Current national and global events.
The week’s least important news: The White House briefing room is being renovated, and the press was run out of it Wednesday, to temporary quarters. NPR more or less managed a cute story out of it, though it was a waste of valuable minutes, and my own newspaper gave it good inside play. The New […]
A duck test can be applied to the Mel Gibson story, and it is surprising that it hasn’t, so far as readily available online. (Use as search something like “Mel Gibson driving” in news.google.com or news.yahoo.com). The talented actor and director (and he is gifted) was pulled over for erratic driving in late July. He […]
It should have been Bill Clinton who brought more informality to the White House during his eight years, but credit here has to go to George W. Bush. Clinton seems to have moved everywhere with a coffee mug indoors and a to-go cup away from home. President Bush is shown increasingly without a necktie. Also, […]
An acquaintance the other day had a complaint about local journalism. He noted that my newspaper’s competition covered a speech he saw at the local Political Animals Club (in Fayetteville it is open to the press). He disagreed with the speaker, a military official who defended U.S. Iraqi strategies, and wondered why the reporter did […]
Part of the definition of a right — a human right, a civil right (aren’t those interchangeable?) — is that they’re unalienable [or inalienable], to borrow and twist an independent, declarable phrase. Yet Alberto Gonzales the attorney general of the United States said on ABC’s “This Week” today there is some flex to the First […]
The Demzette reported yesterday that Arkansas’ new ban on smoking in workplaces also threatens ashtrays, at least on paper. “Although the law and a draft of the accompanying regulations authorize fines of up to $500 for a misdemeanor conviction and civil penalties of up to $1,000 a day when an ashtray is discovered on the […]