Free Ride in the Presidential Flight Simulator

So your mother told you that one day you also can be president …She exaggerated a bit your chances of getting into the White House—nothwithstanding the recent episode with Michaele and Tareq Salahi. But today you can step into the presidential flight simulator and make a decision about how to handle the request of your image [Read More]

Couple Crashes Obama’s First State Dinner

  Crashing a party that you are not invited to takes guts. Crashing Obama’s first state dinner takes more than nerve. Before you decide to imitate Michaele and Tareq Salahi and crash the next state dinner, wait and see what happens to the couple. DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer, reports: WASHINGTON – Crashing image image image image image [Read More]

Why is American history so murderous?

Jill Lapore reviews in the New Yorker a number of books that try to explain why the US is so violent in international comparison. Historians have shown that the murder rate in America has always been higher than in Western Europe. Why? Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, who met three years ago in a Hartford drug-treatment image [Read More]

China the next America?

David Brooks (NT Times) files this perceptive column in the wake of President Obama’s visit in China. When European settlers first came to North America, they saw flocks of geese so big that it took them 30 minutes to all take flight and forests that seemed to stretch to infinity. They came to two conclusions: that image [Read More]

A New Interpretation of Dreams

The NY Times published today a facinating article on how scientists have developed a new interpretatin what dreams are for. A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain (By BENEDICT CAREY) It’s snowing heavily, and everyone in the backyard is in a swimsuit, at some kind of party: Mom, Dad, the high school principal, there’s even an ex-girlfriend. image [Read More]

11.08 pm: House Passes Historic Health Care Reform

  And here is a bit of the drama behind the lone Republican vote courtesy of the Washington Post A vote to make or break a career Lone House Republican supported health bill after abortion limited By Perry Bacon Jr. Monday, November 9, 2009 When Republican Anh “Joseph” Cao won a stunning victory in a heavily Democratic district in New image image image image [Read More]