From Op-Ed Columnist - The Obama Haters’ Silent Enablers - NYTimes.com:
What is this fury about? In his scant 145 days in office, the new president has not remotely matched the Bush record in deficit creation. Nor has he repealed the right to bear arms or exacerbated the wars he inherited. He has tried more than his predecessor ever did to reach across the aisle. But none of that seems to matter. A sizable minority of Americans is irrationally fearful of the fast-moving generational, cultural and racial turnover Obama embodies — indeed, of the 21st century itself. That minority is now getting angrier in inverse relationship to his popularity with the vast majority of the country. Change can be frightening and traumatic, especially if it’s not change you can believe in.
Interesting piece. Worth the read.
I know it is difficult to discuss gun control legislation in the South, where the NRA reigns supreme and the mention of “gun control” is automatically linked with an attack on hunters’ rights.
But I think Jim Craig made an excellent point on gun control in light of the DC shootings and Justice Scalia’s recent opinion on DC gun laws:
How about a movement to amend the Constitution to explicitly provide for control of non-hunting, non-pistol weapons? Let’s have an open debate with those who think there’s an inalienable right to own semi-automatic firearms or armor-piercing bullets.
Now that’s a debate I’d like to see. And I bet law enforcement agencies would welcome it too.
by Sam R. Hall on May 24, 2009
in Design
by Sam R. Hall on May 24, 2009
in Writing
I’m not a big Jay Leno fan. In fact, I can’t wait for Conan O’Brien to take over the Tonight Show. And I think a weekly prime time talk show is a mistake.
That said, I’ll watch The Jay Leno Show at least once. If you want a preview, see this NY Times blog post.
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal is getting a new website, called NEMS360.com.
The website is going to offer a lot more features than the current bare-bones site operated by the DJ. The new site is available, but it is currently in a beta format.
I’ve always been surprised at the DJ’s lack of decent web presence, given the progressive nature of the newspaper. That said, I’m not sold on the new website. It’s still cluttered and not at all clean.
Perhaps they should have taken a look at what Boone Newspapers, Inc. did with their site. That’s a fabulous, if not somewhat expensive, platform. The Natchez Democrat and The Shelby County Reporter do the best online jobs in Boone. Those would be model sites for the DJ.
Anyway, I’ll be interested in seeing what people think of the new site. I’m just glad they are getting RSS feeds finally.
While cleaning out some clipped RSS items from NetNewsWire, I found this Get Rich Slowly post on underearning interesting.
It’s a review of Barbara Stanny’s Overcoming Underearning (affiliate link). I encourage a read of the full post, but this passage is pretty good:
At the core of Stanny’s plan is a five-step process of Inner and Outer Work. She devotes a chapter to each step, and restates them as follows:
- Tell the truth about what’s not working for you, and what is.
- Make a firm decision about what you truly want. (What is your Why?)
- Look for opportunities to stretch by doing what think you can’t do.
- Surround yourself with a supportive community.
- Respect and appreciate money by taking good care of it.
The first three steps are your Inner Work. As a building starts with an idea, grows into a blueprint, and finally becomes a real, concrete thing — so your reality starts as an idea, grows into a belief, and then starts to reflect back from the world around you.
Step four is about building a supportive environment. You don’t have to leave your negative friends; in fact, Stanny has a way to use their feedback as well. Finally, we apply the previous steps in how we treat ourselves and how we treat money.
After gaining back a large portion of the weight I lost, I’m trying to get back into a healthier lifestyle again.
Part of that has been making sure breakfast is a good start, with a focus on whole grains. That generally means cereals — Special K, Cheerios, Bark and Nuts — you name it.
Then I stumbled across this article from The Minimalist in the New York Times. Mark Bittman writes about how his morning meals evolved from the bland to the bold without sacrificing the fibery health benefits he needs.
All of those were reasons for me when, a year or two ago, I started eating things at breakfast that you would more likely associate with dinner: black olives, quinoa, miso, dried tomatoes, sesame oil, bok choy, wheat berries, roasted carrots.
The foundation of most of these breakfasts has been whole grains, and making them a morning staple has done me nothing but good. I’m eating more of them, I’ve lost weight, the morning meal “lasts” longer before I’m hungry again.
The differences between the ways our bodies handle whole and highly processed grains may be arguable, but surely it would be foolhardy to pretend that a stack of doughnuts or a bowl of Sugar Pops is the nutritional equivalent of a bowl of bulgur or cooked oats.
But even putting aside the health argument, the narrow spectrum of highly sweetened morning food is limiting and ultimately boring.
There are some really interesting breakfast ideas in there. My problem will be having the time to make them. Two kids and early morning blogging demands make cereal easier.
Perhaps I’ll try something new two mornings a week, just as a start.
H/T: Michael McCracken via his blog
by Sam R. Hall on February 25, 2009
in Politics
by Sam R. Hall on February 24, 2009
in Politics
I enjoyed President Obama’s speech from the comfort of my living room and the view offered by MSNBC.
You can find out what I thought from my live blogging thread over at MississippiPerspective.org.
(Yes, this is shameless cross-promotion.)
