And that is not leadership. Whether we’re talking Herman Cain’s economic plan (9-9-9 or 9-0-9) or how he and his campaign are failing to deal with Politico’s reporting on the settlement specifics between the National Restaurant Association (when Cain was its head) and two of its former employees regarding alleged sexual harassment in the workplace, Cain seems to believe that he can reduce,...

Type faces dominate our lives, subtly or not so subtly attracting us to everything from underarm deodorants to fast food joints to record album covers, while type faces on signage get us to our destinations without getting lost. And in this age of personal computers and their myriad fonts, type faces dominate our lives as never before, enabling us to be our own graphic artists. How else to explain those kitschy...

Monarchy and equality have always been incompatible in Great Britain, as well as in most of the world’s remaining monarchies, but that is about to change in a radical way as Commonwealth leaders today pledged to amend legislation dating back to the 17th century to allow daughters of the monarch to take precedence over younger sons in the line of succession. Prime Minister David Cameron plans to introduce...

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has launched a huge undertaking — a nationwide campaign to collect a photograph for each of the 58,272 men and women whose names are inscribed on The Wall in Washington, D.C., which has become the single most-visited memorial in the capital. The photographs will be displayed in a future education center at The Wall and also will appear online on the memorial fund’s...

Sometimes the Left Brain (the one that controls the right side and “logical” language functions) needs to take a break. Luckily, the Right Brain (the “spatial” non-linear side that controls the left side of the body) is sometimes up to the task. Drawings by Hart Williams (in his alter- persona as Hesperion Wug) from September and early October. Horny Toad (or Horned Frog in Texas) —...

I did little research before this eighth (yes, eighth! and that doesn’t even include the Twitter debate) Republican presidential primary candidates’ debate. Check out this list for videos of each of them. Luckily, I keep myself pretty immersed in news on a daily basis between online, radio, newspapers, a senior in high school who wishes he could vote and a sixth grader who made it onto student council...

EIGHT BELLES GOES DOWN AT THE 2008 KENTUCKY DERBY One of my fondest childhood memories is being taken to Delaware Park, at that time one of the premier thoroughbred tracks in America, by my mother to watch morning workouts. She instilled in me an appreciation for the beauty, athleticism and intelligence of thoroughbreds and the sights, sounds and smells of those misty mornings have never left me. Then much...

From Nate Silver’s Five Thirty Eight, with this lede from new research by Christopher Stout and Reuben Kline, both political scientists: Looking at Senate and Gubernatorial candidates from 1989 to 2008 (more than 200 elections in over 40 states), we analyze the accuracy of pre-election polls for almost the complete universe of female candidates and a matched sample of white male cases. We demonstrate that...

This month marks the 45th anniversary of my debut as a writer — that is someone who got paid for writing — and I recall that my first byline was a story on a local Marine drowning while on combat maneuvers on Okinawa. I was paid 15 bucks for that article; that is 15 bucks for each Saturday that I toiled in the newsroom of my local rag writing mostly obituaries. As compared to the sweet 100...

Late last night, after watching some spin room action about the Republican primary debate in California, I started thinking about this question in a way that harkens back to just after Hillary Clinton was no longer in the 2008 race. It’s not going to be Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin.  Yup, I’m predicting that right now.  Neither will be the general election presidential candidate for the GOP...

According to two CNN polls, Texas Governor Rick Perry has gone from having a significant deficit with women Republican voters to a double-digit lead with them. First, about the July poll (Perry was not yet an official candidate seeking the Republican nomination for the presidential race): Perry leads among male voters with 20%, but he’s tied for fifth place with Ron Paul when it comes to female voters —...

And so Irene passes into history having been an unusual hurricane that fortunately did not live up to its potential. Meteorologists were predicting a storm of the century, but by the time Irene hit the metropolitan New York area it more resembled, in the words of one wag, an overweight jogger. There were a number of explanations for this, but the most significant is that the storm — while immense...

