Issues
The Sooner the Better
Speaker John Boehner probably never meant to end up being the face and voice of the Republican Party – but he’s the man in the room facing Obama so that’s how it is. Last month, just before the House passed the Speaker’s bill to raise the debt ceiling until May, I asked an old…
Read MoreNipples and College
While I was gone, Governor McCrory came out against college education and Republican legislators came out against women’s nipples. These are two (or three?) big reasons I’m not a Republican. In fairness, the Governor took it back. He said he was for college education after he was against it. Kind of like John Kerry.…
Read MoreA Train Wreck
The other day down at the News and Observer John Dresher wrote about the most enticing opening to an article I’ve seen in awhile. He wrote: “For their first date, Pat and Tiffany walk to a neighborhood diner for dinner. Pat orders Raisin Bran. Tiffany, perhaps already giving up on Pat, orders tea. They proceed…
Read MoreOld-Fashioned Tolerance
The other day one of my more peculiar Jesuit friends emailed me an article written fifty years ago by Bishop Fulton Sheen who, contemplating the sharks and villains of his era, had lamented, ‘Our country is not so much overrun with the bigoted as it is with the broad-minded.’ After glancing at the opening…
Read MoreNote to Democrats: Don’t Support Voter ID
Gary is taking a break from blogging. Today’s pinch-hitter is Thomas Mills. Pat McCrory and some of his Republican allies are now saying they are ready to compromise on voter ID. Compromise with whom? With super-majorities in the state house and senate, Republicans can pass whatever bill they want without any Democratic support.…
Read MoreAfghanistan
President Obama stepped to the podium in the White House at a press conference – with Afgnanistani President Karzai beside him – and said he’s bringing 66,000 American soldiers home from Afghanistan sooner rather than later (which sounded fine). Then he added, Because the Afghan Army is now ready to whip the Taliban all by…
Read MoreThe Search for the Cure
To cure gun violence the Vice President met with the NRA, which told him the cure was fixing our broken culture – like violent video games; next the Vice President met with the video game industry which told him ‘Independent scientific research showed no connection between video games and real-life violence,’ then another group told…
Read MoreTax Gamble
North Carolina Republicans are stepping out on a political high-wire. Surely, most people love the idea of not paying personal or corporate income taxes. But then you start looking at the details. Every business would pay a receipts tax. Everybody would pay (and businesses bill and pay) a tax on services – medical…
Read MoreDelusional – for years
Baseball statistician Nate Silver suddenly became famous by writing articles for the New York Times – putting statistical models (like the models he used in baseball) to work predicting who’d win the Presidential Election. Then, the other day in an interview, Mr. Silver was asked which he found most frustrating – analyzing sports or politics?…
Read MoreThe Big Deal: 1 + 1 = 3
Up in Congress the Democrats wanted to raise taxes on 2% of the people — while the Republicans wanted to cut government spending instead. So they reached a compromise. The result? They voted to raise taxes on 77% of the people — and to increase spending. How did that happen? It’s hard to…
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