Save Rockland

By taking advice from the Japanese Labor Minister.

Japan's workers are being urged to switch off their laptops, go home early and use what little energy they have left on procreation, in the country's latest attempt to avert demographic disaster...

A recent survey of married couples under 50 found that more than a third had not had sex in the previous month.

Many couples said they didn't have the energy for sex, while others said they found it boring.

A Woman's Right To Shoes

In England the nanny state continues to grow more and more idiotic:

Itsh not their fault, you shee. Itsh the shoesh.

Drunk women who stagger about in high heels are to be protected - at public expense - from twisting their ankles. They will be handed flip-flops to wear by police outside nightclubs as they wend their way home. The scheme is part of a £30,000 drive by police and councillors to prevent 'alcohol-related harm'. It has been prompted by fears that women wearing stilettos or similar footwear could tumble over. Officials also claim that female revellers are at risk of cutting the soles of their feet by walking barefoot. The flip-flops will be given to anyone whose footwear is 'uncomfortable, inappropriate or soiled' and will be paid for with a Home Office grant.

The pictures are worth the click.

Two Thanksgiving Links

One is a sign of the times from where else California. For years kindergartners from two schools took turns visiting the other school. One would dress like injuins and one like pilgrim using the costumes they made. Now it looks like that will stop by some overly educated idgit.

On the lighter side now you can watch one of the best Thanksgiving shows ever in its entirety. The WKRP episode where they dropped turkeys from a helicopter "As God is my witness I thought Turkeys could fly." Should put up a guy poll who is the hottest Jennifer or Bailey.

To Buy Children’s Gifts, Mothers Do Without

Come Christmas, McKenna Hunt, a gregarious little girl from Safety Harbor, Fla., will receive the play kitchen and the Elmo doll she wants. But her mother, Kristen Hunt, will go without the designer jeans she covets this season. More

What A 21st Century Depression Look Like

You might want to ask for a hat this Christmas to look sharp standing in the bread lines.












Pundits discuss the different look a full blown depression would take today versus the 1930s. How secure is a pundit job during a depression?

Cruel And Unusal Punishment

A sadistic judge in Colorado is sentencing breakers of local noise ordinances to sit in a room and listen to Barry Manilow. This punishment could rob a person of their will to live.

"These people should have to listen to music they don't like," said Judge Paul Sacco for a segment about the program that aired Friday on Denver's KUSA-TV.

Sacco began the program years ago when he noticed that many of the repeat offenders simply showed up at his courtroom to pay their fine with cash.

"Most kids don't want to hear somebody like Glenn Close trying to sing opera," he said.

Video of a recent class showed teenagers with long faces shifting in their seats or looking up at the ceiling.

"You can't fall asleep," said teenager Rueben Fuentes right before letting out a bit of a sigh.

Members of a garage band were at the class after playing music late at night in their backyard.

At the very least the Judge should give the violators a choice of this inhuman torture or being simply drawn and quartered. At least being drawn and quartered its over after a relative short period of time. The residual of Manilow song can stay in your mind for weeks.

Poor McDonald's

All Ray Kroc wanted to do was make money serving quick and easy food to people. First their coffee was too hot, now they are being sued for three million dollars because some idiot left his cell phone that contained nude pictures of his wife that ended up on the internet. Seems they suffered embarrassment and had to move to a new home. That should work now nobody will be googling for those pictures, especially in their new town but with millions in the bank a little embarrassing can be tolerated.

Are You Smarter Than A Politican?

Sad but not really surprising seeing what passes lately for informed debate.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

"It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI.

"How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American experience?" he added.

The exam questions covered American history, the workings of the US government and economics.

Here is the 33 question quiz If one of the questions had been worded better and had another cup of coffee would have received a 100% but had to settle for a 97%.

Social Commentary For The Graphic Minded

Indexed voted one of Time magazine top 25 web sites.

