tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84335172011-11-27T19:39:21.349-05:00I view the world and share some of what interests me. You're invited to comment. We may not change the world this way, but perhaps the view will be more satisfying to us all.JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.comBlogger2621100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-33609222036705863892009-10-02T16:23:00.002-05:002009-10-02T16:25:33.759-05:00

It's not often you hear an EX-president with anything to say about the newspapers that covered him in the White House. So this struck me as worth sharing. (You might want to turn your speakers down a notch.)

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-41020517845222717962009-03-17T12:36:00.000-05:002009-03-17T12:36:00.514-05:00

While the Florida Legislature contemplates demolishing the Department of Community Affairs in an attempt to get construction hands back to work, the U.S. Commerce Department reports that housing starts have started back upward. Details are at the Washington Post.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-29083202927210664752009-03-17T09:01:00.001-05:002009-03-17T09:03:45.601-05:00

While many states are expanding public access to records via Internet searches, much key information remains hidden away. "The state of access today is quite uneven," said Charles N. Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, as the 2009 Survey of State Government Information was released in connection with Sunshine Week. For more about the survey, click here.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-37822020515654120632008-11-29T14:01:00.000-05:002008-11-29T14:01:23.953-05:00

We're not getting the health care we pay for, say experts consulted by the Washington Post. "The United States today devotes 16 percent of its gross domestic product to medical care, more per capita than any other nation in the world. Yet numerous measures indicate the country lags in overall health: It ranks 29th in infant mortality, 48th in life expectancy and 19th out of 19 industrialized

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-73696767913826089452008-11-28T12:10:00.001-05:002008-11-28T12:18:04.198-05:00

My friend Robert Buckman, an Army Reservist on duty in Baghdad, shared with me a letter home that a sergeant in his unit wrote earlier this week. Whatever we may think about the reasons we sent U.S. forces over there, this glimpse at one soldier's thinking deserves reflection. My friends, it has been over a year since I set foot in God's country, four years to the day since I left it, the first

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-32135009924915263552008-11-07T10:24:00.000-05:002008-11-07T10:24:18.674-05:00

My partner is politically progressive but always practical. The following report in The Miami Herald Federal energy aid comes to Florida prompted a particularly frank response: Okay... what is this about?What is Home Energy Assistance giving these people? Hot water?Perhaps if you are elderly you need air conditioning? So people eat bad food, develop bad habits, get asthma and then we pay to

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-76006626700745226552008-11-01T15:42:00.000-05:002008-11-01T15:42:32.133-05:00

My friend Ginny Rorby reveals a bit of how she came to be the compassionate person I know. I remember her eyes. There was no joy to see me marching toward her. Instead she leaned, picked her huge purse off the floor and put it on the seat next to her. "You can't sit here, Ginny," she said when I was beside her. It's a timely essay in the St. Petersburg Times.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-16823907262182703092008-10-31T09:49:00.001-05:002008-10-31T09:51:12.876-05:00

Rushing to avoid the same post-inauguration reversal of rule-making that they carried out eight years ago, the White House is pressing agencies throughout the government to finish up a wide range of deregulatory steps. Farms, mines and power plants are just some of the industries affected. This has been reported elsewhere in recent days, but today's Washington Post does an especially good job

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-62603064053657441362008-10-24T09:38:00.000-05:002008-10-24T09:38:45.225-05:00

In an important footnote to the historic financial shakeup we're having, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he was wrong to think banks would act so prudently in their own self-interest that no extra regulation was needed to head off a housing bubble. We had a bubble, of course, and it broke -- with disastrous costs that are still not possible to tabulate. The Washington Post

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-19937142878194005922008-10-17T09:42:00.000-05:002008-10-17T09:48:56.348-05:00

Not many things will raise my blood pressure, but one that did was Miz Palin's insinuation that it's patriotic to avoid paying taxes. Fortunately, I'm not alone in feeling proud to write the check that accompanies my Form 1040. A letter in today's New York Times states my view very well: To the Editor:Fair taxation isn’t about “redistributing the wealth” — it’s about giving back to the great

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-43962249990568616072008-09-24T07:57:00.001-05:002008-09-24T07:58:50.085-05:00

I'm always skeptical of take-it-or-leave-it propositions, and the bigger the big shot who makes the proposal the more I try to check it out. Henry Paulson's grab for power at the threat of a financial ice age is a case in point. Sure enough, there are alternatives, according to economists interviewed by the Washington Post.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-16193118084356158932008-06-10T22:17:00.003-05:002008-06-10T23:04:51.189-05:00

