Style

Failing to close the Atlantic humor gap

The Guardian has pretty much sucked the April Fool's wind out of my sails, beating any ideas that I had for a post celebrating the most fiendish holiday of them all. My cranky attitude toward Twitter is well-known, and The Guardian pleased me to no end with its announcement of a switch to a Twitter-exclusive publishing model. Just look at how effective The Guardian was in reporting past events in Twitter! 1927 OMG first successful transatlantic air flight wow, pretty cool!

Wait. I thought Cheney was no longer our VP.

In the midst of being described a criminal by U.N. experts last month, and the attempts of recovery from his appallingly disliked administration, ex-V.P.

Let's Get This Straight.

A response to my calling out a number of issues ago.

A bridge to somewhere

The haggling over the stimulus package started up again with a bridge to Microsoft parking lot. The $36 million project connecting two wings of Microsoft's headquarters will be the lucky recipient of $11 million in federal aid, because Microsoft's cash reserves are, of course, historically minute.

Baseball and symbols

Today, while carefully splitting my time between the Pendulum and ESPN, I was excitedly sitting through Baseball Tonight's analysis of the American League East.

If you break it, the fed will come...

"But just in case there are still nagging doubts, let me say it as plainly as I can -- if you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired, just like always.

Brazil's performance of "The Wall"

Rio de Janeiro, seeking to curb its growing poverty problem, has come to an interesting conclusion.

GM redesigns its 2009 CEO model

Rick Wagoner, the former CEO of General Motors, is on the outs. This should come to little surprise, given his general ineptitude and the general failure of GM to do much of anything successful.

When baseball matters

Usually baseball is a sport that has little international significance. Soccer/football leads entire nations to spill into the streets and ignite things in joy or despair, all of the Olympic sports have great bouts of nationalism attached to them every four years, but baseball always seems to be a highly isolated affair. Until Japan beat South Korea 5-3 in the World Baseball Classic, on Monday that is.

Back from the grave!

Well, not the grave so to speak. Think of it as a sun-soaked hiatus punctuated by rejuvinating weather, a startlingly high population of bikinis, hijinks and topped off by a temporary headstone on the blog.

An excellent addition to this week's section

Eugene Daniel, who can always be counted on for thoughtful and thorough analysis, has a new article on the neccesity for a change in our relationship with God.

There Will be Bias

Look, I love the New York Times as much as the next news junkie, mostly because it's free in McEwen.

The need for a crisis of faith

Let's take a moment to look at faith's place at an institution of higher learning. Robert Wohner's article in this week's Pendulum featured this key idea: "But by neglecting to present any esteemed speakers with a traditional worldview, the assumption is that anyone who reads from the Quran or the Bible in a literal way is inherently intolerant." So, the idea stems from Elon's push for alternative religion, and questioning of what constitutes faith, and student's ability to recognize their own role in that.

Three cheers for Dodd as we boo him off the stage

Yes, there's plenty of debate as to whether or not he screwed up big-time by putting forth the stipulations in the stimulus bill that allowed pre-existing contractual bonuses to be paid in full.

Stop-loss is over!

About time...I'm not in the military, but it never seemed right to treat soldiers like yo-yos, promising a return home and then swinging them back out into the warzone.

George Stephanopoulos enters seventh grade

Remember when you were in middle school, you just became acquainted with the internet and you discovered AIM?

The rats stay on the ship

Isn't it a bit much for an all-powerful dictator to summon Italian chefs to sit offshore after having their brains and urine examined for the purpose of training domestic chefs in the fine art of ... wait for it ... pizza.

Fiscal juicing

Following the Bank of England's lead, the IMF is now proposing printing so-called "super currency" and distributing it globally to stem the tide of the global recession.

All you can really do is sigh...

Amazingly Incompetent Generosity

List of bonuses given to AIG executives Sunday: $40 million for remaining employed despite incompetence. $10 million for dressing themselves for a week straight. $20 million to be put toward tinted windows when the public finds out about the bonuses. $30 million as a reward for being rewarded. $60 million because they can. Three cheers for bailouts in action!