Events

By traditional measurement, the United States is 230 years old today. Also today, the Freedom of Information Act turns 40, a fact President Carter discusses in his op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post: [T]his anniversary will not be a day of celebration for the right to information in our country. Our government leaders have become increasingly obsessed with secrecy. Obstructionist policies and deficient practices have ensured that many important public documents and official actions remain hidden from...

I had planned to go for a quick bike ride this morning, but that doesn't look like a lot of fun at the moment: But yesterday Anne and I went for a hike through the Ryerson Conservation Area in Riverwoods, Ill., which was a lot of fun: I am especially glad that I could single-handedly feed thousands of starving mosquitos. Anyway, we chose Ryerson after reading Ted Villaire's 60 Hikes within 60 Miles, which Anne picked up earlier in the week. We recommend the book to anyone who (a) lives in or near...

I'm selling my old receiver because Anne's is better. From CNet's review: "The extra set of front-panel-mounted inputs (S-Video, composite video, audio, and digital audio) might come in handy if you use a game console or video camera. If you're really serious about video quality, the RX-V620 has you covered, with two sets of component video connectors and five sets of audio and S-Video/composite video inputs. We counted four stereo inputs, including a phono jack. The digital tally reached five...

On this day in 1941, the universe changed: NBC broadcast the world's first television commercial, heralding the end of the existing civilization.

Five doctors went duck hunting one day. Included in the group were a general practicioner, a pediatrician, a psychiatrist, a surgeon and a pathologist. After a time, a bird flew overhead. The GP reacted first. He raised his shotgun, but then hesitated. "I'm not quite sure it's a duck," he said, "I think I should get a second opinion." Of course by that time, the bird was long gone. Another bird appeared in the sky thereafter. This time, the pediatrician drew a bead on it. He too, however, was unsure if...

I have a bit of work to do today, but Chicago has the kind of weather this morning that makes people skip out for lunch at 9:30. So, by way of mentally preparing to ignore the clear skies and 22°C (72°F) breezes out my window, here's what's going on this week. Over the past two days I've had to deal with four kinds of evaluations, three of myself and one of other people. One involved life-or-death decisions, one involved the future of my company, and the other two really pissed me off. First the most...

A gentile goes into a clothing store and says, "This is a very fine jacket. How much is it?"The salesman says, "It's $500."The gentile says, "OK, I'll take it." Two gentiles meet on the street. The first one says, "You own your own business, don't you? How's it going?"The other gentile says, "Just great! Thanks for asking!" Two gentile mothers meet on the street and start talking about children.Gentile mother 1 (said with pride): "My son is a construction worker!"Gentile mother 2 (said with more pride)...

Sometimes it's sad reading the morning papers. The President is reacting to public disclosure of illegal surveillance programs disgracefully: President Bush offered an impassioned defense of his secret international banking surveillance program yesterday, calling it a legal and effective tool for hunting down terrorists and denouncing the media's disclosure of it as a "disgraceful" act that does "great harm" to the nation. See, it's the surveillance, wiretapping, eavesdropping, and leafing through bank...

I changed the thumbnail for the blog just now. Here's a larger version: For comparison, here's the old one: Yes, I'm sitting at the same table at Jack London's Pub in Carmel by the Sea, Calif. (Here's the original post.)

In this month's Washington Monthly: About the only failure more pronounced than the president's has been the graft-filled plunder of GOP lawmakers—at least according to opinion polls, which in May gave the GOP-controlled Congress favorability ratings in the low 20s, about 10 points lower than the president's. This does not necessarily translate into electoral Armageddon; redistricting and other incumbency-protection devices help protect against that. But even if many commentators think that Republicans...