Any news junkies reading this will have heard of Mayhill Fowler and her second big buzz-making blog post of the 2008 presidential campaign. Fowler touched off a lot of indignation because she got Bill Clinton, on tape, venting about a Vanity Fair article that was downright mean to his wife. Some journalists think Fowler took unfair advantage by not saying who she was when she blurted out her

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-79290286438335647772008-05-23T13:12:00.000-05:002008-05-23T13:16:46.975-05:00

I was pretty indignant the other day when this year's farm bill went through Congress with veto-proof majorities. I was in the rare position of actually agreeing with President Bush that it's a bad bill that continues to help rich corporate entities more than family farms whose survival is threatened. I particularly disliked the continued, though smaller, subsidy for grain ethanol production.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-5352540906979152362008-05-22T12:35:00.000-05:002008-05-22T12:35:53.908-05:00

An oped column in today's New York Times implicitly defends President Bush's insinuation that Barack Obama, is his openness to meeting America's adversaries at the conference table, is an appeaser. Nathan Thrall and Jesse James Wilkins cite the one-sided discussion that John Kennedy walked into by meeting with Nikita Khruschev in June 1961. In my view, though, they make a case against going to

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-87806569357488989142008-05-07T15:02:00.001-05:002008-05-08T09:19:26.365-05:00

An environmental engineer at the University of Minnesota makes a good case that our spread-out, thinly populated suburbs are a major contributor to the carbon dioxide emissions that are blamed for global warming. Julian D. Marshall writes: Compact urban form can cut on-road gasoline emissions, the largest segment (62%) of transportation CO2 in the United States. The transportation sector is the

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-22974573440541131982008-05-02T23:53:00.000-05:002008-05-02T23:54:57.412-05:00

May 3 is World Press Freedom Day

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-13088240509458332632008-05-01T06:31:00.003-05:002008-05-01T08:48:16.736-05:00

When I first heard someone suggest a summer holiday from the gas tax, I thought it was a lame attempt to placate those famous Orlando parking lots that pass as tourist attractions. Now Sens. Clinton and McCain are running with the idea, and I can't shrug it off. Cutting the gas tax might be good for politicians but it would not be good for the country. Cutting the tax would encourage more

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-28891927805089403422007-08-23T07:19:00.000-05:002007-08-23T07:22:22.158-05:00

Howard Dean's 50-state strategy for rebuilding the Democratic Party is turning out to work pretty well, Bob Moser writes in The Nation. His piece is worth reading, if only for the stem-winding courthouse speech by a grassroots organizer in Wilkes County, N.C. -- a "red" county where Democrats are growing in numbers, influence and confidence.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-2534028909118219512007-07-24T08:15:00.000-05:002007-07-24T08:15:31.476-05:00

A sobering report from the magazine Florida Trend about how the state's recent insurance legislation puts the whole state on the line, financially, in the event of another big hurricane.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-55407784291059688072007-07-05T13:16:00.000-05:002007-07-05T13:22:21.657-05:00

Here's an update on our energy-intensive state's lack of progress toward using solar power to save on fuel consumption. It's worthwhile, though it commits a common error in assuming that Florida is ideal for solar energy. Actually, we typically have a lot of sun-blocking cumulus clouds overhead, which means we need more efficient solar technology than places where the sun hits more directly.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-60957733633981266952007-06-25T09:02:00.000-05:002007-06-25T09:10:07.243-05:00

The Washington Post documents a chilling accumulation of power in the hands of Vice President Dick Cheney. It looks to me like he has served for most of the Bush administration as a shadow president -- placing his own people in key posts throughout the executive branch of government and reaching out into Cabinet branches to enforce his personal will. Most of what he's doing has been hidden:

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-18668834243067109042007-06-16T14:06:00.000-05:002007-06-16T14:25:01.044-05:00

My current favorite guru of newscraft, Jay Rosen, has been advocating that journalists find a new way of writing and thinking about political campaigns. Instead of simply reporting or even analyzing the polls that tell who's ahead among particular slices of the public, Rosen wants reporters to dig into what the candidates stand for on the big issues of our times. Rosen is trying to overcome

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-58440523477918174362007-06-14T00:01:00.000-05:002007-06-14T00:03:11.808-05:00

The Baltimore Sun said it as well as anyone could, so just check it out here.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-79317441225771815342007-06-08T12:25:00.000-05:002007-06-08T12:30:38.036-05:00