He Gets It From His Dad

With A Wedgie In His Soul He Cries For Mercy

Playing At Chivalry

Time To Get Busy

First Political Ad For 2012

A great interpretation of the news clip posted earlier Palin Lied - Turkeys Died

Sarah Palin's real stroke of genius in these difficult times for the global economy. For, in an age when the government picks which banks to nationalize and which banks to fail, and guarantees mortgages that should never have been issued, and prepares to demand that those taxpayers with responsible and affordable pension plans prop up the lavish and unsustainable pension programs of Detroit, Governor Palin has given us a great teaching moment and a perfect snapshot of what my Brit reader would recognize as pre-Thatcher "industrial policy":

When the government decides it can "pick winners" and spare them from the realities of the market, everyone else gets bled to death.

Thank you, Sarah. It's the first election ad of Campaign '12. - Mark Steyn

Jim Treacher on if it had been Biden at the turkey farm.

...he would have been yammering on about how the Pilgrims ate turkey after they landed their speedboats at Fraggle Rock back in 1776.

Why Robin Hood Was The Bad Guy

Walter E. Williams is one of those rare individuals that can make learning actually enjoyable even the dismal science of economics. He has a low opinion of public funded education as a necessary evil both in its funding and its execution. In his world children would be educated on the public dole up to the point that they could read and understand "Keep Off My Lawn". His latest article on the evil concealed by doing good with other people's money.

Imagine there's an elderly widow down the street from you. She has neither the strength to mow her lawn nor enough money to hire someone to do it. Here's my question to you that I'm almost afraid for the answer: Would you support a government mandate that forces one of your neighbors to mow the lady's lawn each week? If he failed to follow the government orders, would you approve of some kind of punishment ranging from house arrest and fines to imprisonment?
...
Probably most Americans would have a clearer conscience if all the neighbors were forced to put money in a government pot and a government agency would send the widow a weekly sum of $40 to hire someone to mow her lawn. This mechanism makes the particular victim invisible but it still boils down to one person being forcibly used to serve the purposes of another. Putting the money into a government pot makes palatable acts that would otherwise be deemed morally offensive.
...
The bottom line is that we've become a nation of thieves, a value rejected by our founders. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, was horrified when Congress appropriated $15,000 to help French refugees. He said, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." Tragically, today's Americans would run Madison out of town on a rail.

Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well.

What Happens In Texas Doesn't Stay In Texas

AUSTIN — Texas became the latest stage for the debate about evolution and creationism Wednesday, as more than 80 witnesses trooped before the State Board of Education to weigh in on proposed changes in the public school science curriculum.

With few exceptions, the speakers — scientists, teachers, clergy and grassroots activists — took the side of evolution, saying they feared that the proposed changes will open the door to the teaching of creationism or intelligent design.

All things being equal who cares what they do in Texas. They usually have their own thing going on anyway. When it comes to textbooks, Texas state politics does have an effect on the rest of the country. Unlike PA and other states where local districts select the textbooks, textbooks in Texas are approved and purchased at the state level. The state with 10% of the entire market is the second largest buyer of textbooks in the country just behind California. Publishers are wary of creating expensive books that are not approved by those two states. So if enough flat earthers in Texas decide that Galileo, Newton or Darwin were wrong there is a good chance that the rest of the nation will have to select text books that reflect those views.

The Worst Day Evah

Palin Lied and The Turkey Died

Guess the weenie news guy being all snarky has stuffed tofu on Thanksgiving.



What’s the difference between a turkey and a newscaster?
Makeup.

How are they the same?
Both the domestic turkey and the newscaster are so stupid that they can drown in the rain. Actually don't think it is entirely true about turkeys jury is still out on news guys.

No Longer Dirty and Gritting

The BCTC turning out high-tech machinists. Imagine that a high school senior graduating with a valuable in demand skill.

Sophomores and juniors learn the basics of machining. They hone their skills in the old-fashioned techniques, using hand tools, drill presses and lathes to shape solid hunks of metal into a variety of useful objects.

As seniors, the students move into the high-tech, computerized world of today. They're taught how to set up and program complex machines that perform all the functions of older tools in one fell swoop.

