklin

I had no idea how prolific a writer Ben Franlin was. Here you can read a short biography of one American Founding fathers and learn how to educate yourself to be a great writer.



Benjamin Franklin’s genius gave him no rest. A discontented man finds no easy chair. On April 4, 1757, he left Philadelphia by carriage, and reached New York just four days later, ready to sail for London. But one delay piled upon another, like so much ragged paper jamming a printing press, and he found himself stuck for more than two months. In all his fifty-one years, he could barely remember having “spent Time so uselessly.” (From childhood, Franklin, the son of a chandler, had toiled from dawn to dusk only to squander the tallow “reading the greatest Part of the Night.”) Waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough. More...

Can Mrs. Clinton Lose?

By PEGGY NOONAN (WSJ)
If Hillary Clinton loses, does she know how to lose? What will that be, if she loses? Will she just say, "I concede" and go on vacation at a friend's house on an island, and then go back to the Senate and wait? Is it possible she could be so normal? Politicians lose battles, it's part of what they do, win and lose. But she does not know how to lose. Can she lose with grace? But she does grace the way George W. Bush does nuance.She often talks about how tough she is. She has fought "the Republican attack machine" that has tried to "stop" her, "end" her, and she knows "how to fight them." She is preoccupied to an unusual degree with toughness. A man so preoccupied would seem weak. But a woman obsessed with how tough she is just may be lethal. More...

There is static above the dinner table many Democratic families

I did not realize just how deeply families across the country are divided over who should be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. Fortunately the air will clear within a few weeks.

In Democratic Families, Politics Makes for Estranged Bedfellows

By JODI KANTOR
Maria Shriver woke up Sunday morning and decided to surprise the audience at a rally for Senator Barack Obama in Los Angeles, materializing alongside Oprah Winfrey and telling the crowd she was there because she sought "an America that's about unity." But not the family kind. Ms. Shriver is a member of the Kennedy clan, and in the past week, her relatives have split over the Democratic race, publicizing their preferences on opinion pages and at campaign events.
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Henry Hertzberg on the Clintons vs. Obama

During the four or five weeks leading up to February 5th--"Tsunami Tuesday," when voters in states with half the nation's population participate in a not quite national primary--the emotional texture of the Democratic side of the Presidential campaign changed profoundly. For most of Year One of this insanely elongated process, the Democratic Party had been a peaceable kingdom. Its voters were proud of and pleased with the array of choices before them: proud of its diversity, pleased with its unity. More...

The Smell of Romantic Attraction

Different languages have come up with a way to express that the smell of other people has a profound effect how attracted we are to them. English talks about the "chemistry" that two people have. In German, you literally say "I cannot smell you" (Ich kann dich nicht riechen) to express that you don't like another person. The Economist reports on the latest developments in the science of smell and interpersonal attraction.

How to find a mate: The scent of a woman (and a man)


A new kind of dating agency relies on matching people by their body odour
ONE of life's little mysteries is why particular people fancy each other—or, rather, why they do not when on paper they ought to. One answer is that human consciousness, and thus human thought, is dominated by vision. Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, regardless of the other senses. However, as the multi-billion-dollar perfume industry attests, beauty is in the nose of the beholder, too. More...