Ever looking for the angles, Florida Power & Light Co. runs up the balloon of building a wind-energy farm off the coast of St. Lucie County. News is in the Palm Beach Post. The company is, of course, a leading player in wind power. If anyone can make it work, I think it would be these guys.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-21600547215139590272007-06-07T12:08:00.000-05:002007-06-07T12:18:43.856-05:00

Without missing a beat, Florida Power & Light Co. rebounded from its rebuff at the Public Service Commission by seeking local approval to double the size of its Turkey Point nuclear power station east of Homestead. It may well have done so even if the proposed coal-fired Glades power plant had been OKd. Look for more of the same, even though the Florida geography has until now discouraged

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-78327301368186377602007-06-06T10:55:00.000-05:002007-06-06T11:31:19.737-05:00

Some of my greener friends will be cheering the Public Service Commission's 4-0 vote denying a request to build a coal-fired power plant on the west side of Lake Okeechobee. I'm puzzled, though, by the reasoning of Commissioner Matthew Carter II that the price of coal is too uncertain to make a coal plant a wise choice for Florida Power & Light Co. According to FPL, it proposed coal for the

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-86380712102259831492007-06-03T08:51:00.000-05:002007-06-03T08:56:59.531-05:00

An old friend has joined the fellowship of bloggers, and I think you'll enjoy his cogent remarks. When you've got a minute, check out Barry Sez. He's only just begun, so you might check back after a while when he's broadened his range of commentary.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-86788679328722880002007-05-29T19:13:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:05:07.270-05:00

Updated May 30Tuesday's Supreme Court ruling in a job-discrimination case makes me wonder if the justices -- or the Congress that made the law being interpreted -- actually live in the real world. The ruling seems to mean that a worker who believes she was underpaid -- that is, paid less than peers in the same job -- loses the right to sue for redress if the discriminatory decision was made more

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-76478745522493578332007-05-29T09:05:00.000-05:002007-05-29T09:05:35.981-05:00

There's a fascinating discussion of the progressive collapse of honeybee populations across the country. A sample: we are facing a series of problems like this, problems that are environmental in nature, and this has been a real eye-opener for me as to how poorly prepared this country and countries around the world are in taking note of how climate change or global change will impact our

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-48726235629946492212007-05-28T08:15:00.000-05:002007-05-28T08:19:24.492-05:00

A bookstore owner in Kansas City burns his overstock because he can't even give it away. Makes me terribly sad. Reflect on how we share ideas as you read it here.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-25336843448753387132007-05-23T15:10:00.000-05:002007-05-23T15:14:01.076-05:00

Key members of the Florida Legislature, while beating up on local governments for their property taxes, just couldn't resist elbowing closer to the feeding trough to grab an unprecedented total in local spending projects. Here's comment from the St. Petersburg Times, and a slightly more neutral piece from the Gannett newspapers of Florida.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-2282689819177987342007-05-20T21:03:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:30:57.337-05:00

If the deaths of people's animal companions from tainted pet food scared you, I think you'll want to see what the Washington Post reported today. Here's a little bit: For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-5083605255418516892007-05-17T09:51:00.000-05:002007-05-21T16:41:57.917-05:00

Updated May 21 While farsighted leaders around the world try to lessen dependence on oil, the Miami-Dade County Commission plays to short-range political convenience by considering a summertime holiday from the motor fuel tax. This is the brainstorm of Commissioner Joe Martinez, taking a hint from that well-known bastion of conservation, Texas. Read it in the Miami Herald.The background, of

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-34253292150279676192007-05-07T19:28:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:06:08.881-05:00

There's a good laugh here, at the expense of our obsession with national security. The AP report is at Yahoo! News

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-88515864518315235552007-04-28T12:23:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:07:14.699-05:00

You can count on Florida to commercialize God's green earth. I suppose this movement is why there's a charge for taking a bike tour in a Miami-Dade County park.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-51272031658758332452007-04-27T13:24:00.001-05:002007-05-31T09:07:47.878-05:00

Click here to sign up.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-63300974016878456892007-04-27T10:50:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:08:15.136-05:00

The carcentric city of Indianapolis is studying how to make their community more walkable. In this they join the vision demonstrated with the Miami 21 project here in Florida. Thoughtful report and commentary by Neal Peirce.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-45717096037157958502007-04-12T11:11:00.000-05:002007-04-12T11:16:32.404-05:00

