Boingboing mentioned this book which talks about the willingness of Americans to tolerate, even expect, scandal and corruption from politicians and the elite. I'm going to have to get a copy of that book. I've been struck since moving to Massachusetts the willingness of people to tolerate -- even expect -- corruption from their elected officials. Maybe I was naive or unobservant, but when I lived in Michigan I never heard about "patronage" jobs, for example. Indeed, I'm convinced that if it were ever acknowledged in the media that someone had given someone a patronage job, neither person would have ever been electable or appointable in Michigan again. Yet in Massachusetts it is widely acknowledged that this is common practice. You can find articles like this all over which say- Logan International Airport -- a facility operated by a state agency widely regarded as a patronage haven
all over the news and internet.
Robert Reich ran for governor on a platform of eliminating patronage, but instead the Democrats selected Shannon O'Brien to run against Romney. What were they thinking?
Speaking of differences between the news and internet, I noticed this article on boingboing and when I mentioned it to Alisa, she pointed out that our local news paper (referencing the Associated Press quoted Ann Davis, who presented a different version of the wording of the note
The note said, "Have you found the bomb yet?" and then "Nope, just clothes," according to Davis.
The critical difference is the use of a definite article: "the bomb" rather than "a bomb". It makes the hysteria seem almost justifiable. It just underlines my decision not to fly again until the War on Terror is over.
This evening Charlie was playing this game for a while. It's sometimes hard for me to remember that when I was a kid, things like this didn't exist. Phil and I dreamed about them, though. And as computer games began to appear, we loved to play them. Now that Charlie is playing D & D, I need to show him Adventure.