• Writing for Government and Business: Critical Thinking and Writing, November 12, 2009
• Writing to Persuade: Hone Your Persuasive Writing Skills, November 13, 2009
• Capitol Hill Workshop, November 18-20, 2009
• Understanding Congressional Budgeting and Appropriations, December 1, 2009
• Congress in a Nutshell: Understanding Congress, December 2, 2009
• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process, December 3, 2009
• How to Find, Track, and Monitor Congressional Documents: Going Beyond Thomas, with WiFi Classroom, December 4, 2009
• Advanced Federal Budget Process, December 7-8, 2009
• Advanced Legislative Strategies, December 9-11, 2009
• Research Tools and Techniques: Refining Your Online and Offline Searches, with WiFi Classroom, December 15, 2009

What Happened on Flight 188? It’s Not a Mystery. Right Now, It Looks More Like a Cover-Up – “Well, the three flight attendants certainly know something. The flight continued on for over an hour beyond the airport, with the cockpit unresponsive to calls from the ground, while emergency officials considered scrambling military jets. (And remember: An airline cockpit door is locked and supposedly impenetrable. So a flight attendant can’t barge in and shake somebody awake if something goes really wrong.)

Unless the whole crew had been rendered temporarily unconscious by some kind of magical knockout drops that had no effect on the passengers, flight attendants (who generally don’t miss a trick) certainly had at least some of the “situational awareness” that the pilots claim they misplaced during those strange 78 minutes in the cockpit. Yet we have not heard word one, as far as I know, from the flight attendants.”

Health Care Delusions, Left and Right – “How both sides are misleading the American people

No matter how we ‘reform’ health insurance, there will still be close calls, where it’s not clear that a costly procedure will actually do any good. There will have to be someone, either in government or in the private sector, to decide which operations and treatments should be covered and which should not. And there will be patients who will die after being refused. ”

The United Not-States – “Josh Patashnik, at The New Republic’s ‘The Plank’ blog, rushes to states’ defense in a high-minded way, quoting Madison and Sandra Day O’Connor. Although he’s sympathetic to centralization of power in Washington, he’s sensible about the states’ role in our system:”

The Art Just Won’t Stop – “A little tidying up after the gala art contest from last week. Mixed in among the various bribe offers (including a case of Old Style, $33.17, Pinta pomegranate tequila, a Nobel Peace Prize, and two offers of sex – one possibly from a female) were a load of late entries which might have been strong prize contenders had their creators not been procrastinators. I offer them for your enjoyment herewith:”

Stuff Journalists Like: #219 being duped – “The relationship between a journalist and a source is not unlike the courtship between a self conscious girl and the guy in high school who drives a Trans Am and is as old as most of the teachers. The girl is so desperate for attention and can’t believe a guy who isn’t gay is talking to her that she’ll believe anything that guy will say — including that thing about sex in water and not getting pregnant. If it’s not clear, the journalist is the chick.

Journalists by nature are a pretty skeptical bunch. If someone tells a journalist the sky is blue, a good journalist will go outside and look up. But even the best journalists gets the wool pulled over their eyes. Be it from a scorned employee, ex-wife, a certain balloon boy family, or a sheriff investigating a certain balloon boy family, from time to time, journalists are suckers and end up being duped. ”

CapMark Eats Its Balance Sheet – Declares Bankruptcy – “We are watching a train wreck in slow motion, with the Fed and Treasury putting on a smoke and mirrors show to hide the gory details of perfidy.

Recovery without jobs, solvency, real consumption, or increased manufacturing is not a recovery. This is the corpse of an economy coughing up the remnants of its vitality in response to the Fed’s monetary Heimlich maneuver.

And when it is done there will be nothing left, except a pile of markers and an unpayable debt, insolvency and default.

Oh, the dollar will surely stagger for a while, and do some turns and twists to confound the speculators, but its condition is worsening.”

The three-year degree – “There’s no question that well-prepared students who know what they want to study can complete a degree in three years. That’s a huge cost savings for students — and colleges save when their facilities are in full use over the summer. But many students lack the academic skills and the direction to finish in three years — or four, for that matter. Perhaps colleges should use off-campus, online learning for students who need real-world time to clarify their goals.”

Great moments in drug enforcement law – “Counting the weight of water in reaching for maximum penalties: ‘The Minnesota Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, has now ruled that Bong Water (water which had been used in a water pipe) was a ‘mixture’ of ‘25 grams or more’ supporting a criminal conviction for Controlled Substance crime in the first degree.'”