You can see from the graying mug over in the About Me corner that your humble blogger is long since wet behind the ears. That's one reason I took interest when my friend Marty tipped me to his new venture, Boomvista. If you're a baby boomer, I think you'll enjoy the welcoming style and wide-ranging conversation over there. Do check it out.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-62756135548457941032007-04-08T13:58:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:09:24.353-05:00

There ought to be a use for this somewhere. I found it on Platial News.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-76283843095502755992007-04-06T08:39:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:09:59.610-05:00

You've got to take this seriously. Here's this morning's AP report. Our children will feel the greatest impact, according to the Reuters report out of London. One result will be tropical storms in the American north, says Agence France-Press. As an illustration of the impact already visible, zoom in on this Google map of Lake Chad, a shrinking lake on the edge of the Sahara desert. "It's a

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-64263114255800947792007-04-03T09:50:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:10:42.062-05:00

If you ever doubted whether health insurance made a difference in anyone's getting needed medical care, take a look at this case from Oklahoma. A doctor tells the story to Lindsey Tanner of the Associated Press.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-23752322029210700132007-03-30T14:03:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:18:49.627-05:00

At my home, everybody recycles -- soda bottles, newspaper bags, the papers themselves, flashlight batteries, whatever can be reused or made over into raw material. So it was heartening to read that in San Francisco, big retail stores are going to have to start packing merchandise in biodegradable bags instead of those polyethelene ones (in photo, my kitchen stash) that you see caught in bushes,

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-19849126114267628312007-03-28T07:23:00.001-05:002007-05-31T09:19:14.510-05:00

The environmental movement gets its act together in Maryland, says the Washington Post.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-6226965004644468652007-03-26T13:38:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:19:40.473-05:00

Updated March 27The Detroit big three automakers sat down with President Bush today and talked about doubling their production of cars that run on a gasoline and ethanol mixture or on biodiesel. Not that their proposal was any surprise, since the president's state of the union address two months ago told everybody that ethanol was the way to go. I wonder if he'd cleared that path with the big

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-18205261905124104582007-03-21T21:20:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:20:21.071-05:00

It's not just what we drive, and how fast, that accounts for the way America gobbles down petroleum. It's also how we build, and where, car columnist Warren Brown argues powerfully in the Washington Post.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-78405226032855301742007-03-13T09:08:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:20:55.798-05:00

Impressed by Al Gore's documentary about global warming, and by California's example in reducing the gas emissions blamed for the warming, Gov. Charlie Crist says he wants to put Florida on the front line in fighting the problem. His intentions are reported today in the Palm Beach Post, along with some of the legislative doubters he'll have to contend with.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-65707191554234996322007-03-10T10:27:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:21:22.063-05:00

I've posted on this topic before, but this is a particularly good piece. And it won't be the last one you see here. Check it out.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-85549518203996306972007-03-05T12:31:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:21:56.971-05:00

I haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting Barnie Day, though an uncle was and my sister is his friend. I admire his writing and his public service, though, and want you to take a minute and read his latest.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-69462260800380379992007-02-28T09:59:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:23:02.159-05:00

My friend Dan Kubiske, who spent a few years in Hong Kong as a journalist, has an interesting view of today's stock market news. As chairman of the International Journalism Committee in the Society of Professional Journalists, he's done a fair amount of speaking and writing about the comparative natures of free and controlled press systems. Here's Dan: If there ever was an argument that free

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-41024588885699647602007-02-26T08:58:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:23:28.235-05:00

I was pleased to see that Al Gore's environmental call-to-arms, An Inconvenient Truth, won the Oscar for best documentary. Here's the story, from Reuters via NBC. And here's more about the film from the producer's website. If you, like me, missed the film during its short stay in area theaters, you'll be interested to learn that it's available on DVD.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1560246903040035512007-02-21T21:59:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:24:09.397-05:00

I loved this piece of thinking from a writer in Washington, D.C. Except for the reference to snow she could well be talking about Miami. Check it out here.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-47756692632580836262007-02-20T11:27:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:24:38.185-05:00

Several weeks ago I told you about a consumer movement called the Compact, in which people promise year by year to make do, re-use or recycle instead of buying new stuff. There's a parallel group called Freecycle, which helps closet-cleaners hook up with individuals who need what's about to be thrown away. I just discovered that they have a Miami node -- accessible, of course, via Internet.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-79915224000317576892007-02-18T15:52:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:25:01.220-05:00

