Issues
Going Deep
“Drill, baby, drill” was the Republican mantra during the campaign. The GOP concluded – and nervous Democrats agreed – that the public wanted no potential source of cheap gas left undrilled. Now Skip Stam of Apex, the Republican House leader, wades into the debate with a novel justification for drilling off North Carolina’s coast: It…
Read MoreThe Great Grab
The Great Grab is on: American government is a treasure chest where anyone who needs cash – and has political clout in Congress – can reach in and help himself. Take shell-shocked CEOs facing Christmas without bonuses (which sounds a lot like bankruptcy to them). Like GM: Consumers are spending less, buying fewer cars, so…
Read MoreTotems and Taboos
Totems and taboos are fascinating kinds of devices – they’re a mixture of rational and irrational or, depending on your point of view, heresies. The Celts worshipped tree spirits and there have been taboos (on everything from kosher foods to cannibalism) since before the dawn of time. Today, racial slurs are tabooed. That doesn’t sound…
Read MoreObama and Terrorism
Obama’s fleshing out his plan to whip terrorism. But I’m not sure about his new policy in Afghanistan. It comes down to this: We’re going to shower them with money – so by the time we finish pouring cash on them and building roads and schools and bridges and supermarkets they’ll love us and turn…
Read MoreThe Great Skizzle
Once upon a time not so long ago Wachovia Bank, a hundred-year-old bank, was as solid as the rock of Gibraltar. What went wrong? It’s a tale of miscalculations and mistakes – by its own managers. As a result investors have seen their shares plummet and the bank put on the auction block not once,…
Read MoreEconomics Simplified
When the heads of the Big Three went to Washington to ask Congress for $25 billion to save their companies, one congressman asked, What will you do, personally, to make a bailout a success? The president of Chrysler said he would work for a dollar a year. The congressman looked at the presidents of GM…
Read MoreWelcome to the New World Order
Talk about Old White Guys (OWGs) – when I read Gary’s blog yesterday I had to look up what a Prius was, which I guess is emblematic of a problem for a lot of us OWGs – the rules have changed and we can’t learn the new language. Here’s an example: The other night driving…
Read MoreCults
Well, now, I’ve taken to reading the Life section of the newspaper to continue to monitor the pulse beat of culture. Thursday there was an Ann Landers-type self-help column about religion written by a Methodist minister. The question she was asked by one of her readers was: “What’s the difference between a cult and a…
Read MoreAfter the Fall
To most people – like Bill Clinton losing his party’s control of Congress in 1994 – one election is usually enough of a wake-up message. But Republicans are hard-headed – if madness is repeating the same mistake over and over with the same result we qualify. We shrugged off 2006, so history repeated itself in…
Read MoreThe Failure of the Southern Strategy?
When folks lose elections they go into paroxysms of contrition – usually confessing to the wrong sins. And when they win, there’s a parallel temptation – they attribute victory to virtues that had little to do with their success. Now, mi amigo Gary surely has a point when he says Republicans are in danger of…
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