Can you imagine how much easier your life would be if you had one universal charger for everything you owned? This thought struck me as I was looking through 10 years of cell phone chargers and not finding a gosh darn one of them that was interchangeable with the other. Surely this amounts to a shakedown of the consumer by cell phone companies who are essentially forcing us to buy new chargers, probably particularly car chargers but also replacement chargers when we lose the one that came with our phone (because heaven forbid an old one work). But even beyond cell phones, how about cameras, camcorders? I can’t believe that we’re not smart enough to create a universal charger for everything. Maybe homes could be built with a charge station that you plug everything into. How great would that be? (more…)
Last week I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by legendary political scientist Robert Putnam of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government on his new book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us.
If you’re not familiar with Dr. Putnam, he’s probably best known for Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital in which he observed – metaphorically – the rise in the number of bowlers but the drop in the number of bowling leagues as an indicator of a sociological trend in American public life. Our modern life has been marked by a steep decline in social, civic and fraternal organizations that have been foundational for the functioning of our democracy. He distinguishes between bonding capital (with groups that are like-minded) and bridging capital (with diverse groups across divides… like The Village Square). (more…)
“…We all got in this together and we’re only going to get out of it working together. You can put blame across the board. A lot of the things that happened happened in the first six years of the George W. Bush administration. We went to war in two countries and didn’t ask anything of the American people. We have an unfunded prescription drug benefit in Medicare that’s now up to 1 trillion dollar deficit. And we didn’t create jobs. And the Democrats were pushing the idea of home ownership on people who were clearly not qualified to sign the papers at the end of the day for what they were buying.” –Tom Brokaw on Morning Joe
Brokaw will be hosting a special on USA Network this Friday at 7 PM called “Bridging the Divide.“
We could all learn a thing or two from the grace and perseverance of Elizabeth Edwards who died today at age 61. She was exactly ten years ahead of me at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. I’ve got a lot of work to do.
(Photo credit.)
“The right can bellow from the gut. They hate government and the taxes necessary to pay for it. They don’t even have to think about it. The left can also bellow from the gut. They don’t like big business, they love activist government. They can call for more government and the taxes to pay for it without shame. It’s not so easy when you’re a liberal president trying to lead a centrist country in a difficult time. It’s not so easy following your gut when your brain warns you that this is precisely what everyone else in the country is doing: Yelling from their gut and calling people names.” –Chris Matthews, Hardball last night
I came to Tallahassee as a young adult, but I fancy myself a bit more native having been raised on my dad’s childhood stories – rich with adventure, danger and colorful characters – from the years he spent living at Goodwood during World War II. His physician father was stationed at Dale Mabry Field and lived in Goodwood’s “Rough House” (now Fanny’s Garden Cafe, and who else can say they’ve eaten a cafe lunch in their father’s childhood bedroom). Senator Hodges’ wife Margaret was widowed by then and Tom Hood (who ultimately became Margaret’s second husband) was still just a tenant.
Back in those days, the reflecting pool was a swimming hole and renters weren’t just a source of income and headaches, they were your neighborhood. My dad and his brother had the run of the house with many many tales to tell, my grandparents spent their evenings sitting with Margaret and her macaw Polly on the front porch (Polly laughed right along with Margaret’s distinctive laugh). Tom Hood occasionally watched after my dad and uncle, who had a close up view of the budding romance (if boys ever do notice such things). Tom kept his young charges entertained teaching them poker (OK so maybe babysitting wasn’t his calling) and setting the table for an imaginary friend “J. Cartwright.” Tom showed up late one night and finally introduced the heretofore invisible dinner companion: A tiny baby squirrel who that night became a live-in (really) fast friend to my dad. (more…)
If you haven’t yet, you should check out No Labels. No Labels has major national leadership signed on and a mission we approve of. From today’s Washington Post:
Over the next 12 months, No Labels plans to organize citizens’ groups in every state and congressional district. Among other activities, these citizens will carefully monitor the conduct of their elected representatives. They will highlight those officials who reach across the aisle to help solve the country’s problems and criticize those who do not. They will call out politicians whose rhetoric exacerbates those problems, and they will establish lines that no one should cross. Politicians, media personalities and opinion leaders who recklessly demonize their opponents should be on notice that they can no longer do so with impunity.
There’s a great article in today’s New York Times about the inconsistency of the argument on the new TSA airport body scanners given the ultra partisan environment today. The article certainly supports the notion advanced by our next Village Square Dinner at the Square guest Bill Bishop that we have been sorting ourselves out into “tribes” for decades now and that the pull of group think within those likeminded groups (and the lack of trust between “tribes”) is very very strong. Noticing that partisans have taken quite opposite and ideologically inconsistent positions under different presidencies (whether it’s your party’s or not) Ross Douthat writes… (more…)
President Obama issued the annual presidential Thanksgiving proclamation on Tuesday in which he described Thanksgiving as “a time each year, dating back to our founding, when we lay aside the troubles and disagreements of the day and bow our heads in humble recognition of the providence bestowed upon our Nation.”
Not so fast on the laying aside of our differences. Apparently even Thanksgiving is occasion to launch arguments in the perpetual partisan snipe-fest that passes for civic dialogue these days.
Rush Limbaugh criticized Obama for getting his facts wrong: “The myth of the first Thanksgiving, Obama is setting it in stone.” (more…)
David Brooks channels Village Square in Monday New York Times op-ed:
“For centuries, American politicians did not run up huge peacetime debts. It wasn’t because they were unpartisan or smarter or more virtuous. It was because they were constrained by a mentality inherited from the founders. According to this mentality, a big successful nation exists in a state of equilibrium between its many factions. This equilibrium is fragile because we are flawed and fallen creatures and can’t quite trust ourselves. So all of us, but especially members of the leadership class, should practice self-restraint. Moral anxiety restrained hubris (don’t think your side possesses the whole truth) and self-indulgence (debt corrupts character). (more…)