Knowing a bit about the cost of running a farm, I've had an uneasy feeling about all the recent talk of making ethanol for motor fuel out of corn. Now here's a savvy commodities writer to explain it all to you, at Marketwatch.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-76677441416083919002007-02-08T11:13:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:25:28.663-05:00

I read in the newspaper that Wal-Mart aims to make a big footprint in energy conservation by pushing the sale of compact fluorescent tubes in place of standard incandescent light bulbs. These compacts last years longer and they use less energy, so even at the higher initial cost the economics would seem attractive. What I haven't seen addressed is how to dispose of the tubes when they do burn

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-81965676458732621932007-02-05T15:03:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:26:42.002-05:00

It's been visible in Florida for years that the Republican-dominated government was trying to spin off as many state jobs as possible into for-profit organizations. Followers of the national news could see much the same thing in the widespread use of contractors to support the Iraq war. Now comes the New York Times with a dramatic report on how widespread this kind of contracting really is -- to

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-76472106417572094332007-02-04T18:34:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:27:17.469-05:00

An editorial writer in Pakistan wrestles with the implications of the IPCC report on global warming: Myth No. 4: Congestion can be solved by road building. This is another classic, often followed by the corollary that less congestion is good for the environment. But a 1994 SACTRA report on the generation of traffic suggests traffic increases beyond projections if new roads are built. Indeed,

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-67830742553392674662007-02-03T10:51:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:28:26.661-05:00

Coverage continues on this week's report on global warming, which should dispel all doubt as to whether we created this climate-disrupting mess. A key passage: Their report predicted severe heatwaves, droughts, storms and floods resulting from an expected rise of 3 degrees Celsius in average global temperatures by 2100. It will be difficult for governments to ignore because it was agreed by all

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-38183311447788461342007-02-02T11:05:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:28:53.736-05:00

I caught this shot of the new Carnival Center for the Performing Arts just as I was starting home last night. Doesn't it make you wonder what charms await inside those gleaming walls? Well, here's one critic's take on the sounds: ... The room sounds great. When the music goes loud and fast in the 4th movement of the 9th it was almost overpowering. But where it really shines is on the quiet bits.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-23821070262981034402007-02-02T10:43:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:29:22.701-05:00

We've seen this coming for a while, but it looks like the scientific consensus is almost complete. Today's report is from Reuters via the Washington Post website. Check out that photo of the melting glacier in Greenland, and the Post's background coverage. Also, here's the site of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I'll look for some other good links to add.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-84615012401490988572007-02-01T09:48:00.000-05:002007-02-02T10:52:13.989-05:00

(Updated February 2)One of my favorite writers, Molly Ivins of Texas, will write no more. Here's the AP obit, via CNN's website. She is remembered in her hometown newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-5520910200883149082007-01-31T22:08:00.000-05:002007-05-31T09:29:47.447-05:00

A footnote to the ING Miami Marathon was a schoolkid exercise called Run for Something Better. Sixth, seventh and eighth-graders ran the last 1.2 miles of the official half-marathon course, after qualifying by running 20 miles in increments at school or home. I used to love running, and I still love watching runners -- of any age.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-79541122446027475282007-01-31T13:16:00.000-05:002007-01-31T22:27:07.543-05:00

In case you missed it, check out this scary report about the deterioration and likely failure of the weather satellites that have helped warn coastal areas about when and where hurricanes were likely to strike. Marty Merzer and The Miami Herald are doing us a real service by drawing attention to the concerns at the National Academy of Sciences -- that valuable forecast tools such as the QuikSCAT

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-26777693124710766752007-01-26T13:20:00.000-05:002007-01-26T13:25:26.710-05:00

Lots of Americans have decided that they don't need to be good spellers or competent map-readers, because their computers fill the gap. You can read it and groan in the New York Daily News.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1167768741562391992007-01-02T15:12:00.000-05:002007-01-02T15:42:37.510-05:00

I'm back from the holidays, and greatly refreshed. I think I shall have a few new thoughts for you in days to come. One springs from a brief disappointment during our holidays, and how we coped. We were spending Christmas at a country house in Virginia, where someone had promised to cut us a tree that we could decorate when we arrived late on Christmas Eve. We arrived even later than expected

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1166808695794658452006-12-22T12:29:00.000-05:002006-12-22T12:31:39.376-05:00

