Google rolled out a sneak preview for developers of their forthcoming Wave platform for communication and collaboration. At first blush, there’s a lot to like about this approach. It will take some getting used to, especially since e-mail has become so ubiquitous. In an age where e-mail has been joined by instant messaging, Twitter, texting, wikis, and so many other communication tools, it’s not surprising that we’ll start to see a platform that integrates them better.
- Did #MancowMuller fake his waterboarding for cheap publicity? Sounds like that’s the case. Not surprised. http://tinyurl.com/mjoyc6 #
- Amstel light commercials during #blackhawks games, coincidence or savvy marketing? #
Why Circuit City Failed, and Why B&H Thrives: “The whole operation is a crazy Willy Wonka factory. If you want to check out a product that’s not on display, a salesperson orders it by computer terminal from a vast stockroom in the basement. Moments later, as if by magic, the product arrives at the retail counter, via an elaborate system of conveyor belts and dumbwaiters.” (via)
1001 rules for my unborn son. At first this didn't impress me, but the longer I read it, the more I wish that I had thought of it first.
Gallup just released a new poll that shows that more Americans self-identify as “pro-life” than “pro-choice”.
This piece from W. James Antle III in The American Conservative is another attempt to find a new way forward between what he sees as the two current poles within the Republican party: “There is a flavor of conservatism that has not been discredited by the events of the past eight years. If anything, its criticisms of loose monetary policies, overconsumption, reckless private and public borrowing, uncontrolled immigration, and foreign adventurism now seem prescient. It is a conservatism unburdened by the Iraq War, the ‘heckuva job’ response to Hurricane Katrina, and the financial meltdown, which are really the biggest contributors to the GOP’s decline. Most of all, it is a conservatism that does not need to rehabilitate the Bush legacy since its leading exponents were never full-time Bush apologists.”
Michael Gerson previewing Robert Putnam’s forthcoming American Grace: “Against the expectations of hard-core secularists, Putnam asserts, “religious Americans are nicer, happier and better citizens.” They are more generous with their time and money, not only in giving to religious causes but to secular ones. They join more voluntary associations, attend more public meetings, even let people cut in line in front of them more readily. Religious Americans are three to four times more socially engaged than the unaffiliated. Ned Flanders is a better neighbor.”
- RT @PeterRoskam: I’ll be joining Big John Howell & Cisco Cotto on 560 WIND AM Monday morning at 8:35 am CST http://tinyurl.com/9pnsh2 #
You have to wonder what kind of cultural changes will occur in the wake of the current economic crisis. How will American’s live differently in the generations to come. Here’s one idea from Luke Lea: “… perhaps it is time to consider a further reduction of the standard work week and the creation of new forms of suburban development. The goal would be for ordinary working families to begin enjoying the fruit of fifty years of economic and technological progress.”
This is one of most prescient paragraphs about the Republican Party that I’ve read recently: “But conservatives don’t need higher volume. Conservatism at its best is a tough and demanding creed. To sell it, you can’t call people who’ve lost their jobs and their homes ‘losers.’ You need to sell the virtues of a growing and flourishing economy and the free-market policies that will make it happen. Because conservatives aren’t a majority, hard-edged accusations of socialism wind up alienating millions of potential allies — voters who are a little uncomfortable with Obama’s spending, particularly if it threatens to saddle their children with debt, but who recognize that the government needs to act to stave off an economic collapse. And so conservatives need to understand their political opponents. They need Whig men and Tory measures: candidates who genuinely feel the voters’ pain.”
This is a fascinating piece that attempts to cast the internal struggle within the Republican Party and the conservative movement as a battle between so-called “low church” conservatism and “high church” conservatism. It’s a helpful way to describe the issues that need to be central to this conservation.
This just blew my mind: “… Ferris Bueller, the person, is just a figment of Cameron’s imagination, like Tyler Durden, and Sloane is the girl Cameron secretly loves. One day while he’s lying sick in bed, Cameron lets ‘Ferris’ steal his father’s car and take the day off, and as Cameron wanders around the city, all of his interactions with Ferris and Sloane, and all the impossible hijinks, are all just played out in his head. This is part of the reason why the ‘three’ characters can see so much of Chicago in less than one day — Cameron is alone, just imagining it all.”
