I am not a fan of biography. Auto-biography is by definition a biased view and other-biography can never be entirely complete. I’m a map guy, a history guy, a “just the facts, ma’m” kinda Joe Friday guy. In my world of black and white, biography is so many fuzzy shades of gray. I remember growing […]
NPR Wishes President Reagan a Happy 100th
Now from the other side of the aisle, National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation yesterday wished President Reagan a Happy 100th Birthday: Former President Ronald Reagan would have turned 100-years-old on February 6, and the Political Junkie is ready to celebrate. NPR’s Ken Rudin and two Reagan biographers, Craig Shirley and Lou Cannon, talk […]
Live from Mountain Stage
[v=khsmZbaj0xQ] I have enjoyed the Mountain Stage radio show for a long time, but it’s not broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio. The Mountain Stage Podcast has come to the rescue, featuring an expanded version (sometimes close to 3 hours a week) of the radio show delivered direct to iTunes. The artists vary a bit—recent artists […]
Courage to Stand—the Video
[v=YfkNEq1XioE] Minnesota’s former governor, Tim Pawlenty, is out on tour supporting his new book, Courage to Stand. T-Paw, as we affectionately know him, was on Sen. John McCain’s short list for 2008 GOP Vice-President slot—many wonder if he had if we would have been listening to President McCain’s State of the Union speech this week. […]
Fixing the Future, Today
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy—also affectionately known as the Lincoln Land Institute—is a Cambridge, Mass, think tank active in “issues involving the use, regulation, and taxation of land.” Their material tends to be a bit esoteric (i.e. “We explore the effects of land value taxation and the practical, administrative, and political issues raised by […]
Wind Energy Looking Up For 2011
Press Release U.S. wind energy industry finishes 2010 with half the installations of 2009, activity up in 2011, now cost-competitive with natural gas Industry weathers latest boom-bust cycle as utilities move to lock in more wind power at favorable long-term rates Washington, D.C. – America’s wind industry built 5,115 megawatts of wind power last year, […]
Family History
[v=tFtVn8q6SR8] I’ve added a personal page to JCShepard.com with some clutter on history and genealogy: All Things Shepard. There’s a handy link over to the left of this blog’s main page, and on the top of individual post pages. I started this page on my old (pre-blog) personal website, which was mostly a collection of […]
Not my intention to do away with government—Reagan's Legacy 30 Years On
[v=hpPt7xGx4Xo] A couple years ago, I wrote about President Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address. Next month is the 100th anniversary of Regan’s birth, and today is the 30th anniversary of his first inaugural. I think it’s a good day to revisit those thoughts. To a few of us here today this is a solemn and most momentous occasion, and yet […]
Happy Birthday, Dolly
[v=Or_w9VQzmio] Happy Birthday, Dolly! Wikipedia says: Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best-known for her work in country music. In the four-and-a-half decades since her national-chart début, she remains one of the most-successful female artists in the history of the country genre which garnered her the title of ‘The Queen […]
Learning from Chicken Little
From the Christian Science Monitor: From Katrina to snowmageddon: lessons government should learn From Katrina to the Christmas blizzard to river floods, the government has botched natural disaster relief management. Here’s how to do it right. As Mike Bloomberg just learned in the Great Snow Mess of December 2010, people want a lot of services […]