I'm taking next week off to rest up for the onslaught of primary election candiates trooping before the editorial board. Back on Monday, March 17.
I'm taking next week off to rest up for the onslaught of primary election candiates trooping before the editorial board. Back on Monday, March 17.
It's been a loooong time since I took the SAT, and I don't really know enough about the way the test has evolved over the years to tell how good or bad the recently announced changes would be. But two things sturck me. One is that all those pesky "hard words" are going away:
And difficult vocabulary will be replaced with words that students are more likely to use in college or in the workplace.
Wouldn't want you to start your weekend without this as an inspiration -- what the Barbie doll would look like with an average woman's proportions. The doll has brown hair by default, comes with minimal makeup and is sold with the tagline "Average is beautiful." No. It's not. Yeech.
I was prepared to really dislike this article -- "Why most conservatives are secretly liberal" sounds like Democratic propoganda disguised as news analysis. Alas, there is is a lot of truth in it, even if the headline is greatly overstated:
You may remember when President George H.W. Bush said this: "I do not like broccoli and I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it.
Hey, fellow crackers, did you know you were now a part of the South? At least NPR says so:
James Mann in the New Republic: "Enough with the cliches already: The Obama administration's rhetoric on Russia is accomplishing nothing." This is the one that really grates on my ears:
2. They’re displaying nineteenth century behavior. They need to join the twenty-first century.
An interesting list of "Old English words we should still use today," including this one that applies to my profession:
Ultracrepidarian (n): "Somebody who gives opinions on subjects they know nothing about."
Lot of that going around these days. In fact, just call me the ultracrepidarians' page editor. I also like this one:
Having served all other Hoosier problems, the General Assembly now turns to -- drum roll, please -- feral cats:
INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana Senate has given final approval to a measure supporters hope will improve the lives of stray cats in Indiana's mobile home parks.
On most days, I find the disparagement of military service merely irritating. But I must be suffering from Winter Exhaustion Syndrome, because I found today's example really offensive. It's from Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, called "the most vulnerable sitting Democratic senator up for re-relection in 2014," who is waging an uphill battle against Republican Rep. Tom Cotton, who served in the Army and became an infantry officer:
Via Ace of Spades, a remembrance of the time when Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar and then-Sen. Barack Obama went to the Ukraine and urged leaders there to destroy their conventional weapons, including 117,000 tons of ammunition and 1.1 million small arms and light weapons and things like shoulder missile launchers and other weapons that could fall into the hands of terrorists:
I though it was spectacularly stupid with the Los Angeles Times haughtily announced it would no longer accept letters to the editor from "climate change deniers." Here's the explanation from the editor who made the decision:
The juxtaposition of the day comes from James Taranto's Best of the Web blog at The Wall Street Journal, under the heading "Two papers in one!"
Earlyin this story, we learn that economists are confounded by a growing phenomenon:
Most everyone agrees that the graying of America's baby boom generation has exacerbated the problem as larger numbers of boomers near age 65 and opt to retire early. But the erosion of the workforce participation rate since the recession ended in 2009 has exceeded most estimates that took into account the aging boomers.
Finally, the review I've been waiting for -- "Oscar full of grammar flubs & mispronunciations":
This may be the silly lawsuit to end all silly lawsuits:
McDonald's has been hit with a supersized lawsuit.
Unhappy eater Webster Lucas reportedly wants $1.5 million from the fast-food company after he claimed the staff only gave him one napkin.
On the group's fifth anniversary, let's listen to Jedediah Bila on why Rand Paul is right on how to expand the Tea Party:
We're through the looking glass now, aren't we, Alice?
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Officials at a Northern California high school acted appropriately when they ordered students wearing American flag T-shirts to turn the garments inside out during the Mexican heritage celebration Cinco de Mayo, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
I hate to agree with CNN, but, yeah, this is pretty much true:
Republicans, who have spent years clamoring for tax reform, were much less enthusiastic Wednesday when faced with a sweeping tax overhaul plan in an election year, reticent to discuss whether the proposal from House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Michigan, should even get a vote.
I have another f-word in mind, as in "this is really f------ stupid."
As the NFL considers banning the use of the n-word among its players, some wonder whether the f-word, a slang term for a homosexual, will be far behind.
