Here are two recently broadcast reports on the development of wind power and other alternative energy sources in Denmark. Steep energy taxes seem to be helping the northern European nation to both end its dependence on foreign oil and do its part to clean up the global environment. [This is being crossposted at my personal blog.]

There are questions in France about why, two years after stepping down as president of his country, Jacques Chirac is standing trial for corruption charges stemming from his time as mayor of Paris in 1977 to 1995. But the questions seem to have less to do with the substance of the charges than with an apparent French tendency to overlook bad behavior on the part of prominent people, especially if it goes back more than a few years. Chirac’s one-time opponent, Ségolène Royal, has responded...

Here.

I’m not a mainstream media basher. By and large, I have great respect for the media. But I do have a pet peeve with some in the media, particularly columnists, who, enamored of a story, fail to get all the facts. Take a trivial, but evocative example appearing in newspapers all across the country today. In Newsday, Verna Gay has a column about Soupy Sales, the comedian who passed away yesterday. (I’m not linking because Newsday is moving to paid subscriber access and a link would be pointless...

No matter what your politics, you’ve got to love this.

That’s the headline for an article in today’s Columbus Dispatch. I write about it, and the general objectification of women, in a piece called Boo-ring on my blog.

Here. The human race, generally, tends not to want to act in its long-term best interests, reacting to emergencies rather than proactively avoiding or planning for them. So, it’s anybody’s guess as to whether OxFam will be heeded. But the fact is that drought need not lead to famine, as tragically, it so often has in Ethiopia and elsewhere. [This is being crossposted at my personal blog.]

Rick Sanchez says it well: Embedded video from CNN Video I blogged about this at my personal blog, too.

for incivility. It reminded me of this: So, at least on incivility, there does seem to be bipartisan agreement in Washington. The pols like it…except when the other party does it. [This is being crossposted at my personal blog.]

Here.

as what she said next, while following the script: “I swear to God.” The Saturday Night Live skit in which Slate accidentally used the four-letter F-word involved two “biker chicks” who repeatedly use the word, “frickin’.” Slate slips and, when she does, you can see the chagrin and concern on her face as she puffs her cheeks, as if to say, “I can’t believe I just said that.” But then she goes on to her next line, apparently hitting it perfectly....

Mary Travers has died at age 72. Her group, Peter, Paul, and Mary, were often scorned by folk purists who disdained their popularization of the folk idiom in the early-60s. But there can be little doubt that the group’s harmonies opened mainstream US society folk, with its long history of advocacy for civil rights, unions, and peace. Through their covers of Bob Dylan’s songs, at a time when mainstream listeners would have been unwilling to listen to his decidedly un-Bobby Vee voice, created...

And can it be righted? Being perceived as only being against things is not a winning political formula; the Democrats have been taught that lesson many times since the 1970s. Conservatism seemed to break away from its philosophical moorings four years ago, anyway. [This has been crossposted at my personal blog.]

My wife and I bought a GameBoy for our son when he was in his early teens, some fifteen years ago or so. Phil is out of the house. But the GameBoy has remained with us and is far from being exiled to the Island of Unwanted Toys. Many a night while watching the evening news or catching something else on the tube, my wife and I play Tetris. Now, comes evidence that this addictive game “may boost the size and efficiency of parts of the brain.” I wondered what accounted for the enormous increase...

That’s the topic of historian George C. Edwards III’s blog post over at History News Network. Looking at presidents noted for their persuasive powers and legislative achievements, Edwards concludes that “the power to persuade” may be a bit overstated. I think that he’s right. Presidents (and other political actors) can persuade only as much as the moment allows. They can exploit and they can nudge, but they can’t create consensus out of whole cloth. Woodrow Wilson...

Olympia Snowe. [Crossposted at my personal blog.]

Here. I would say, “Everybody’s a critic,” but truth is the government’s dislike of the festival has nothing to do with music and everything with the Methodist Church’s opposition to the coup which brought the government to power. [Sort of crossposted on my personal blog.]

A few days ago, I published links to primers on health care reform from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Here is a fun visual overview of current health care reform proposals. (WARNING: The biases of the presenters are apparent. But if you know that going in, I think that you can sift the policy preferences out and keep the information in.) Thanks to Meredith Gould for posting this link on her interesting blog. [This has been crossposted on my personal blog.]

The repressive regime in Beijing doesn’t want Australians to learn more about their despotism. [This will be crossposted at my personal blog.]

That would be insane! But, I agree with Niall Ferguson that the two countries are, inevitably, headed for a divorce, the end of what he once called “Chimerica.” Having said that, China’s government clearly seems to be moving toward what Ferguson calls “empire building,” which could be detrimental to regional stability, the environment, and US interests. For the future, the US government needs, among other things, to: Decrease its debt to China. Deepen or form strategic...

This past week, I spent time visiting with a woman who worked at the Curtis-Wright airplane plant in Columbus during World War Two. She wasn’t a Rosie the Riveter, but Blanche the Solderer. (I know the designation isn’t alliterative. But her name really is Blanche.) The World War Two experience no doubt planted seeds for the modern Women’s Movement, which took off in the 1970s and has resulted in opening so many professions previously closed to women. (Although we have a long way...

If you’re like me, busy working ten hours a day or so, the claims and counterclaims in the current “discussion” over health care reform may lead you a bit confused, with little opportunity to check the veracity of the claims. Here are two overviews of the health care reform issue and the arguments advanced by its advocates and opponents. One from The New York Times and the other from The Wall Street Journal. What interests me is that the Times piece, coming from a paper generally...

Sometimes, money does the following.

Wah! Maybe if the Beijing regime didn’t oppress people, they could, as they put it in their warning to Japan, focus “on important issues,” like freedom for their people, an end to religious and other forms of persecution, and bullying others economically. [This has also been posted at my personal blog.]

See here, from the BBC. It’s all part of a pervasive hardening of North Korean policies on a broad range of subjects, the article says. Desperation will do that.