Your Old Road Is Rapidly Aging

Young people showed up in record numbers tonight at the Iowa caucuses to reject the establishment candidates in both parties in favor of the two youngest men in the race. This represents the greatest wave of change in American politics I've seen in nearly thirty years, calling to mind the words of John Kennedy. "The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans."

It is also significant that an African American has, for the very first time, prevailed in a U.S. Presidential election.

There will remain cynics in some quarters. A friend on mine on The Well posted earlier today that all the caucuses mean to him is that they'll "select the best liar."

With all due respect, the best liars came in third on the Democrat side and sixth on the Republican side.

I, for one, am hopeful for the first time in quite awhile.

Huckabee and Obama take Iowa wins. (BBC News | World | UK Edition) - Republican Mike Huckabee wins in Iowa's caucuses, with Barack Obama victorious in the Democratic race.

Obama wins Iowa's Democratic caucus: NBC. DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Sen. Barack Obama won the Iowa Democratic caucus on Thursday, dealing a setback to national front-runner Hillary Clinton in the first nominating contest of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, NBC News reported.

10:04:55 PM      comment []

FutureGen

Mattoon has been selected as home to a new 275 megawatt coal plant, which will sequester carbon emissions by pumping them into the ground. Although I'm happy for the boost to our local economy, I've had mixed feelings about the environmental aspects of the project. It seems to me that the time has come to move beyond fossil fuels, and developing this "cleaner" coal-fired plant at a cost of nearly $2 billion looks like a page out of Rube Goldberg.

So I was happy to read this article from WorldChanging, judging the project "an improvement from business as usual."


10:51:31 AM      comment []

Occupational Mythology And The Newsroom

Though it made me thirsty, I loved this article by Jack Shafer. Hard drinkers, let's drink hard!

10:34:22 AM      comment []

The Whirling Dervish's Portal Of Hope

Celebrating Rumi, Islam's poet of peace. (Christian Science Monitor) - The Sufi mystic's message of love still reverberates on the 800th anniversary of his birth.

10:31:04 AM      comment []