Kids Today

A 19 year old Florida man was arrested on charges of domestic battery after beating his girlfriend on the arms and face with a sandwich. The incident happened as she drove on I-95 nearly causing her to lose control of the car. The type of sandwich was undisclosed.

A sandwich is real food and shouldn't be wasted like that or fight in the car while driving on a major highway. Settle quarrels the traditional way at home with a grapefruit.

Abandon All Hope

Beer the Next Casualty of the Crisis?

The beer industry is often described as immune to economic downturns. After all, when people get laid off, they want to nurse their sorrows with a cold one, right?

It turns out that, as the beer industry has gone increasingly upscale, the answer to that question is no longer simple. In recent years, beer sales have been relatively flat except in one category—craft beers, which are made by small, independent brewers. Amy Mittelman, author of Brewing Battles: A History of American Beer, says that the heyday for such high-end, specialty beers could soon be over as consumers look to cut costs. Mittelman spoke to U.S. News about the future—and history—of the American beer industry.

Great Granny Grasshoppes

It is now snowing w in the hills of Rockland.

A New Boost To The Tax Base

A Slatedale funeral home operator wants to create a pet cemetery on a 3.5 acre parcel in Longswamp Twp located at 537 Old Topton Road.

If the property is like the grounds the school is built on should be an easy place to dig. Just scratch the top soil add water and the hole will dig itself.

History Not Taught In School

Audio interviews with two authors who express views that differ from conventional historical wisdom.

New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America

Students have always asked why is history to me I am going to live in the future not the past. Just look at the headlines of today, "A New New Deal", "A New WPA To Build America". If you believe that Roosevelt New Deal saved the U.S. a new New Deal would be a great option for the current economic situation. However if you look at the real data not just the P.R. and you don't want to be eating dirt for the next 16 years, a whole different set of options should be considered.


H.W. Crocker III on The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War. If he really wanted to be non-PC should have called it The Politically Incorrect Guide to The War Of Northern Aggression. A spirited discussion that pits Crocker's southern sympathies against John Miller's misguided Midwestern nationalism.

The 5,000 Most Common Surnames in the U.S.

For the first time two Hispanic surnames — Garcia and Rodriguez — are among the top 10 most common in the nation, and Martinez nearly edged out Wilson for 10th place. See How Your Name Ranks

Some Of You People Are Getting Old

Listening to Michael Jackson's Thriller today is equivalent to listening to Elvis Presley's first album (1956) at the time of Thriller's release in 1982.

Watching Star Wars today is like watching It's a Wonderful Life (1946) in 1977. It's a Wonderful Life was nominated for an Oscar the following year along with Ethel Barrymore (b. 1879) and Lilian Gish (b. 1893).

More Timeline Twins

Entertaining Over The Holidays

For something different you could try a very old fashion geeky form of a fondue party.


Things - Cooking with High Voltage Electricity from Bre Pettis on Vimeo.

There is a good reason they are using wooden chopsticks. Oh yeah high voltage can be hazardous to your health.

And One Ring To Bind Them All

Anybody seen any hobbits because the Hubble telescope has found the eye of Sauron.

Friday Time Waster For All Ages

Assembler is a new physics based wonder where you move some depository equipment to get your precious green crate in position. For what? No matter! Physics work perfect and the feel of grabbing and moving around things is just perfect. Don’t play too much or you’ll dream of dirty green crates flying around.

Helpful Link

If you ever need to schedule a meeting with more than two people try Congregar . It is a very easy to use event scheduler and the site requires no formal registration beyond assigning your email to the survey you create.

Participants don't have to provide an email address, merely their name as an identifier. Once you create an event, description, and a list of potential meeting times, you're ready to distribute the provided link to the potential attendees. They can all vote yes or no on the dates you've suggested and append the dates with notes for you and other attendees to read, such as their reason for having to vote no on a certain day. The results for each suggested date are displayed beside that date as a status bar with the yes and no votes represented by green and red.

