This is surprising: In a blow to financial firms, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday signed off on legislation that seeks to ban abusive credit-card practices. While consumer groups and key Democrats lauded the committee’s move, the 12-to-11 vote in favor of the controversial bill was very narrow. Thus, the committee’s chairman, Sen. Christopher …
Archives for March 2009
Sometimes you get a bad king
You all know the joke (repeated in “Annie Hall”) about the two old ladies at the diner, where one says “The food here is terrible, I can barely eat it” and the other says “I agree, and the portions are so small!” That’s exactly how I feel about the New York Times. The paper can …
Defining normal
I don’t find this especially offensive, but it is interesting to hear Michael Barone define normal (via WM): This is similar but not identical to a point I’ve often made: that the Republican Party is the party of people who are considered, by themselves and by others, as normal Americans—Northern white Protestants in the 19th …
Random historical note
Some of my best friends are from the small West Indian nation of Guyana (although Guyana is on the South American continent, its history and culture are much closer to that of Trinidad than of, say, Brazil) and they emailed me the obituary of Janet Jagan, a woman from Chicago who became president of Guyana …
That Is Depressing
In an odd turn of events, a David Brooks column that I almost completely agree with: There are many experts who think that the whole restructuring strategy is misbegotten. These experts think that costs are not the real problem. The real problem is the product. The cars are not good enough. The management is insular. …
Earth hour
I don’t have much of an opinion about Earth Hour, but I have to say that the Big Hollywood reaction to it puts the Red State reaction to shame: One Billion Turn Out Lights to Highlight Threat from Climate Change. When Lights Return, One Million Infidels Found Killed by Terrorists OK, so if you were …
Dayana does Gitmo
Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza, visited Gitmo last week and here’s what she reported: We arrived in Gitmo on Friday and stared going around the town, everybody knew Crystle and I were coming so the first thing we did was attend a big lunch and then we visited one of the bars they have in the …