I had dream this morning that I was hanging out with a woman named Elena Kagan. I realized upon waking where the name had come from, but in the dream she was not a candidate for the Supreme Court, though was briefly the focus of national media attention ( Read more... )

I ran across this while working on a reference question today. Name the date! Ted Kennedy's no long with us, but much of the rest of it looks like 2009. It's not.

The rising cost and unsatisfactory state of medical care has finally got just about everyone impatient for a change. During the past decade, medical fees in the U.S. rose twice as fast ( Read more... )

I want to urge folks in Ohio to Vote NO on issue 2.

( It's a pretty deceptive measure )

What an odd news morning -- two items that I'm not sure how much to like:

1. Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Does this seem a little pre-mature to anyone else? I like him, I respect him, I voted for him, and I really, really hope he lives up to this lofty prize. But what weird timing. Does this just represent a collective sigh of relief from the ( Read more... )

Woohoo! I just learned that my Republican state representative (ie, the guy I didn't vote for) is sponsoring a bill making it illegal in Ohio to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity for employment, housing and a few other things.

Details (from an email from Equality Ohio:In the next few days, Representative Dan ( Read more... )

Today's New York Times includes an op-ed piece entitled What’s the Point of Daylight Time? by a pair of researchers at UC-Santa Barbara.

They studied Indiana's energy use before and after its recent change in DST observation, and found that contrary to the energy-saving aims of the seasonal clock changes, DST actually results in more energy ( Read more... )

Yesterday:

Obama: Yay.
Ohio ballot issues: Yay.
State & Local Elections: umm... did any of my candidates win? I don't think so...
California: disheartened about Prop 8, belatedly excited about Prop 2, about which I had been heretofore uninformed.

Today:I got a call from Mr. Obama this morning. I congratulated him on his election; and just like ( Read more... )

I'm curious about the media / political reaction to yesterday's failed House vote on the bailout. Folks on both the right and the left are skewering the folks who voted against the bill, calling them irresponsible and petty and caring more about their re-elections than about the future of the country. The world is going to end, and it's going to be ( Read more... )

I've had the LOL idea in my head for weeks, and finally did something about it.
marmalade_girl and q_sama -- this is for you. (And anyone else, really...)


( Read more... )

We've been hearing a lot about gas prices lately, including John McCain and Hilary Clinton's advocacy of a temporary repeal of the gas tax. I want to propose an alternative to that measure, and I'm not sure how to inject the idea into the broader public discourse. (I did just write to my Rep and Senators, as well as Obama, McCain, and Clinton, but ( Read more... )