Interesting Map

2008 U.S. Election By County

2008 U.S. Election By County

A YouTube For Troops

The defense department which has blocked sites like MySpace and YouTubes mainly due to security has launched TroopTube http://www.trooptube.tv/ where active military personnel and their families can share streaming video. [via TechCrunch]

Local Teems On The Election and the Economy.

The Reading Eagle interview with local high school students at a Future Business Leaders of America workshop does give one hope.

Speaker Says Schools Stuck In The 1980's

Actually he is off about 100 years more like the 1880's.

While the schools stood still, the global landscape grew and changed by leaps and bounds, said Dr. Willard R. Daggett, the keynote speaker.

As evidence of how the world has changed, he cited Google, e-mail, iPods and PDAs, which didn't exist 20 years ago.

But while the world may be changing at a dizzying rate, schools are not, Daggett said.

Try changing the school calendar by two days, he said, and you'll need to appoint two committees to meet for six months.

Daggett said the key to improving schools isn't necessarily spending more money, making teachers work harder or creating more standardized tests.

Happy 233rd Birthday to the U.S. Marines

Never To Early For A Holiday Depression

If you are a Bah Hum Bug with growing despair as the holiday season approaches here is the perfect buzz kill poem from those cheerful Norwegians to incorporate into your Christmas mailings.

Philly Fans Always Classy

Still have to hand it to them they are strictly non-partisan when it comes to booing politicians or even Santa Claus.

The Giants and Eagles played in front of a special guest. Vice President-elect Joe Biden watched the game in a luxury suite with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. Biden was booed when he was showed on the video screen.

Some Real Straight Talk

if McCain had really been a straight talker what he should have emphasized instead of earmarks.

Conservatives should never say to voters, "We can lower your taxes." Conservatives should say to voters, "You can raise spending. You, the electorate, can, if you choose, have an infinite number of elaborate and expensive government programs. But we, the government, will have to pay for those programs. We have three ways to pay.

"We can inflate the currency, destroying your ability to plan for the future, wrecking the nation's culture of thrift and common sense, and giving free rein to scallywags to borrow money for worthless scams and pay it back 10 cents on the dollar.

"We can raise taxes. If the taxes are levied across the board, money will be taken from everyone's pocket, the economy will stagnate, and the poorest and least advantaged will be harmed the most. If the taxes are levied only on the wealthy, money will be taken from wealthy people's pockets, hampering their capacity to make loans and investments, the economy will stagnate, and the poorest and the least advantaged will be harmed the most.

"And we can borrow, building up a massive national debt. This will cause all of the above things to happen plus it will fund Red Chinese nuclear submarines that will be popping up in San Francisco Bay to get some decent Szechwan take-out."

...

What will destroy our country and us is not the financial crisis but the fact that liberals think the free market is some kind of sect or cult, which conservatives have asked Americans to take on faith. That's not what the free market is. The free market is just a measurement, a device to tell us what people are willing to pay for any given thing at any given moment. The free market is a bathroom scale. You may hate what you see when you step on the scale. "Jeeze, 230 pounds!" But you can't pass a law making yourself weigh 185. Liberals think you can. And voters--all the voters, right up to the tippy-top corner office of Goldman Sachs--think so too. P.J. O'Rouke latest

Before You Complain About The Teens Of Today

The Reading Eagle last week highlighted a Brandywine senior effort to help the spread malaria in Uganda by raising money to purchase mosquito nets. A video and more information can be found at Operation Net . This is a year long drive to purchase 1000 nets for a cost of $9500 and to collect 1000 signatures.

To make a donation, make checks out to Operation Net and send them c/o Operation Net, 21 S. Home Ave., Topton, PA 19562. To sign the Congressional petition in person, stop by Schappell Hardware or send your name, age, e-mail address and municipality to the above address and you name will be added to the petition.

Almost Mr. Fusion

Not as good as a flying car but still cooler than grits.

Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.

The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.

