Keller @ Large Blog

Mother Popcorn

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:25:16 GMT

Here is a link to more information about the movie-theatre popcorn study referenced in my 11pm report. The issue is simple -- are any promises of better, cheaper health-care to be believed if a significant segment of the population thinks it's OK to eat three quarter-pounders and a stick of butter during a two-hour movie more than once a year?

Your thoughts below...

More Palin Fallout

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:05:37 GMT

Here are links to statements about the controversial Newsweek cover from Sarah Palin and the magazine's editor. Any buyers?

Is Newsweek's Cover Sexist?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:24:43 GMT

Does this guy have a point about the Sarah Palin photo on Newsweek's cover?

Palin's Me-Tour

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:11:51 GMT

In the days after John McCain picked Sarah Palin to run with him, we had fun here lampooning the hysterical over-reaction of some on the left, especially cultural snobs who simply gagged on her un-PC atmospherics. Especially ludicrous were the "feminists" whose knee-jerk response was no, we didn't mean to see that kind of woman promoted. (A notable recusal from the bash-Palin brigades -- Hillary Clinton, then and now.)

But the bottom-line on equality is, you've still got to deliver the goods. And while Palin continues to demonstrate a knack for connecting with some on certain issues (she sure got a lot of mileage out of "death panels") that is to be ignored by other pols at their own risk, the latest episode in what appears to be a run for president in 2012 reeks of the kind of narcissism that conservatives love to skewer President Obama for.

If there are deep thoughts about public policy or a detailed vision for our future contained in Palin's new book, it isn't apparent from the ongoing publicity blitz, which features the former governor rattling on endlessly about herself and her personal style and her personal feelings and other ephemera. Urged on, of course, by her interviewers, but I haven't yet heard of her throwing down the mike and stalking off the set in disgust. Meanwhile, her literary contribution has an ambivalent relationship with the facts. And by choosing to walk away from the job she sought where she could actually prove her bona fides in favor of fueling the starmaking machine, it appears she has turned off plenty of folks.

When the only one keeping you from being the least-popular national figure is John Edwards, you're doing something wrong.

Words to Remember

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:39:28 GMT

As the late Ted Kennedy did, Vice President Joe Biden speaks about death and loss with great eloquence. Grim experience has a way of doing that to a person. Here is a brief, moving excerpt from Biden's remarks at a ceremony today at Fort Lewis in Washington state honoring seven soldiers killed last month in Afghanistan last month:

"....As a father and a husband, I'm here to share with you the pain and to grieve with you, for I know there is nothing that any of us can say, clearly nothing I can say, that is likely to heal you today -- no solace I can offer to numb the grief consuming the wives and children and parents of those who are left behind -- that void you feel in your chest, that deep black hole that feels like it's sucking you in.

I wish I could. I wish I knew the words to say. But from my experience, no one could say them to me, and I doubt whether I can say them to you.

The poet William Cowper said -- and I quote -- "Grief is itself a medicine." It's a bitter medicine, but perhaps the only medicine for a time like this, the only method of the human heart to heal itself from wounds of such incredible depth.

Not today but someday, God willing, there will be some consolation you'll find in the knowledge that your son, your husband, your brother, your father gave his life in the pursuit of the noblest of all earthly goals: defending his family, defending his country, defending and fighting for what he believed in. That pursuit defined each of the warriors we honor today; each of the fallen angels that we brought home. And it will define them, and has defined them, until the very end."

For it Before He Was Against It

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:35:14 GMT

Q: Have you ever seen Mike Capuano and John Kerry photographed together? And are you sure it wasn't a fake?

The Reich Stuff

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:38:39 GMT

Those with vivid memories of former US Sec. of Labor Robert Reich's ill-fated 2002 run for governor will enjoy this post from Mickey Kaus of Slate, who gives the professor a thumbnail description that could well become boilerplate: "theatrical, left-cultivating, personal-branding semi-economist." LOL.

Time to Change Tactics?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:15:03 GMT

After last night's defeat in Maine, same-sex marriage is 0-for-31 when it's gone before voters.

Some gay-marriage supporters are talking about a lobster boycott in response, and I think there may be some merit to the notion of moving away from civil rights arguments which (however well-founded) open the door to pushback from anti-marriage forces who contend their rights are threatened by legalization, and instead emphasizing the economic clout of gay consumers and their sympathizers. Don't forget, Rosa Parks was part of a boycott of the local bus company that succeeded where protest marches had not.

So I ask you: would you honor a lobster boycott in protest over the Maine vote? And would you advocate a tactical change to economic pressure by the gay-marriage movement?

The Voters Are Speaking....

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:19:00 GMT

I'll give you my take on the message voters locally and nationally seems to be sending (if, in fact, there appears to be a coherent theme) at 11pm on WBZ-TV.

Meanwhile, give me your own testimonial. What message did you send with your own vote today? What was the one thing that compelled your choice most profoundly?

Junk Food on Jobs

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:45:17 GMT

An acquaintance of mine with many years of sorting through (and, at times, dishing out) political spin writes the following:

"Are you looking at yesterday's numbers on jobs 'created or saved?' Even if you accept the Patrick Administration's own numbers, consider:

* Buried in the Globe article: 'The 23,533 individual jobs created or retained amount to 8,792 full-time positions, according to the administration’s calculations.' They only created 8,792 jobs! Everyone who hears 'jobs' thinks they are full-time, 40 hours a week. They should be saying 23,533 part-time jobs, at best.

* According to the AP, the 23,533 includes 6,000 summer interns. So if my math is correct, a full 25% of the jobs went to college students. That's not exactly robust economic development.

* Teachers, firefighters and school teachers -- all necessary and valued jobs -- do not contribute to growing businesses or the economy. It's just the nature of the jobs. And I'm sorry, but adding a new job at the pizza shop because of a nearby construction project is not impressive economic stimulus.

* Where are the tax incentives for R&D? Where are the breaks on payroll taxes to encourage new hiring? What is Patrick doing at all to help private industry recover? (They always cite biotech, but that's a very small fraction of the total employment in Massachusetts.)"

To which I can only ruefully agree and add this: the feds are blowing smoke on job creation as well.

Buon appetito everyone!