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January 08, 2011
Best American Hood Ever.
Benjamin Siegel (1906–1947)
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
January 07, 2011
A Freshman Senator to Watch: Ohio's Rob Portman.
Pretend for a moment that all Republicans and Democrats cannot be reduced to cartoon characters and cultural stereotypes, or relegated to someone's gallery of demonhood. Learn about Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) (Washington Post), sworn in just this week. He's smart, honest, well-spoken, young (55) and has done everything right so far. Well, perfectly. He's an "R"--but not a shrill dweeb. My sense is that the reading of the U.S. Constitution yesterday across the Hill would have embarrassed him. (But he would never tell me.) The most talented and sane end of the GOP establishment loves the guy. Importantly, we think he'd even get along well with our bud Al Franken. As a fellow Midwesterner, Franken would admire the new junior Ohio senator, too.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
What if your life was actually interesting? Expats in the U.S and Europe vs. China.
See in The Economist "A Tale of Two Expats". Is life really easier for Western expatriates in China than it is for Chinese expatriates in the West? Answer: either expat has it all over you. Time to sell the house and kids and wife? Maybe leave Columbus? Think about it. Life's short. One of the best sentences from a Brit pen ever: "A final headache for Chinese expats is that, when you move to an oppressive Western capitalist society, you encounter a working class that can throw its weight around."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 07:01 AM | Comments (0)
January 06, 2011
Frac me: Marcellus what?
If your firm does any work whatsoever for clients in fossil fuels--energy, environmental or the business side of either--see in Environmental Protection this piece by Keith B. Hall at New Orleans' Stone Pigman: "Hydraulic Fracturing--Is it all it's cracked up to be?". It's a fine primer on fracing and the extraction of natural gas from U.S. shale formations, if you don't know much about those two issues. Louisiana folks know a lot about both. Politically, moreover, it's a hot button issue right now, especially in the American Northeast.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
Ed Rendell: A Democrat with Sand.
Last week's National Journal showed the outgoing Pennsylvania Governor riled: "The Wussification of America". Keep doing that, sir. New male interviewees are whistling "The Sound of Music" score in our anterooms.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2011
The 112th Congress: Bring It. But Bring Jobs.
I'm so nervous I just sit and smile. I worked "up there" twice but I never saw this: (a) 15% real unemployment, (b) a split-as-hell Congress, (c) a new but able Speaker with the personality of a lead weight, and (d) a black U.S. President with a 50% approval rating and the luck and fortune of a grown-up Ferris Bueller. See for starters today's The Hill. And Sarah Palin's still a Total Betty. (I do like her smile.) By the way, if you are a lawyer or other professional of any age or specialty and think all this Congress stuff above doesn't concern you, you're wrong. Please think more about that nice job at Sears.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
January 03, 2011
Breaking: Erudite Brit explains Cicero to Unwashed Yankees.
Arrival of Charon. Gustave Doré's take on Dante's Inferno. Plate IX: Canto III:
And lo! towards us coming in a boat
An old man, hoary with the hair of eld,
Crying: 'Woe unto you, ye souls depraved!'
Get your learn on, Law Campers. Conjugate Verbs all by yourselves. Dabble in World Geography. Even some History. Visit Professor Charon at Blawg Review #292.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)