TweetAnother slow day… Middle-class incomes grew faster in 2015 than any year in modern history, new data show — Not mine, of course, but this isn’t about me. If her campaign weren’t such a mess at the moment, this would be good news for Hillary Clinton to tout. President Obama will probably bask in it […]
Tweet It doesn’t look good for me having time to blog much today — and the day’s half over — so I’ll go ahead and start an Open Thread, with some possible topics. Talk amongst yourselves: Trump shakes up campaign, demotes top adviser — Basically, the message from here on out is “Let Trump be Trump.” […]
TweetIf you’re wondering “Where’s Brad?,” I’m on holiday, as our friends who recently exited Europe would say. And it’s kind of a hassle to find a table near an electrical plug and crank the laptop up. Hard enough even glancing over essential email, much less write. But there are topics that need addressing: President Trump? — […]
TweetAs I said earlier in a comment… I liked it when Apple distinguished itself by making great products. I thoroughly enjoy my iPhone, my Apple TV and especially my iPad, and I like the way they work together. In fact, my Apple TV remote quit working awhile back (and changing the battery didn’t help), so I […]
Tweet Just a quick one to make up for not posting all day: San Bernardino Couple Spoke of Attacks in 2013, F.B.I. Says — But wait! Edward Snowden says we live in a “surveillance state” in which even our most intimate thoughts are known to Big Brother! So how come we didn’t know about this? The […]
TweetAs I said last night: What have I learned? That it’s no fluke that Hillary and Bernie are the leading candidates. They’re both WAY better at this than the other 3 — Brad Warthen (@BradWarthen) October 14, 2015 Hillary did the best job, Bernie was second, then O’Malley (a DISTANT third), then Webb, with Chaffee […]
Tweet I know Kathryn hates it when I do this, and most of the rest of y’all just ignore it. But I’m going to post it anyway, because this is how I commented on the debate, and I’m not going to type all this stuff all over again (copying the embed codes over is tedious […]
TweetWith Scott Walker in town today, I took a moment to read a letter that some New Hampshire Democrats wrote to him upon his visit to that state. An excerpt: We wanted to welcome you to the First in the Nation Primary. You are a little late to the game, so we decided to help […]
Tweet Several years ago, my wife gave me a scanner with an attachment for scanning negatives and slides. I had wanted this in order to start digitizing my vast stash of 35mm film from several decades of personal and professional photography. I’ve never really undertaken the task systematically. The idea of trying to match up […]
TweetTwo quick contact reports: Yesterday afternoon, I grabbed a cup of coffee with Mike Cakora, who recently returned to the blog as a regular commenter after a five-year absence. It was great to have him back, and I was happy to get to catch up with him. I knew Mike from before I started blogging. […]
Tweet Today, The New York Times sort of scoffed at its own report, 25 years ago, about the National Aero-Space Plane, which was to boldly go where no man had gone before, spacecraftwise: In his 1986 State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan promised “a new Orient Express that could, by the end of […]
TweetWhen it comes to foreign affairs and matters of national and collective security, Americans are notorious about not paying attention, or not paying attention for long — and then being totally shocked and surprised by subsequent developments. If network news starts showing starving people in Somalia, we’re all, “Let’s send in the troops and feed […]
TweetI say no. But then, I’m old school. I would have been happy being a liberal in the age of JFK, or conservative during the Eisenhower administration. But today’s “liberals” and “conservatives,” who strain the very meaning of the words, leave me cold. Note that this isn’t about me being a grandfather. I’ve been disaffected […]
Tweet It’s been a busy day with little time for blogging, but here’s some stuff for y’all to chew on: Columbia OKs spending $35 million on new stadium — The money will be borrowed, and paid back with meal taxes over the next 30 years. Israel Agrees to Brief Truce, but Gaza Invasion Is Seen to […]
Tweet Slate brings our attention to this: NSA, FBI Spied on Muslim Public Figures’ Email, Used “Raghead” Slur in Internal Document I haven’t seen Jake Knotts lately. Could he be working at the NSA?
TweetWhen I saw the headline at The Fix, “Proud to be an American? You’re probably not a true liberal,” I thought, Well, that’s yet another reason why I’m not a liberal. At least, not as the term is popularly defined. There are a lot of points of alienation between me and today’s “liberals” beyond the […]
Tweet No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thy friend’s Or of thine own […]
TweetThis happened in Washington this morning: The House passed a bill Thursday aimed at reforming the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone records, a policy that came to light due to documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The bill, known as the USA Freedom Act, would shift responsibility for retaining telephonic metadata from the government to […]
TweetDo y’all like these better, or the Open Threads? In any case, here’s your news for May Day! May Day! May Day! Sheheen accuses Haley of interfering with child-death panel (thestate.com) — He said in a letter to John Courson, “It has become increasingly clear that Gov. Haley and her administration have stonewalled the investigation into […]
TweetSlate brings this to my attention: A new video apparently released by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism analysts scrambling. The video, which had been circulating on jihadist websites and was brought to light by terrorist watchdog group Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium (TRAC), shows what appears to be the largest gathering […]