Posted by Ted Hopton on April 20, 2008
From the Huffington Post:
This debate over debates had me curious. Was ABC’s debate really in a lowly class of its own? Or were Obama backers (inside the press and out) just being overly-sensitive? So I went through each of the four one-on-one contests between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, starting with CNN’s debate way back on January 31…
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Posted by Ted Hopton on April 20, 2008
This is a great rant by Frank Rich — fun reading!
I can’t remember a debate in which the only memorable moment was the audience’s heckling of a moderator. Then again, I can’t remember a debate that became such an instant national gag. . .
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Posted by Ted Hopton on April 20, 2008
Email can bury anyone’s efficiency. I confess I am not good at keeping up with it, myself. So I read this article in the NYT hoping to learn some new ideas for coping.
Eventually, someone will come up with software that greatly eases the burden of managing a high volume of e-mail. But in the meantime, we perhaps should look to the past and see what tips we might draw from prolific letter writers in the pre-electronic era who handled ridiculously large volumes of correspondence without being crushed.
I found one of the suggestions quite amusing, yet at the same time so obvious: “a secretary.” I recall when every manager where I worked had an administrative assistant. And I watched as the number of those positions dwindled and more and more Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Ted Hopton on April 20, 2008
I just heard an amazing statistic on NPR. A survey found that only 34% of Americans say they do not have a negative bias toward Muslims. Do the math: that means a whopping 66% of Americans are biased against Muslims. By contrast, 74% of Americans claim not to have any bias against Jews.
So, 26% of Americans are anti-Semitic, and that’s nothing to be proud of, but I’d guess that’s a lot better than past percentages in our history. What struck me in the statistics is that we’ve replaced bias against one religion for bias against another. Muslims are the new Jews in America, the country where freedom of religion is enshrined in our constitution. You can practice whatever religion you wish, but many of us will assume you’re up to no good if you do.
I’m not even going to waste any time on the specious argument that the 9/11 attackers were Muslim, etc. Prejudice is prejudice, period. It’s the refuge of the ignorant and lazy. Rather than learn Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Ethics, Human Interest, Statistics | Tagged: America, jew, muslim, prejudice, religion | Leave a Comment »
