These are a couple of NPR reports that caught my ear while I wasn’t blogging. Paul Krugman is always worth hearing, which is more than I can say for a lot of economists.
[audio:http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2012/04/20120427_atc_15.mp3|titles=NPR: Paul Krugman]Operation Tiger was a practice run for D-Day, with a disastrous outcome.
[audio:http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2012/04/20120428_atc_05.mp3|titles=NPR: Operation Tiger]Ted Nugent is supposedly the son of an Army sergeant, but I think he resembles Russell “The Professor” Johnson, from Gilligan’s Island. Hmm….
Just because I haven’t been posting anything doesn’t mean I’m dead, but I sure was not feeling well for a while, and my voice is only halfway recovered. There are 20 partially written posts I never finished, and most of them are too outdated to bother finishing.
I’m reading a think piece on Slate written by some guy from Massachusetts, extolling the virtues of the state — excuse me, Commonwealth — that I’ve lived in for the past 44 years. Click here. Something to keep in mind is that the wealth in Massachusetts is not distributed evenly geographically. Most of it is in the eastern quarter of the state, and it’s not a big state. Like other New England states, Massachusetts has a lot of struggling former mill towns, whose heyday ended in the 1920’s, when the textile industry moved south because water power was no longer needed.
John Edwards, Democratic ex-Senator from North Carolina, is on trial for a big complicated mess involving alleged misuse of finances, a mistress, their baby, his bodyguard buddy, and I don’t know who else, on what would have been his deceased wife Elizabeth’s 62nd birthday. Democrats sure do know how to weave a tangled web.
Today I heard a very unflattering story about outgoing U.S. Representative Barney Frank. He was disrespectful to an important man who I respect and admire greatly, and to whom I owe a great deal. Later, Frank attempted to apologize, only to end up being insulting to the man’s wife. For me it illustrated why I’m glad Barney Frank isn’t my Congressman (Jim McGovern is), and why I’m glad he isn’t running for re-election.
The Colbert Report
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A friend sent me a bunch of mini-posters that came from a relative who’s far right of center. I’m always amused by these things, because they’re all so outrageously stupid. Here’s one that made me roll my eyes.
Even ignoring the fact there are a lot of gay soldiers in the military, it’s way too easy to turn this sentiment on its side. Here’s my edit.
Having been a young man who was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ when I was in college, I can assure you that the sort of bizarre, twisted, ridiculous thinking that’s described in this week’s This American Life is all too real. Click the audio player to hear part 7. (Sorry, the audio is no longer available.)
I used to attend a church called Grace Chapel in Lexington, MA. It was headed by Gordon MacDonald, who became one of Bill Clinton’s “spiritual advisors” when the Monica affair hit the news. Click here to read more about Gordon.
