Thursday, November 20, 2008

TGIF (Almost)

It isn't Friday, but this link is for everyone who wishes it were. Mozart meets sidewalk performance art. (Video, with sound. Work-safe.) (Link by way of Andrew Sullivan.)

Friday, November 14, 2008

And now for something different

Ta-Nehisi Coates, a blogger for The Atlantic, has been running a Friday poetry feature. Intriguing, thought provoking, and worth a visit.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

January 20, 2009

Election Day is the day we Americans congratulate ourselves on the robustness of our democracy, the day the world's democratically elected leaders and dictators alike congratulate the President-elect and pledge to move forward. For at least a week or so, hope and bipartisanship reign. (Well, sometimes.)

But any two-bit dictator can hold elections. Even Zimbabwe held elections.

No, the real celebration of American democracy is Inauguration Day. For more than two hundred years, through wars, political scandals, brutally partisan campaigns and national tragedies, outgoing Presidents have seen their successors sworn in, and have quietly slipped back into their roles as mere citizens.

On January 20, 2009, George W. Bush will do the same.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Raise a glass

When you vote today (you are voting, right?), be nice to the poll workers. Poll work involves long hours, grumpy people, and brain-crushing tedium for not very much money. In spite of that, most of the poll workers I've encountered are genuinely trying to do a good job, and our democracy couldn't function without them.