1. Let's start with Chris Matthews: Has he lost his mind completely? He has just given Gregg a "Hardball" award for knifing America in the back? Matthews thinks it took courage for Gregg to stand up for his principles and walk away. It would have taken far more courage to stand by his self-initiated commitment to Obama and America, and do his best in the job he petitioned for.
2. On a happier note, Obama gracefully reflected on Gregg's desertion when Obama was talking about Lincoln in Springfield last night. The speech, by the way, was superb - one of Obama's very best in lyricism and historical acuity. Obama imagined Lincoln sitting in his office, children playing at his feet, getting a call from someone who wanted to be Commerce Secretary...
Of course, Bell did not invent the telephone until 1876, or 11 years after Lincoln's assassination. Keith Olbermann, who was covering the speech live last night, was quick to pick up the little error, and said wasn't it nice that Obama was musing what it would have been like had Lincoln lived long enough to use a telephone .... Nice pick-up and attempted recovery of a little fumble by the President.But I give Obama plaudits for painting the Lincoln picture, even with the small anachronism. And if we want to make it historically accurate, just substitute a telegram for a telephone call...
More about the inventions of the telegraph and the telephone, and their role in politics and much more, in The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution.
2 comments:
Very intersting visualization of Borack's part well spotted Paul and thanks for keeping us all up to date, good call, and great idea about the book link at the bottom of the page, is that simply by linking the book image from the direct page you wish to get? (ie soft edge link) I only ask cause a friend's publishers have posted his book on Amazon however 1 it no longer seems to be in the ratings even though it's a new book and 2 his book is decreasing in price already. Is this normal with Amazon or is this at your discretion?)
Hey Robb - The links on Infinite Regress are (a) supplied by me and (b) draw upon a deeper link structure supplied by Smart Links - you can see their widgets with my books in the right column (and click to get to their pages, which have more information about their widgets).
The price of new books on Amazon is set by the publisher. But Amazon also sells books at lower prices - these can be review copies from third parties, etc.
As to the ratings - I'm not sure what you mean. Books stay in Amazon ratings forever, as far as I know - though they eventually can fall into the millions in their low rankings.
Hope this helps.
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