I'm ducking out of the conversation for a few days, to seriously relax over Christmas and the start of the new year. In a couple of weeks, though, let's put our brains to work on how to straighten things out in the public arena.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1166720327275198662006-12-21T11:58:00.000-05:002006-12-21T11:58:47.343-05:00

The popular image of the struggling family farm appears to disconnect from reality. Check this out: The very policies touted by Congress as a way to save small family farms are instead helping to accelerate their demise, economists, analysts and farmers say. That's because owners of large farms receive the largest share of government subsidies. They often use the money to acquire more land,

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1166719977507658722006-12-21T11:48:00.000-05:002006-12-21T11:52:58.523-05:00

As one who has long tried to keep his workspace clean enough to start the day productively, instead of sorting and clearing, I was interested to read of a movement to embrace disorder. Here's a sample: Studies are piling up that show that messy desks are the vivid signatures of people with creative, limber minds (who reap higher salaries than those with neat “office landscapes”) and that messy

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1166390101197858362006-12-17T16:15:00.000-05:002006-12-17T16:15:07.966-05:00

Here's more on the congressional budget debacle and the role "earmarks" play in it: Republican leaders left behind just enough spending authority to keep the government operating through mid-February, less than halfway through the 2007 fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Democrats have signaled that when they take control of Congress in January they will extend that funding authority for the

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1166290589072282062006-12-16T12:36:00.000-05:002006-12-16T13:17:29.843-05:00

It's wonderful what an election can do. Here's the president, in his Saturday radio address, calling for an end to the slippery "earmark" process that Congress uses to spend without leaving tracks: Earmarks are spending provisions that are often slipped into bills at the last minute, so they never get debated or discussed. It is not surprising that this often leads to unnecessary federal spending

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1166282647982127052006-12-16T10:24:00.000-05:002006-12-16T10:34:14.693-05:00

Calling for a radical transformation of American schools, the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce issues an education plan for keeping the United States competitive in the world. Business Week writer Jane Porter writes: If implemented, the commission's recommendations . . . would revolutionize the way children are educated in this country. Among the ideas: a set of board

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1166039362997307182006-12-13T14:49:00.000-05:002006-12-13T15:08:16.820-05:00

Right up there with Ian McHarg ("Design with Nature") in the realm of writers who show us our folly is Orrin H. Pilkey, the renowned professor of earth sciences at Duke University. Pilkey and a North Carolina colleague, Robert S. Young, wrote a piece for today's New York Times op-ed page that calls down the Army Corps of Engineers for its scheme to restore the Mississippi Gulf Islands in response

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1165934180662694542006-12-12T09:34:00.000-05:002006-12-12T09:36:20.890-05:00

Did you know there's a name for showing up to work when you're ailing? "Presenteeism," I believe it's called. It's not a good thing, says this piece at Web MD.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1165604940884188152006-12-08T13:48:00.000-05:002006-12-08T14:09:01.110-05:00

A senior executive at a major company here, taking note of the number of workers currently absent with colds or flu, has diagnosed the problem as -- messy desks. A clean ship is a healthy ship, he reasons, and everyone is being required to throw away old papers and other clutter from their personal workspace.I have my own ideas about workplace illness, and a key point is the culture that

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1165603147454811932006-12-08T13:39:00.000-05:002006-12-08T13:47:03.926-05:00

I usually agree with Tom Friedman's views on the world, but his column today in the New York Times brings me up short. Here's the nut graf: The only hope of moving the factions inside Iraq, not to mention Syria and Iran, toward reconciliation is if we have leverage over them, which we now lack. The currency of Middle East politics is pain. And right now, all the pain is being inflicted on us and

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1165357320985137922006-12-05T17:22:00.000-05:002006-12-12T20:05:45.906-05:00

The Internet may be nibbling away at TV and newspaper audiences, but if anything, it is helping the world of books. So says Forbes magazine in a special report. Key thought: People are reading more, not less. The Internet is fueling literacy. Giving books away online increases off-line readership. New forms of expression--wikis, networked books--are blossoming in a digital hothouse. There's lots

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1165248587841456352006-12-04T11:04:00.000-05:002006-12-06T17:36:37.706-05:00

Updated December 5More and more, the American way of death is an agonizing decline rather than a sudden blow. For millions of the dying, the companions of their last days are machines and medicines that manage to extend the vital signs for hours, days – even, in extreme cases, for years. Too often, those last days are endured, not lived. And that just begins to explain the mission of Stephen P.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1162907041381940072006-11-07T08:42:00.000-05:002006-11-07T08:44:02.016-05:00

 Voting stations were mostly busy but there was no waiting as I went to vote today in the Kendall suburbs of Miami. 

