URLs du Jour

2009-09-25

  • The "High Hopes" gabfest, which promised to "explore the diverse and layered meanings of hope and the real-life manifestations and complications of change in the 'era of Obama'" was held Wednesday at the University Near Here, and from the news report it went pretty much as Pun Salad predicted. Except that there was a tiny bit of dissent from the prevailing opinion. Waaaay down at the bottom of the article:

    David Watters, an English professor and Democratic state representative from Dover, cautioned against overly focusing on the impact race is having on the national debate.

    He said those opposing Obama are primarily "working-class folks. They have been hit extremely hard by the recession and they're not sure whether this big government is doing anything to get them a job," he said. "I don't believe that this is all racism. I don't believe that at all."

    Yes, the only reported disagreement was whether the opposition to Obama was entirely racism or if there just might be some tiny fraction of people honestly concerned about big government getting even bigger.

    That's from my local paper, Foster's Daily Democrat. Our student newspaper didn't cover the event, reserving today's headline for the rescheduling of the Akon concert from October 8 to October 7.

  • Stanford econ professor John B. Taylor presents the graphs he uses in class to illustrate projected trends for the Federal deficit and debt. Here's one:

    [Debt Chart]

    Professor Taylor calls his charts "alarming", and that's a classic example of detached academic understatement. The younger you are, I would imagine the more "alarmed" you'd be. (Personally, I don't see myself staying on that curve all the way to the end.)

  • At Language Log, Ben Zimmer notes the grand renaming of the Wisconsin Tourism Federation to the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin. For obvious reasons.


Last Modified 2024-01-22 11:21 AM EDT