Learning From Ants On How To Avoid Traffic Jams

Researchers are studying how ants avoid traffic jams on the way to the sugar bowl in order to aid human traffic congestion. An ant that runs into heavy traffic diverts oncoming ants in a different direction. The diverted ant may have a longer journey but arrives sooner than if it had followed the original trail. The scientist are now looking at ways cars traveling in different directions would exchange messages on traffic conditions and automatically plot a new route. The efficient distribution of limited resources by decentralized, individual decisions is still an open problem in many networked systems but a solution could be very beneficial not only on time saved but also the cost of new highways.

One of the founders of the internet (not Al Gore) was trying to solve the problem of sending large blocks of information over a network without clogging up the tubes. He was inspired when visiting a physiologist friend who was working with mice in a maze. They started from the same location ended up at the cheese but they all took different routes. He realized that if each mouse had only a small part of an information page it could be reconstituted at the destination no matter the route. That is how email and other files are now transmitted. They are broken down into small packets sent on their merry way and at each intersection take the road less traveled to they reach journey's end where they are put back into their proper place.

Amazing what can be learned from even the simplest of creatures.

What A Country

Site Activity

Things have settled down at Brandywhine since the big spike in Feb. 2007. That was due to a combination of the budget, snow days, Easter break and general winter doldrums.

Parental Quote Of The Day

Even very young children need to be informed about dying. Explain the concept of death very carefully to your child. This will make threatening him with it much more effective. - P. J. O'Rourke

From 52 to 48

We are in sort of a pickle, Russia is warming up the cold war, the economy is in the toilet and we just elected a very untested person to lead, so what is the answer? Somewhat mauling but never less here is a good start.

Proposed Federal Mandated Volunteers

The next 4 years will be very educational for all of us especially for Obama young supporters. The first lesson read the fine print. Also keep in mind when the government says "will be asked" it has a slightly different meaning as in citizens "are asked" to file tax returns by April 15.

Another Angry Group Is Born

No more Angry White Men or Soccer Moms now it is Bitter Single Women that decided the election according to a Democratic pollster.

In fact looking back at martial status, unmarried women consistently generated large progressive margins, but never as large as we saw last night. In fact, there emerged a 44-point difference in the behavior of married women and unmarried women. If not for the overwhelming support of unmarried women, John McCain would have won the women’s vote and with it, the White House.

This is probably the one group most peeved at the thought of a Vice President Palin.

Michael Crichton (October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008)

Michael Crichton was an American author, film producer, film director, medical doctor, and television produce died today after a private struggle against cancer. He was the author of Jurassic Park, Andromeda Strain and creator of the TV series ER. One of his later works State of Fear was controversial because he dared to break with the orthodoxy of man made climate change. His address at Caltech is very worth reading .

I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world.

In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period.

In for a penny, in for a pound.

At the insistence of our new marketing guru additional links were added along with the introduction of BrandywineParents.com clothing and mugs. Still needs some design work on the colored apparel but that should be cleared up shortly.

Two Of The Greatest Inspirational Speeches In Western History

when it comes to fighting against all odds.

Shakespeare Henry V "Band of Brothers On St. Crispin's Day"


and of course National Lampoon's "Its Not Over Till I Say It's Over"

Existential Pick Me Up

From the wit and philosophical wisdom of Bill Murray



Hat tip to The Corner

Could Be A Very Long Four Years

Senator Gaffe yesterday, sorry no English translation available.

Telling voters in this swing state that “change is on the way,” the Democratic vice presidential candidate offered one of his now-expected random introductory tangents.

The latest was about his sister, Val, his wife Jill, and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, who introduced the Bidens at the rally of 1,100 people in the gym at Longview Community College.

Biden called his sister a “girl-boy,” meaning a tomboy, and then explained that girl-boys are softer than “girl-girls.”

“You know why I think Jill likes Claire McCaskill so well, Senator McCaskill? Jill is one of five sisters, Claire is one of three sisters. And I tell you what, you women raised with sisters are different than women raised with brothers,” Biden said as both women joined him on stage.