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1162584060112933532006-11-03T15:01:00.000-05:002006-11-03T15:01:00.396-05:00

An interesting concept: Let's all snap photos of our polling places this year, especially to document the kind of voting machines in use. The concept and how to proceed are discussed further at the AIGA Polling Place Photo Project.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1162255077652750392006-10-30T19:37:00.000-05:002006-10-30T19:42:21.243-05:00

Many think they can tell when someone's lying. They watch their eyes, their hands, the tilt of the head. Or they hook up a whirring machine that sends ink pens scurrying across strips of graph paper. Now there's a whole new world in the quest for demonstrable falsehood: "By peering directly into our brains, its keepers aim to set a new gold standard for the recognition of honesty in everyone from

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1161809861813249212006-10-25T15:48:00.000-05:002006-10-25T15:57:42.203-05:00

If you followed my discussion early this year about the sale of the Knight Ridder newspapers to satisfy impatient investors, you may be interested to learn of signals that the venerable New York Times may be bought into private ownership. Here's the scoop from Forbes.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1161804170388988422006-10-25T14:11:00.000-05:002006-10-25T14:29:56.016-05:00

An extra comma in a 14-page contract is costing a telphone company a million dollars (Canadian). It's a prime example of why you should listen very carefully when your teacher explains grammar. A key line from today's story in the New York Times: Citing the "rules of punctuation," Canada's telecommunications regulator recently ruled that the comma allowed Bell Aliant to end its five-year

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1161003586670265472006-10-16T07:59:00.000-05:002006-10-16T07:59:47.673-05:00

Here's a good example of how our political system is being abused. Thank the Washington Post for the disclosure. "The result is that farmers often get paid twice by the government for the same disaster, once in subsidized insurance and then again in disaster assistance, a legal but controversial form of double-dipping, a Washington Post investigation found. Together, the programs have cost

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1160400819030201332006-10-09T08:33:00.000-05:002006-10-09T08:33:39.176-05:00

Lots of Floridians have been asking, who the heck IS this guy Mark Foley? The able Frank Cerabino supplies the answers, in the Palm Beach Post.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1160163610765690692006-10-06T14:40:00.000-05:002006-10-06T14:42:04.996-05:00

David Ignatius sensibly writes today in the Washington Post: The Democrats are talking about a culture of corruption in Washington, but what are they going to do about it? That's the question Democrats should address over the next month if they want a mandate for change. If they win the House of Representatives, will the Democrats embark on a two-year binge of investigations and score-settling?

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1159551040301654312006-09-29T12:30:00.000-05:002006-09-29T12:30:40.416-05:00

Let's watch these two races and see if we can tell whether the environmental movement is alive or dead. Today's story is from the Annapolis Capital.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1159212217141254392006-09-25T14:23:00.000-05:002006-09-25T14:29:00.586-05:00

David Carr's column this morning notes the increasing volume of discussion about how corporate and government secrets make their way into the public press. Part of the friction around those disclosure has been an attempt to punish not only the leakers but the journalists who share the information with their readers. An important passage: The ability to cultivate confidential sources is one of the

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1158599915486693772006-09-18T12:18:00.000-05:002006-09-18T12:26:39.716-05:00

The maneuvering between White House and the Republican-dominated Congress has been fascinating. Today it looks like a breakthrough might be in sight, says the New York Times (registration required). In the same edition, Times columnist Paul Krugman asks and answers the question of why the Bush administration is so determined to validate torture in questioning terrorism suspects, when it would so

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1156932693281858702006-08-30T05:08:00.000-05:002006-08-30T05:12:24.830-05:00

My friend Sallie Hughes, a wise woman and true scholar, will be presenting her book on modern Mexico in a few days at my favorite bookstore. For the moment, I'll leave it to the blurb at Books & Books to tell you what it's about.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1156187153114476092006-08-21T13:32:00.000-05:002006-08-21T14:05:53.510-05:00

Paul Krugman picks up on the development I mentioned yesterday, the privatizing of tax collection by the IRS. Let him explain: In the bad old days, government was a haphazard affair. There was no bureaucracy to collect taxes, so the king subcontracted the job to private “tax farmers,” who often engaged in extortion. There was no regular army, so the king hired mercenaries, who tended to wander

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1156172053770015742006-08-21T09:51:00.000-05:002006-08-21T09:57:13.060-05:00

