Why can’t we just be interesting?
Here’s a headline that caught my eye at The Guardian: “‘Can’t I just say it’s tasty?’ Why food critics go too far / It’s easy to write beautifully if you can work yourself into a frenzy of love or loathing. Unfortunately, most meals...
I find my lack of faith disturbing
Most people don’t believe this, but if forced to declare my own personal beliefs, I do: The Republican Party stole the 2004 election for George W. Bush. There, I said it. I’m not talking about their usual dirty tricks and voter suppression tactics —...
Non-qualified political opinions
Being a middle-aged Southern white guy, it should be obvious that I have friends and family who are Republicans. The list of people I love and admire includes some names of folks who not only voted for Trump, they voted — twice — for the previous...
How should we write about climate now?
Back in in mid-2000s, I produced a single newspaper feature section that was unlike anything I’d ever seen before: A package of items addressing the debate over climate change, and not one of those items was structured as a “story.” As a newsfeature writer, story was...
What is democracy worth?
Josh Marshall has a classic Editor’s Brief at Talking Points Memo this morning: Long, rambling, extemporaneous and loose, but also inherently fascinating: “I’m talking about the global contest between autocracy and authoritarianism on the one hand and...
The Fed bends the knee
Now comes word that the Federal Reserve is about to cut a key lending rate by about a quarter of a point. Even if you don’t routinely pay attention to financial news, this is a story you need to be following. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen economic...
It’s the system, stupid
This morning’s Guardian includes an op-ed piece from a former UC-Berkeley sociology prof who contends (via somewhat dubious example poll questions) that college-educated Democrats live in denser bubbles than Republicans. Perhaps, but that’s not the...
Thanks but no thanks, pundits
Yes, despite our national majorities and the encouraging results of the 2018 midterms, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about Trump and the GOP in 2020. But over the past few days, the pundit class has been aggressively pushing the alarming notion that if...
The case for Democratic fusion
Enough about the Democrat Party being one big tent. It’s more like a refugee camp inhabited by multiple parties that would naturally — in a parliamentary system — squabble and scrap before elections, but then come together to form a coalition...
Adrift and aflame
Politicians, even the good ones, lie from time to time, and sometimes with good reason: Remember how Jimmy Carter tried to tell us the truth, and we repaid him with mockery and defeat? Governments lie, too. But then again, so do companies, and coaches, and churches,...
Dan Conover
Howdy
Howdy! This is my current blog,