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is being updated once or twice more tonight. A newer post on the storm will appear Saturday. The latest news at 6:50 pst: Two million have been evacuated to escape possible dnger from swiftly-approaching Hurricane Irene so far: Hurricane Irene caused extraordinary disruption Friday as it zeroed in for a catastrophic run up the Eastern Seaboard. More than 2 million people were ordered...

One of my fondest childhood memories is low-crawling across the front yard of my family home with my father as Hurricane Hazel bore down on us. It was October 1954, I was seven years old and it was all a lark. Never mind that Hazel, a Category 4 monster, took 95 lives in the U.S. in an era when hazardous weather alerts were primitive and another 81 lives in Canada as a rare extratropical storm. Then there...

Our linkfest offering you a buffet of different takes on issues by a variety of websites. The Dictator is Falling in Libya and some folks can’t say “I told you so” and in fact will want people to forget their words. And the question Republicans face now is how to respond: to cheer or not to cheer. I predict talk show hosts will not cheer and find some negatives and therefore most Republican...

A terrifying moment at the Indiana State Fair yesterday: the Sugarland Concert stage collapses, killing five (so far). Here is that terrible moment via You Tube: Another fan video showing the collapse (fuzzy but you can see it): The scene moments after: FOOTNOTE: I have worked many fairs over the years in one of my non-blogging incarnations. There are times when you get a huge gust of wind. In one instance...

Nothing sinister here. Oh, wait. Today is International Lefthanders Day, which I urge you happiness with. Vive la Gauche! It bespeaks the fundamental cussedness of lefties (and leftists and southpaws) that it was immediately spelt two different ways: ‘Lefthanders’ and ‘Left-Handers.’ This is innate in the leftie soul, since all of life is, to a lefthander (of which, you might have deduced,...

I am sure we’re all enjoying our weekends and there is no reason not to continue to do so. It is worth remembering that 50 years ago today was the start of the Berlin Wall. It is also worth celebrating that the wall no longer exists. I just finished reading an excellent book on the topic and suggest it to anyone interested in the topic. In Berlin 1961 we see how the wall was just one part of a much more...

When I wrote about June’s New Hampshire debate, I wrote that answering the question of what I want in a candidate has two parts: first, the policy part, and second, the competency part. Neither takes precedence over the other in any absolute way, but I defined the competency piece as going “…to overall experience, dedication, integrity, sincerity, thoughtfulness, consistency and respect for...

What is it with women like Sheila Bair, former head of the FDIC, who is just soooo difficult, and Elizabeth Warren, creator and designer of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, who is just soooo controversial and now U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D, FL-20) who is just soooo not acting like a lady? I mean, really. Who do we think we are when we use our voice – a voice that was selected and in many...

On Saturday, I wrote about this entity and former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray’s role in it. Now we read, on Sunday, that he will head it instead of Elizabeth Warren. From Politico: President Obama has selected former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to lead the embattled Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Obama will make the announcement Monday from the White House. The report first appeared...

prin•ci•ple [prin-suh-puh l] noun 1. an accepted or professed rule of action or conduct: a person of good moral principles. 2. a fundamental, primary, or general law or truth from which others are derived: the principles of modern physics. 3. a fundamental doctrine or tenet; a distinctive ruling opinion: the principles of the Stoics. in•tran•si•gent [in-tran-si-juh nt] adjective 1.refusing to agree...

A state government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation may be coming to a state near you. If you like your laws drafted and passed by corporate politicians for the corporations which own them, apparently you can call ALEC to arrange it. A secret group, until now, whose sole purpose is to diminish your rights in favor of corporations has been exposed here. If you like tobacco, oil,...

No shortage of coverage, thank goodness, of the life and death of Betty Ford, former First Lady to Gerald Ford’s president, 1974-1977. Spiro Agnew’s resignation and Richard Nixon’s resignation were seminal political events in my life, very much as Gerald Ford, the pardon of Nixon and Chevy Chases’ Ford-inspired pratfalls were too. I’m devouring everything that’s being published...