Betterness by Kawika Holbrook

Raeidng the Wlohe Wrod

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

B2B Blog Publishing

Jason Calacanis, former editor of Silicon Alley Reporter is creating a weblog clearinghouse to dish daily on as many as 300 business-to-business topics and scores revenue from sources like advertising, events and classified listings. He expects the topics to fall under four main categories: media, finance, technology and life sciences.

New Warrior Training

I'm trying not to laugh at the name (New Warrior Training) or the mission (We are an order of men called to reclaim the sacred masculine for our time through initiation, training, and action in the world.") But my stepfather, who works with the ManKind Project, has set up a weekend session in the Rockies for my best friend and I. We'll be "finding their own life's mission and articulating that mission into one clear, concise statement." I have promised myself not to mock the new-age jargon of the brochure. Rather, I will embrace the "betterness" of it all. Forward ho!

AOL Time Warner

AOL Time Warner plans to drop "AOL" from its name, "symbolizing the giant media company's effort to put the failings of the biggest merger in history behind it and begin a new phase of its corporate identity, company executives said Tuesday."

Gen. Clark for President

Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.)—first in his class at West Point, Rhodes Scholar, decorated Vietnam War veteran, supreme allied commander of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Kosovo, author, commentator, business man, and critic of the war in Iraq—is running for president. Some articles:

• General to the Rescue?
• Force Multiplier
• Clark Criticizes Bush, Declares Bid for White House
• Clark Makes It 10, Roiling Democratic Presidential Race
• Sizing up the Wesley Clark effect
• Cincinnatus for President – Listen up, Wesley Clark! Here’s how generals get elected president

I’ve always watched from afar. Now I'm getting closer. Here's an anti-war war hero who lead an international coalition to stop more than a million minorities from being murdered in Kosovo. A Democrat from Arkansas who’s vision charts Constitutional law and the environment one hundred years forward. Exciting stuff. But not easy. Clark hasn’t so much as run for a school board election. Now he has to organize volunteers in states already saturated with better-funded, better-organized, and stump-speech-tested candidates. Color me interested.

Red, Red Whine

The New York Times details “the largest budget deficit the nation has ever known.” (Download PDF) When President Bush took office, the budget was $281 billion in the black, with a cumulative surplus of $5.6 trillion projected to pile up by 2011. Since then, the sluggish economy, three rounds of tax cuts, and the post-9/11 spike in defense spending that—according to the Congressional Budget Office—will slide to the current estimate of a $2.3 trillion deficit. For those keeping score at home, that $8 trillion red ink swing in the projections is about equal to the total revenue the federal government collected between 1789 and 1983. Republicans want to cut taxes to spur the economy. Democrats want to increase spending to pay the bills. Voters want easy answers requiring little sacrifice. “When President Bush informed the nation last Sunday night that remaining in Iraq next year will cost another $87 billion, many of those who will actually pay that bill were unable to watch. They had already been put to bed by their parents.” (via Slate)

America's Drug Habit

I can’t make drugs cheaper, plans smarter, or politicians braver, but I can help prevent fat, whiny patients from bleeding the Medicare system dry. I propose that all non-emergency medical personnel work in tall building without elevators. Floors would be staffed thusly:

1. Triage
2. Nutritionists
3. Nurses
4. Internists
5. The pharmacy
6. Specialists

My two rules so far: (1) Any patients demanding medication they "saw on TV" are automatically disqualified from the top floor; and (2) anyone specifically asking for a pill based on its color will be put to sleep.

Road Warriors

India and Pakistan are engaged in some skulduggery as they jostle each other to win road-building contracts in Afghanistan. With friends like these....

Flag Football

Only now, five days later, can I even stomach to write about the Raider's loss in their season opener in Tennessee. Seventeen penalties for 173 yards? The Tennessee incompletion ruled a touchdown? None of it pissed me off as much as robbing Rod Woodson of his rightful theft of the ball. Woodson was wired for sound, and the whistle sounded after he had stripped the ball. Bad, bad, bad officiating. The acid still burns in my stomach. How am I going to survive four more months of this?

Johnny Cash: 1932-2003