Tips for Finding Females that Matter to You – “Julie Miller is a professional genealogist and a well-known speaker and author. She has written a newspaper article that should be required reading for all beginning genealogists.”

Department of Uh-Oh, or mandates don’t stay modest – “Now reread that last sentence and ask yourself how many different ways there are to do this and whether all of them will fail to pass.”

• The Cubs Are Not Going Bankrupt – “When I wear my Cubs’ cap these days, somebody always stops me and says: ‘Aren’t the Cubs going bankrupt?'”
• Nun Volunteering as Abortion Clinic Escort in Illinois – “A Dominican nun has been seen frequenting an abortion facility in Illinois recently – but not, as one might expect, to pray for an end to abortion or to counsel women seeking abortions, but to volunteer as a clinic escort. Local pro-life activists say that they recognized the escort at the ACU Health Center as Sr. Donna Quinn, a nun outspokenly in favor of legalized abortion, after seeing her photo in a Chicago Tribune article.”
• E-book Echo: Welcome the Nook; Kindle on the PC, Android is King of E-book Readers – “Barnes & Noble lit a fire under Amazon with the introduction of its own e-book reader, the Nook. The Nook matches Amazon’s Kindle feature for feature, and adds a small color touchscreen. The Nook will take advantage of the e-book experience with the ability to lend e-books to friends for two weeks. Nook owners will be able to read any e-book for free while inside any B&N brick and mortar store. It is running the Android OS, which opens the possibility up for homebrew apps for the Nook.”
• Adobe AIR App Breathes Cross-Platform Life into Google Voice – “Now that I have two mobile phones and no landline, Google Voice is part of my daily life. The service helps me manage my calls, regardless of which number people use to reach me. On my iPhone 3GS, I simply use the mobile Google Voice site to manage devices or listen to voicemails — pressing play on a voicemail opens up the Apple Quicktime app so I can hear it. I use the free gDial Pro on my Palm Pre, which is nearly as good as the native Google Voice software on an Android device. It’s not perfect, but it meets my needs well enough.”
• How to Get Kicked Out of Grad School Before You Even Start – “JD / MBA of the Day: Jonathan Eakman, With A Big FU to SMU”
• Why Apple Is Worth $80 – “Jim Cramer thinks AAPL (AAPL) is worth $300 and I think AAPL is worth less than $100. To borrow Jim Cramer’s line, ‘Where do I get this stuff?’ I’ll point it back at him and ask, ‘Where does he get that stuff’? Perhaps all he did was multiply two numbers? I can multiply two numbers, I have a passion for the markets and I too am opinionated. Can I have a TV show too, please? Jon Stewart, would you like to multiply two numbers? You can do it too. I’ll show you how. I’ll come on your show and multiply them for you if you like.”
• Dear Hollywood: Don’t Be Idiots; Don’t Delay Movie Rentals – “Sometimes you just shake your head at ideas that come out of some executives that are just so incredibly dumb, it makes you wonder how anyone ever took them seriously. There have been some hints about this latest one, though.”
• Get Google Voice, Keep Your Mobile Number – “Mobile users who would like to switch their voice mail to Google voice can now do so, without losing their existing mobile number. Previously, ‘Going Google’ required using a Google-supplied telephone number.”

• Checklist for Buying a Laptop Computer – “Is the monitor large enough for your tastes? There’s a big difference between the screen on a 7″ netbook and a 12.1″ tablet, and again from that 12.1″ tablet to a 17.3″ widescreen. What you gain in screen quality and size with the widescreen, you lose in portability.”
• James Arthur Ray in Denver – “Tuesday evening in Denver I attended a free seminar featuring a self-help guru who is currently the focus of a triple-homicide investigation. That guru’s name is James Arthur Ray. I had never heard of Mr. Ray until a couple weeks ago when reading news of deaths in a sweat lodge incident at a New Age spiritual retreat in Sedona, Arizona. That incident had resulted in 18 injuries requiring hospitalization and the deaths of two people. One of the injured lay in a coma at a hospital in Flagstaff due to multiple organ damage and would later succumb to those injuries for a total of three deaths.”
• The truth about the disappearing honeybees – “although the current pollination crisis is largely mythical, we may soon have a real one on our hands.”
• Look Ma, No Computer! The Pandigital Photolink One-Touch Scanner – “Flat bed desktop scanners are the most common method of scanning old family photographs and they do work well for that purpose. However, they are a bit large and awkward to carry. … The Pandigital Photolink One-Touch Scanner is small and, best of all, does not depend on a computer.”