Unions and survival

“We’re willing to take an extra step here.  ‘Concesssions,’ I used to cringe at that word.  But now, why hide from it? That’s what we did.” 
United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger
That’s momentous, and to me ultimately a good thing.  Understand, I’m generally pro-union, almost reflexively.  The idea that a mass of workers should be able to [...]

Only on the Internet

Rick Reilly is sharp, sometimes brilliant, but he’s gotten a bit too clever for me.  I stopped reading him regularly at least a few years before he moved from Sports Illustrated to ESPN.
But I never would have thought to do the analysis that Josh Levin at Slate did, fully uncovering at least one of Reilly’s writerly tics.
Levin reports:  [...]

Persistent Youth Bulges

Those three words are, no lie, heading of a chapter section in Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, from the National Intelligence Council.

To walk and chew gum at the same time

I hope it’s lazy language, not lazy reporting, that this Wall Street Journal article puts forth on Barack Obama’s second press conference this week.  Obama introduced his choices for director and deputy director of his Office of Management and Budget, saying, “When we are facing both rising deficits and a sinking economy, budget reform is not an [...]

“Mad Men”

Good show.  I’m almost through with the first episode.

Pragmatist in Chief

 

Everything I’ve learned about Barack Obama tells me he’s politically pragmatic.  I had to look up the definition.  Did you know it?  I’m less convinced that my label sticks after reading the definition.  I’m not too concerned about defending it.
Which makes me wonder how effective the other speculative labels about his governing philosophy and style are useful, if [...]

Anticipation

Via Yes We Can Hold Babies.

The Ron Clark Academy shows well

Never heard of it before a few minutes ago.  But the publicity machine is going full-tilt.

White girls named Ashley

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight with a gem.

Brandon McClelland and hate crime

 

Takes five weeks or so for the national news media to pick up the story of a man whose body was discovered torn apart by the side of a road.   The man was Brandon McClelland, 24, of Paris, Texas. 
That’s the same Paris where Shaquanda Cotton received a seven-year sentence for pushing a hall monitor in high [...]