“My sister is smart, runs every one of my campaigns; is beautiful; graduated with honors from college; is homecoming queen. But she’s a … she is what I call a ‘girl-boy’ growing up, you know what I mean?”

“And I tell you what? Girl-girls are tougher than girl-boys,” he said. “But there’s one important thing I noticed.The great thing about marrying into a family with five sisters, there’s always one that loves you. ‘Cause you can count on splitting them a bit. You know what I mean?

Re: Gaffes? What Gaffes?

Only Joe Biden could make a gaffe in the act of addressing his gaffes. It's just a matter of time before he gets stuck in a recursive infinite gaffe loop, where every subsequent gaffe is an attempt to undo the previous one. This should put the conventional pundits at a total loss, and eventually CNN will be forced to offer a TV contract to an M.I.T. mathematics and logic professor who has done pioneering work expounding upon Kurt Godel's incompleteness theorem as it relates to Eubulides' liar paradox, since he's the only one who comes close to offering a cogent explanation for why Biden is still talking.

11/03 10:44 PM

Duh! - Racy TV Influences Teen Behavior

Groundbreaking research suggests that pregnancy rates are much higher among teens who watch a lot of TV with sexual dialogue and behavior, compared with those who have tamer viewing tastes.

"Sex in the City," anyone? That was one of the shows used in the research.

The new study is the first to link those viewing habits with teen pregnancy, said lead author Anita Chandra, a Rand Corp. behavioral scientist. Teens who watched the raciest shows were twice as likely to become pregnant over the next three years as those who watched few such programs.

Imagine that watching TV influences young minds. Could that possibly be a reason companies spend millions to advertise on TV to those very markets? More research is needed.

New Course At Brandywine

It is expected the school board tonight will approve the new course in Candle Making at tonight meeting. According to Senator Obama electricity prices already scheduled to rise in PA will Skyrocket if he is elected. Along with his statement on forcing companies that build coal powered generating plants into bankruptcy. The U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of coal reserves but they will be off limits until the technology can be made perfectly perfect.

After eliminating coal, natural gas, nuclear he is pretty much down to harnessing .


to power this country into the 21st century. The last person to leave PA won't have to worry about turning out the lights it will already be dark.

Still time for one more final look before deciding.

Before You Drink The Kool-Aid

A cartoon from 1948 warning people to avoid the smooth talking snake oil salesman that is more relevant today than it was then. Somebody had the gift because the smooth talker bares an uncanny resemblance and a spiel to a very familiar person of today.

How Classy

This is so far beyond the pale of disgraceful political commentary. From Wonkette created to cover D.C. gossip by Ana Marie Cox who was so objective, fair and balanced she was hired by Time magazine.

Little baby Trig must be so glad he wasn’t aborted for this, his first Halloween, because his parents dressed him up like a political party symbol to be carried around at snarling political events. Aww. Isn’t life just grand?

And the reader comments are even better.

Ugh. I hate that look people get on their face when they are happy to be holding a baby. It is all domestic and other disturbing things.

Initially they were going to have trig dress up as an aborted fetus.

I’d like to abort myself if McCain/Palin wins this election. kthx.

I thought an unaborted mongoloid baby was the symbol of the Republican Party.

It’s nice to see we can come together despite our disagreements for the common purpose of dressing the mentally handicapped in humiliating outfits and laughing at them. God bless America!

Aww…just look at the little guy. He’s got his pappy’s looks and his momma’s brains.

De-Jesusing The One

This is sad we won't be getting free gas and homes after all.

Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harboring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.

The sudden financial crisis and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of “hope” and “change” are now confronted with the reality of a stricken economy.

One senior adviser told The Times that the first few weeks of the transition, immediately after the election, were critical, “so there’s not a vast mood swing from exhilaration and euphoria to despair.?

Maybe it is just because someone is not believe hard enough. Hope at least the oceans will quit rising.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in High School

Author learned a valuable lesson early on how it is possible to win elections by fraud and deception.