We Own the Banks

Check out Clyde Haberman’s amusing piece on our new relationship to the banks whose practices triggered our new grand depression. According to his calculations, we all–that is if you’re taxpayer like myself–now hold a $1,785.71 stake in the banks our government bailed out. He figures that as shareholders we have right to question some of [...]

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How Divided Are We? Pt I

Elections, which present us with stark binary choices, naturally tend to divide rather than unite the American public. Supporters become so fervent that they can’t imagine how someone could support the other guy.  Rather than assert any shared common ground, the candidates themselves reinforce their distinctions while paradoxically crawling toward the middle ground where any [...]

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Obama’s Infomercial

So if you weren’t tuned in to TV tonight, you might have missed Barack Obama’s 30-minute ad called, “American Stories, American Solutions:”

I wasn’t tuned in myself as I don’t have TV with reception, but quickly found the video on his website. There wasn’t anything groundbreaking but I enjoyed watching it nonetheless. [...]

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Sedaris on a Plane

My previous post on David Sedaris’s recent ‘Undecided‘ New Yorker piece was so popular that I decided to include another. In that story, Sedaris made a rather apt analogy between the presidential race and airline food; this detail reminded me of a previous Sedaris story regarding his misadventures flying to Raleigh:
On the flight to Raleigh,
I [...]

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Sedaris on Undecided Voters

There’s a new Sedaris story in the New Yorker about undecided voters. I’ve included the beginning here, which ends with an wry analogy comparing this year’s candidates to airplane food:
I don’t know that it was always this way, but, for as long as I can remember, just as we move into the final weeks of [...]

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