This week in The Tentacle

This week in The Tentacle

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

McCain for America – First
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Election Day is less than two weeks away. On November 4, I will be voting for the Republican Party nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain and his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.


Nobel Prize, The Economy & McCain
Tom McLaughlin
Once again it is time for my yearly commentary on the Nobel Prize in Economics. Here, I try to make some sense of this award.


Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Fortnight Off
Roy Meachum
Unless you join the apparent throng voting early, the presidential election takes place two weeks from today. A fortnight, as the British sometimes portray the time. With that in mind, I turned on the last presidential "debate." I should have read a book instead.


Walking The Economic Line
Farrell Keough
Times are tight and even the government is recognizing the need to cut back – or at least, appear as if they are making budget cuts.


Monday, October 20, 2008

The Road Less Traveled
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
The esteemed publisher of The Tentacle has asked regular contributors to offer some words reflecting their preference for a particular presidential candidate over the other. The condition for submission was that the piece was supposed to reflect why we support our guy, not our critique of the opponent.


Voting Strategy for President
Steven R. Berryman
How can pollsters possibly get it right? Sampling and trend analysis, and picking the correct “target groups” would seem to be impossible efforts, based upon my informal surveys.


Friday, October 17, 2008

"Significant" Pushkin Day
Roy Meachum
Exactly 10 years ago today Pushkin walked into my life. Correction: the 20-pound black-and-white butterball waddled down North Market Street. I was sitting on the porch of the house that many people think I still live in; waiting for Sharon and others to pack up antiques for Lady on Skates' Richmond operation.


Thursday, October 16, 2008

Registration Fraud v. Election Fraud
Tony Soltero
Democracy works best when the voting franchise is as wide and as open as possible. That's why voter-registration drives are so important – and that's why democracy-haters are always trying to find a way to undermine them.


Family Reunion – Traditional Values
Patricia A. Kelly
I had been to a funeral there just a week ago. Doris Grossnickle, a lovely woman, hard working, devoted to her family and her God, had died. She was 89 years old and had worked, helping her son with a painting job, and then cooking him dinner, on the day of her sudden death. The last time I saw her she was standing on the porch roof of a house in the city, helping him then, too.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Journalistic Bubble Wrap
Kevin E. Dayhoff
One of the hottest subplots to the 2008 presidential campaign is how would the contest, the polls and the final outcome have looked if the “old – elite” media had not been so biased towards the Democratic Party in general and specifically the Democrat nominee, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.


“Oddball” Roscoe Bartlett
Tom McLaughlin
In a secret snap poll conducted by the Maryland Democratic Party, Jennifer Dougherty is within six points of overtaking Roscoe Bartlett. This does not include a fair number of people who are undecided, or the 18-24 year old vote.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Filthy Politicking
Roy Meachum
One week ago in this space ("The Republic in Danger") I wrote: "With the core of the nation's financial structure in shambles, at stake these next four weeks is the very governmental itself. Never have these United States needed strong leadership more."


Memory: The Forgotten Art
Nick Diaz
Ah, Mnemosyne, daughter of Gaia and Uranus, and mother, by Zeus, of all the Muses! Poets and kings reputedly receive their gifts and powers of authoritative speech from their personal relationship with Mnemosyne. How precious is the gift of memory – yet how maligned it has become over the past 30 years, especially by trendy math educationists.


Monday, October 13, 2008

A Treatise on Partisanship
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
The defense of partisanship, by either one of the two major political parties, amounts to nothing more than the defense of an outmoded system of governance that has consistently failed to meet the expectations of voters.


The Beginning at The End
Steven R. Berryman
This is The End. Not in the way the iconic 70’s rock group The Doors mean it. Not in a “depressing” way, but in another. This is not the beginning of “The End,” but the end of the beginning of a world economic reshuffling.


Bad Habit, New Downright Joy
Roy Meachum
Kvetching remains part of reading these reviews. After some 40 years on the aisle, I do not expect to change soon. On the other hand, there still exists insufficiency of downright joy on stage; I'm not talking about giggles and guffaws, but evenings (and matinees) that send people dancing and singing into the good nights.

20081022 This week in The Tentacle