Hans Eisenbeis

Yesterday, the Bush administration leaked the bad news that it will likely abandon a proposal to require better gas mileage for the largest SUVs. The reason will come as a surprise to no one: because it might hurt the “fragile bottom line” of many American automakers. See, the funny thing is that CAFE requirements that … Read more

Whenever my blood pressure feels like it’s getting dangerously low, there are two things I like to do. Eat more anchovies, and watch Bill O’Reilly on Fox. Both anchovies and O’Reilly share the same four virtues: bony, salty, fishy, and strong. I like anchovies a lot more than I like Bill O’Reilly, but both appeal … Read more

Interesting to consider that the Christian Right may begin to use its powers for good–by lobbying President Bush not just for wicked ends like prayer in the schools, but for causes that someone on the port side of the boat can get behind. The New York Times reports today about an exhibit at a Christian … Read more

Over at Slate’s media desk, Jack Shafer has developed a little sub-speciality in debunking investigative stories about various social diseases. It’s wicked, thankless work. Shafer got into a very nasty little donnybrook with New York Times magazine after he nitpicked an extensive story by Peter Landesman on a covert sex-slave ring in New Jersey. Shafer’s … Read more

The desire to innovate is powerful and intoxicating–and without judicious dosage, stupefying. We’ve been checking into MPR’s cutting-edge new program called “The Loop,” and so far we like what we see. It looks like an interesting attempt to mobilize what Chris Lydon has for a while been calling “open source radio.” (Those smarties over at … Read more

Our distaste for the sordid fare of daytime cable TV news may not be well documented–now that would really be wasting your time–but we do get interested in some of the more broad-ranging dinner-table conversation about what gets played large and what doesn’t. About a year and a half ago, our man Clinton Collins had … Read more

One of our pet peeves is private corporations who do legal and grammatic violence to the language. One sin leads to the other. We cringed when Lutheran Social Services coined the new name “Thrivent,” just as we had a nails-on-chalkboard response to “Xcel” and “Qwest.” It would seem that current trends in corporate branding are … Read more

One of the problems with reading the news online is that it’s more difficult to effectively browse a newspaper’s content. Aside from the odd phenomena of online editors screwing with headlines and decks to make them shorter or hipper or whatever it is they’re trying to do, a web page just doesn’t offer the same … Read more

Despite appearances, we’re not particularly bothered about all this chatter regarding the Rove-Plame affair, partly because we’re supposed to be finishing the new issue, you know, putting all the frosting and chopped nuts and confetti on the long-johns here at the doughnut shop. But we noticed an interesting thread over at Romenesko, relative to Mike … Read more