Clik here to view.
Annals of the Security State: Even More Airplane Stories
Over the past few days I've relayed several stories that amount to the familiar police force stop-and-frisk policy being extended from the sidewalk to the skies. The case of Gabriel Silverstein...
View ArticleClik here to view.
For Memorial Day, Another 'End the War on Terror' Speech
There's a connection between two themes I've been hitting hard recently: the surprising extension of "stop and frisk" inspections into the general-aviation world, and Barack Obama's announcement that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
California's New 'Problem': Jerry Brown on the Sudden Surplus, and the...
Lots of attention on a holiday weekend to the NYT's lead front-page story, by Adam Nagourney, about California's odd "problem" of having a rapidly-burgeoning state budget surplus. Less than three years...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Different Kind of Memorial Day Photo
I happened upon this and found it tremendously, unexpectedly moving. It came to me from a reader in Singapore; I predict that this will "go viral" within China, where it may also have a very...
View ArticleClik here to view.
False Equivalence, Memorial Day Edition
From the front page of today's NYT, a strong and important lead story about how the Republicans majority in the House and minority in the Senate are committed to nothing less than the full of Obama...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Avoiding False Equivalence: The NYT Shows Us How
Credit where it's due: one day after a NYT headline that used "Gridlock" to describe what was actually a deliberate obstructionist strategy, a front-page NYT story shows how to describe plainly what is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Annals of the Security State: the Airplane Stories Continue
For previous installments in this series, please see the stories of Gabriel Silverstein (right), Larry Gaines and Clay Phillips, and a Cirrus pilot who doesn't want to be identified. Our next...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Summarizing the Latest Security-State Post
The immediately preceding post, another Annals of the Security State installment, is very long.Here is the TL;DR version, just for the record, for anyone who can't wade through the original.A pilot who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Could There Be Another Jerry Brown?
In case you missed it on my previous 20 mentions, my story about Jerry Brown, the past-present-and-future governor of our largest state, is now on line. But of course it looks better in the magazine...
View ArticleClik here to view.
For the Record, I Completely Disagree With Our Latest 'Bomb Iran' Post
I've just seen a post on our Global channel by two retired generals, one American and one Israeli, that purports to ask and answer important questions about a preemptive strike by either the U.S. or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Annals of the Security State: 'Is Puerto Rico in America?'
Here are two more, from people willing to go on the record under their real names. Previous entries here, here, here. My name is Ricky Gonzalez. I am a Captain on a Citation Jet for Dorado Aviation...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Preventive Destruction of Leafblowers: The Moral Imperative, the Practical...
Recently I likened an "analysis" of the bomb-Iran options -- one that mainly dealt with whether the US or the Israeli air force was a better choice for the job -- to my asking whether plastic...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Could the NYT Mag 'My Plane Almost Crashed' Story Actually Be True?
Two weeks ago I read the NYT Mag's back-page story on a harrowing brush-with-death encounter when pilots had to land an airliner while thinking that its wheels had not come down. I was about to head...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why YouTube Was Invented
Ah, the Internet. Yesterday morning I made a throw-away comment about wondering whether hammers or explosives would work better for a preventive strike on leafblowers. A few hour later, a reader had...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The NYT Mag Editor Responds on the 'Terror in the Skies' Article
A few minutes ago Hugh Lindgren, editor of the New York Times Magazine, sent me this official response to questions about the veracity of the back-page article it published two weeks ago, "The Plane...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Finale on the NYT Mag Airplane-in-Peril Story
I am grateful to Hugo Lindgren for his response, as editor of the New York Times Magazine, to questions and doubts about Noah Gallagher Shannon's story, "The Plane Was About to Crash. Now What?" The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clash of the Titans: Chinese State Media vs. United Airlines
This is now more than a week old, but in case anyone has missed it I wanted to take note.I bow to no one in my devotion to the works of the Chinese state media. And I bow to very few in my accumulation...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why I Get More Than 1 Paper, Medicare Edition
Here is the lineup on the breakfast table this morning. (And, yes, before you ask, that is a batik cloth in the background, from the old days in Indonesia.) Overall front-page lead story in the WaPo:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Annals of the Security State: Turboprop Edition
You can find previous entries here, here, here, and here, with other links included in those items. Today's installment comes from David Blackburn, of San Diego, who like most of the recent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Publication's Spirit, Captured
I've always wondered how exactly to describe the temperament, the broadmindedness, the analytical subtlety, the Id that through the decades have shaped the Wall Street Journal's editorial page....
View Article