One of my earliest discussions here was a lamentation over the shortage of flu vaccine. Here's a piece from Forbes that offers an explanation: the heavy, inept hand of the FDA. To check it out, read here. Your comments would be welcome.The initial post.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1156011584635182162006-08-19T13:10:00.000-05:002006-08-19T13:23:41.940-05:00

I declare, as my hometown neighbor used to say, there are some real skunks out there. This reflection comes in response to the news that secret campaign organizations are growing and possibly the dominant factor in Florida's statewide elections this year. Near the bottom of The Miami Herald's thorough report, one finds the information that most offends me:Unnoticed by many, an unknown person

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1156010050902082522006-08-19T12:36:00.000-05:002006-08-19T12:54:10.916-05:00

Has it ever seemed to you that the Republicans running things in Washington are systematically trying to dismantle as much of the government as possible? Here's the latest sign. The Internal Revenue Service is going to start using private bill collectors to chase down many of the debts that its own agents used to pursue. Never mind that the IRS can do this work at less cost. Congress, according

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1155832884144430962006-08-17T11:36:00.000-05:002006-08-17T11:49:01.883-05:00

You may remember posts here earlier this year about the forced sale of Knight Ridder Newspapers because Wall Street in general and one institutional investor in particular weren't satisfied with the company's substantial profits. One of the proudest parts of the Knight Ridder group was the pair of daily papers in Philadelphia, the Inquirer and the Daily News. They wound up in private ownership,

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1155750156463006322006-08-16T12:40:00.000-05:002006-08-16T12:56:28.756-05:00

Harvard historian Caroline Elkins reviews The Wonga Coup in Sunday's New York Times Book Review. The heart of the matter: “The Wonga Coup” is a forceful example of how a group of rapacious Europeans can hatch a fantastic plan to overthrow a foreign government, gain the tacit support of Western officials — not to mention international corporations — and fully expect to succeed in executing their

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1155749643640905252006-08-16T12:30:00.000-05:002006-08-16T12:36:32.753-05:00

The columnist Thomas L. Friedman nails the point again in the New York Times today. What should really worry the country is not whether the Democrats are being dragged to the left by antiwar activists who haven't thought a whit about the larger struggle we're in. What should worry the country is that the Bush team and the Republican Party, which control all the levers of power and claim to have

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1152544744399150552006-07-10T09:51:00.000-05:002006-07-10T10:27:46.646-05:00

I had an afternoon meeting in Hollywood on Saturday, and my wife and I were going to the Davie Barn Dance that evening, so I didn't want us both to have to drive up from our place near the Falls. So I caught the Metrorail ($1.25) at 1 p.m. at Dadeland South, transferred to Tri-Rail ($2 for a senior ticket) in Hialeah, and stepped out of the train in Hollywood at 2 p.m. From the platform I had

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1151436132669416632006-06-27T14:21:00.000-05:002006-06-27T14:24:12.763-05:00

Fresh report on global warming, from the Washington Post (registration may be required). The warming around Earth's tropical belt is a signal suggesting that the "climate system has exceeded a critical threshold," which has sent tropical-zone glaciers in full retreat and will melt them completely "in the near future," said Lonnie G. Thompson, a scientist who for 23 years has been taking core

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1151418651491312962006-06-27T09:29:00.000-05:002006-06-27T14:24:47.940-05:00

A personal reflection on the change underway today at the Miami Herald and other former Knight Ridder newspapers. This piece is from the Duluth News-Tribune. Comment from one of the original Knight newspapers, the Akron Beacon Journal. And here's the final shareholder meeting, reported from the perspective of the flagship Ridder newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News. Unlike the Herald, the Merc

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1150379103076750092006-06-15T08:45:00.000-05:002006-06-15T08:46:55.703-05:00

The magazine U.S. News takes a look at the shifty means used by many members of Congress to get money spent without submitting to the kind of examination you'd think a budget would have to undergo. Perhaps you've heard of this practice, called "earmarking." Read the piece here: Loading the Pork Train. Here's an especially good part: Congress approved minor curbs on earmarks as part of the

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8433517.post-1150302002286204572006-06-14T11:20:00.000-05:002006-06-14T11:20:07.986-05:00

Jim Bacon is writing here about Virginia's capital city (and its suburbs), but his observations are completely relevant in South Florida as well. His website is called Bacon's Rebellion.

JHophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18377447592758362180noreply@blogger.com0