Unca Darrell

JANUARY 31 / Style, Usage, Journalism

First-Person Pronouns

It's always nice to meet a world leader who has bigger ears than me [read I]. (Barack H. Obama, speech, Disney World, January 20, 2012)

The world leader to whom Mr. Obama was referring was, of course . . .

JANUARY 24 / Last week Bill White pictured Rick Perry . . .

. . . the failed presidential candidate, as a wastral son who burns through his inheritance, then returns home to a grand reception.

My faith tells the story of a prodigal son who squanders his capital and sleeps with the pigs, yet is greet warmly when he returns home as a wise and better person.

(Bill White, "Perry needs to regain credibiliity with his Texas constituency," Houston Chronicle, January ___, 2012). Mr. White implicitly offers himself . . .

JANUARY 21 / Don't forget to give . . .

. . . money each week to help other people. You can afford it financially, and you will profit from it morally and, for gifts that honor God, spiritually. If you're unsure which charities to support, consider those listed in the right column of Unca D under "Good Works." Also consider sending money . . .   

JANUARY 18 / Is America in decline?

FOR MORE than two centuries, even before the formation of the United States, the answer has been no. To ask the question was a fool's errand. Despite recession and depression, despite wars and rumors of war, despite bad presidents and worse legislators and judges, despite it all, the longer trajectory was ever upward. Choose your own measure. Material prosperity. Life expectacy. International power. Better prospects for women and racial minorities. Up, up, up.

But is that still true?

JANUARY 15 / In remembrance of . . .

. . . the 53,310,843 American children murdered by abortion since Roe v. Wade, and the millions more around the globe:

JANUARY 12 / Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in . . .

. . . Bentonville, Arkansas, is well worth the trip. 

 More images . . .  

JANUARY 9 / Body count shows Chronicle's deep bias

ONE DEFENSE of the thoroughgoing liberalism of the Houston Chronicle's miserable editorial board is that conservatives get a fair shake on the op-eds. That's the newspaper's idea of balance: Hire not one local right-leaning opinionator; just rent a conservative from the national syndicates every now and again. 

But there is no balance among the Chronicle's op-eds. The left end of the seesaw is heavy in numbers, light in common sense and, in some cases, decency. The right end is . . .

JANUARY 6 / Are they talking about the same guy?

Comparing four newspaper ledes on the death of Kim Jong Il offers a useful primer on the shortcomings of the Houston Chronicle and New York Times and the relatively better work at the Washington Post (where, at least, the liberals are adults and editors still demand journalism) and the generally excellent Wall Street Journal. 

Absurdly gentle

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader . . . 

JANUARY 4 / Numbers

$825,000,000,000.00

The true price tag for President Obama's 2009 stimulus bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 

 $787,000,000,000.00

The advertised price tax for President Obama's 2009 stimulus bill.

541

Days Belgium went without a government. Belgium's S&P rating: AA. Cause and effect?

75

Percentage of America's last four presidents who were left-handed (Obama, Clinton, G.H.W. Bush).

50

Percentage of America's last twelve presidents who were left-handed (add Reagan (ambitextrous), Carter, Truman).

13

The U.S. misery index in September, a 28-year high. Unemployment was 9.1 percent; inflation, 3.9 percent.

10

Percentage of Americans who are left-handed. Time for an affirmative-action program for righties?

JANUARY 3 / The Chronicle did not quite apologize to . . .

. . . China. But in an editorial about the merit of teaching Mandarin in a planned new HISD magnet school, the paper couldn't help itself: It had to say something gratuitously nasty about . . .