Chesapeake Bay — Is Maryland A ‘Political Dead Zone’?

Here’s an environmental book with a feisty message: “Fight for the Bay: Why a Dark Green Environmental Awakening is Needed to Save the Chesapeake Bay,” by Howard R. Ernst, political science professor at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Ernst also wrote “Chesapeake Bay Blues.”
Here’s a high-profile endorsement:
“Professor Ernst’s new concept — the political dead zone [...]

“Age of the Unthinkable” — General Motors in Bankruptcy

See the USA in your Chevrolet. Dinah Shore could never have imagined what’s happened to the U.S. economy. If someone had predicted, five years ago, that General Motors and Chrysler would go bankrupt, I’d have said they were nuts.
“Chevrolet” was the first word I learned to spell. It was on the minimalist dashboard of my [...]

“Age of the Unthinkable” — Swine Flu in Mexico (and in U.S.)

This morning’s news: a new strain of swine flu is spreading in Mexico. The mayor of Mexico City has halted all public events as a precaution. Schools and libraries are shut down. People are wearing protective masks in the streets.
And the TV news reporters pretend surprise that the swine flu has “jumped the border” into [...]

“Age of the Unthinkable” — Maryland State Senate’s Time Has Run Out

I’ve got the book! “The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It,” by Joshua Cooper Ramo, published March 2009 by Little Brown.
I’ve only just started to read Unthinkable, but it’s already reinforced my cynical conclusion that the Maryland General Assembly is an obsolete, [...]

“Song Yet Sung” Is Maryland’s Book

Your reading assignment, and mine, for 2009 is Song Yet Sung, by James McBride, who is best known for his book, The Color of Water.
The Maryland Humanities Council has selected Song Yet Sung to be the “One Maryland, One Book” for 2009. 
The press release describes Song Yet Sung as  ”an intricate and gripping tale of escaped [...]

President Obama, Please Ask Jeremy Rifkin About Jobs And Work

President Barack Obama has mobilized America for CHANGE, and just in time. The great banks of the industrialized world teeter on the brink!  Mighty Microsoft, symbolic leader of the technological revolution, cuts 5,000 jobs! Massive layoffs are rumored at mighty IBM!

Jeremy Rifkin predicted economic turmoil from the Third Industrial Revolution in his [...]

Winter Comes To Maryland’s Eastern Shore

Shopping in Salisbury
On the last Saturday before Christmas, Route 13 in north Salisbury reminded me of Rockville Pike in Montgomery County. As the song says, the traffic was terrific.
Saturday was also the last day of fall, 2008. I didn’t venture into the mall; from the highway it looked like the parking lots were gridlocked. [...]

John Grisham – ‘The Appeal’

John Grisham’s latest, The Appeal, is out in paperback!
Grisham has been working on an evolving formula of legal suspense fiction for two decades or more. Some of his novels, like The Pelican Brief and The Firm, take the legal genre to the edge of action and suspense. They build to a page-turning, spine-chilling race against [...]

Sen. Jim Webb for Vice President

The endless campaign for the Democratic nomination served America well.
Sen. Barack Obama earned the nomination and a place in history. Nothing was handed to him. He won Democratic delegates caucus by caucus, primary by primary, debate by debate. Along the way, the young senator from Illinois became a household name. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton [...]

‘Stuff White People Like’ vs. ‘The Official Preppy Handbook’

It was cute, and edgy. Stuff White People Like.
The original 15 or 20 items were humorous and insightful. The blog should have quit while it was ahead. Now Stuff and its imitators have set a land-speed record for running a fresh idea into the ground.
Stuff is at No. 91 and counting. Rocky was [...]