Good News or Bad?

Posted on 6 January 2012 by Erik Hare | 9 Comments

After a somewhat slow December, there is a lot of good news and bad. The problem is that both seem to come at the same time, leaving anyone following the flood of information bewildered. Two main categories of news, economy and national security, are running at odds with each other. Are things getting better or are they getting worse? It depends on how you look at it.

This is what a time of revolution and restructuring looks like. Anything can happen. Times like these are what separates romantics from pragmatists, optimists from pessimists, and if we aren’t careful politics from any semblance of reality.

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The Pills

Posted on 4 January 2012 by Erik Hare | 16 Comments

A small wrinkle in the way he held his head was the only open betrayal of his condition. The many colored papers he was studying were laid out in piles as he moved from one to the other, scouring each for some kind of clue. His serious but friendly face, rounded in a kind of smile, rarely looked up. It wasn’t until we had been at the bar for some time that we started chatting, innocently at first.

He gave his name as John, and slowly started talking about his mission. He had just been to a pain management clinic at the hospital, and there in front of him were all the secrets that help him shove his life, if not his back, into order once again. The car accident had done its damage, but pill after pill the magic that was supposed to help him cope had its own price. Liz and I listened intently because a slipped disk in her back had given her the same bottles that rattled in her purse and through her nerves.

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Ron Paul

Posted on 2 January 2012 by Erik Hare | 20 Comments

The Iowa poll results took a while to sink in. Mitt Romney is leading in Iowa, but Ron Paul is well within striking distance of an upset win. The commentators are coming out of the woodwork to define Rep. Paul as someone on the fringes, but it may be too late with the Caucuses just a day away and everyone’s attention focused on the holidays.

Ron Paul may be the big wildcard in the election cycle, but not just because of this stunning poll result. The more he and his supporters are marginalized and underestimated, the more powerful they become. The game of expectations is clearly favoring a surprise on his part – and that could define the rest of this election season.

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