The word public, as in public schools or public option, has become a dirty word in, uh, public life. The question is, can a nation survive once it has abandoned not just moral notions of the public good but the positive notion that there is a public?

How are you planning your summertime? Are there nearby venues you’ll explore for the first time, or again? Have you any major expeditions planned? Is there big travel in your future, or little travel? Planning a big vacation or an exploratory stay-cation?

Sarah Palin spent the week preparing for the ABC interview by being briefed by the McCain campaign on Sarah Palin. Perhaps Senator McCain should have sat in.

With $4.00 a gallon gas staring us in the face — and the near-certainty of $5.00 a gallon gas before the summer is over — here are some tips for those of you who are considering pedaling instead of driving to work.

[Left, that's crime boss Randall L. Stephenson, CEO of AT&T]

Monday I shared a train ride with Jane. She was headed to New York to make an appearance on a panel at NYU, and I was headed to Philly on business.

We talked and worked, though Jane was hampered by the failure of her Verizon mobile wireless service to connect her online.

(Picture of Pharaoh Tim Pawlenty-kamun courtesy of the H.P. Lovecraft collection at Miskatonic University, Arkham, Massachusetts.)

You’d think that watching a bridge fall into the Mississippi might make the Grover Norquist disciples over at Phil Krinkie’s Minnesota (Rich) Taxpayers’ League and their Republican puppets in the state Legislature and the Governor’s Mansion rethink their desire to drown government in the bathtub — which, as it turns out, means drowning motorists in the

The Philadelphia region was brought to a de facto standstill with yesterday's freakish 24-hour sleet storm. I had the day off from work, and didn't leave the house all day, sitting around blogging, drinking beer, and watching the roads and sidewalks ice up. My companion the radio broke in every ten minutes or so to [...]