(Reposted from 11/22/03) On November 22, 1963 I was a 13-year old 8th grader at Edgar Allen Poe Intermediate in Alexandria, Va. It was an ordinary school day until about 2:20 in the afternoon, when we were changing classrooms, and suddenly a rumor was flying that the President had been shot. That was confirmed about …
You know, if I were flying to Asia on somebody else’s dime I might be inclined to go see some of the sights, eat some of the local food (I do draw the line at kim chee), and generally take an interest in things/places that were new to me. Not our President. As he barnstormed …
I finished Erik Larson’s The Devil and the White City last night. It’s a good book, but I have to admit that I was much more interested in the struggle to get the 1903 Chicago Fair up and running than I was in the parallel story of the serial killer. There wasn’t quite the sense …
Also in The Great Influenza, Barry postulates that Wilson suddenly dropped many of his requirements during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 partially as a result of a bout of flu he suffered during the Conference. He cites some evidence that the flu physically affected its victims’ brains, with a loss of cognition as a …
I finished The Great Influenza, and it’s a great read. It’s also terrifying and instructive. Some of us are outraged at the current media’s shortcomings in reporting the Administration’s failings and prevarications, but today’s omissions look mild compared to what happened in 1918. My opinion of Woodrow Wilson has changed drastically after reading this book. …
Why is the blogosphere not buzzing with anticipation about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? Is the magic gone? The film opens tonight, and yet I’ve seen none of the furor that accompanied the first couple of movies. At least two of the reviewers (Kenneth Turran, linked above, and Manohla Dargis of the NYT) …
The I-G report (see here) from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting is now out, and our man Tomlinson does not come off like a champ. The report said he violated federal law by being heavily involved in getting more than $4 million for a program featuring the conservative editorial writers of the Wall Street Journal. …
A new GAO report (pdf) indicates there was no intent to approve the morning-after pill and in fact every intent to disapprove it, no matter the consensus of the review panel. Right-wing politics endangers lives: FDA officials gave conflicting accounts of when the not-approvable decision for the Plan B OTC switch application was made. FDA …
Received today: DEAR (My name here), I AM BARRISTER WILLIAMS IBE (SAN), A SOLICITOR AT LAW. I AM THE PERSONAL ATTORNEY TO MR JIM (My name here), AN EXPERTRIATES HERE AND A NATIONAL OF YOUR COUNTRY. HE WAS ALSO A CONTRACTOR WITH ONE OF THE GOVERNMENT PROSTATES, WHO EXECUTED A CONTRACT WITH THE NIGERIAN NATIONAL …
The good news is that college basketball season is about to begin; the bad news is that that means Dick Vitale is about to return to our television screens.