Most Recent Posts
ICYMI: Post on KSL today–”Obama plays politics with same-sex marriage”
With polls showing public opinion shifting in favor of gay marriage at the same time as his opponent gains on the economy, Obama put his finger in the wind and timed his announcement on gay marriage to make maximum impact.
It’s not leadership. It’s polling. And polling says that Obama is losing on the economy but could galvanize support of the liberal base. It’s a lot easier than talking about the dismal job situations of 20.1 million people, and it keeps Romney out of headlines for another month. [cont...]
Contributor post on KSL.com: “Fiction is good for you…”
In case you missed it, my post on the benefits of reading fiction, and why you should read it, was posted by KSL.com this morning. Click on over to KSL and take a look and, if you like it, please share it. Thanks!
WRR: Café Seoul | Korean with a personal touch.
To be sure, I’ve not had a lot of Korean in my day. I was surprisingly pleased, though, with what Café Seoul offered. At John’s suggestion I ordered dahk galbi, Sooni’s specialty.
Before you eat another french fry… [infographic]
Before you eat another french fry, think about this:
Austerity? Europe never even got there.
This shouldn’t be a debate over “raising taxes” and the “cutting taxes.” Rather, it should be about government spending less so that the tax burden on business is not so heavy. The way to growth is to make it easier, and cheaper, for businesses to grow, there by putting more money into the pockets of individuals to spend. You can’t with one hand run up big surpluses and with the other hand raise taxes or print more money. The result is a net loss, especially to those who can afford to save less.
Books
Short Book Review: “Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America, and International Terrorism” by John K. Cooley
Citing the US as a culprit in the quagmire, a significant amount of responsibility is placed on the actions of the Pakistani intelligence services. Controlled by religious ideologues, the Pakistani intelligence services operated nearly autonomously from other Pakistani government branches, and often in opposition to stated policy. [cont...]
Book Review: “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine” by Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis can tell a story like no other. In fact, even before I finished reading his “The Big Short,” I wanted to work the book into every conversation I had. The story was that interesting and compelling. Anyone who can take the financial crisis of the last few years, find a story in it that centers around subprime mortgages and shorting the market (if you understand what that means and how to do it, you’re more than a step ahead of me and about anyone else I’ve mentioned it to over the last couple weeks), and then make it interesting to the lay reader deserves to be read. [cont...]
Book Review: “1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created” by Charles C. Mann
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” But what happened next?
More than just the discovery of the new world that we call the Americas, Christopher Columbus set off globalization of ecology, trade, biology, and nationality beyond anything that preceded it, argues Charles Mann in “1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created.” The discovery of America did more than just uncover lands previously unseen or mapped by Europeans. It set adrift the then current order of the entire world. [cont...]
Book Review: “Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft, and World Order” by Charles Hill
IIn Hill’s eye, fiction is more than just a story. In literature, we see the great ideas and forces that move history worked out, argued, and recorded. The “international world of states and their modern system is a literary realm,” he argues. “[I]t is where the greatest issues of the human condition are played out.” Nothing may come closer to a thesis for his opus. [cont...]
Other Books & Reviews
Restaurant Reviews
Twentyfive Main Cafe & Cupcake: Grab a cupcake while in St. George
We hit St. George for the President’s Day weekend. It was warm-er than Salt Lake, and on Saturday, after stopping by a local book shop (The Little Professor Bookstore on Main Street, which I recommend you visit), we decided to pick up some cupcakes. My wife had been to 25 Main before, a little cupcake [...]
Este Pizzeria. New York style pizza in Salt Lake City.
With a couple of chairs and small tables outside and a flat glass window, you don’t know what you’re getting when you walk up to Este Pizzeria. What you get is faux urban, pop culture decorated, and all deliciousness. In other words, it’s a great place with some crispy, cheesy, New York-y pizza. I ordered [...]
Tabasco’s Restaurant: The Best Mexican Food You’ve Never Heard About
Maybe I better qualify this post’s title: I’ve only had one dish at Tabasco’s. It was unlike any dish I’ve had at any other place, so it may not be a completely fair comparison. The dish, however, was amazing. Called “Molcajete,” which is a Mexican way of saying “a mortar and pestle,” the dish will [...]
Philly’s Cheesesteak & More: Emphasis on the “more”
What you get? A random selection of near ethnic foods as well as one selection of cheesesteak. To be sure, it is not a shabby selection. Even the cheesesteak is suitable. And here it is: It almost looks right, eh? And it almost is. The meat is chopped steak, the cheese is drizzled on, and [...]
Bear Paw Cafe: Not Worth Waiting In Line
If it weren’t for the wait, Bear Paw Cafe might be a decent breakfast. Heck, their Bear Paw French Toast — fresh “egg bread” an inch and a half thick stuffed with either spiced apples, vanilla bruleé cream or chocolate bruleé cream–is a good breakfast. The hash browns are freshly made and sans a decent dose [...]
The Copper Onion: Upper Crust Yum
I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed The Copper Onion. Recommended to me last year, I’ve put it off. With the excuse of a “birthday dinner,” though, we reserved a table and showed up hungry. We were not disappointed. Before I get much further, let me tell you my main problem with ordering food: it [...]
WRR: Spedelli’s | Pizza, Wings, and More
How many ways to can I tell you I loved it? Let me repeat PEPPERONI AND BACON. I will be a patron to this place till the day I die (or they close, or my office moves…). Dripping with stretchy, yummy cheese, sizzling with grease from the slightly concave pepperoni, the glistening sausage, miniature meatballs, and crumbled bacon, the crust crispy and fresh,… [cont...]
WRR: Midvale Mining Company| Breakfast Comfort Food
If you’re going to get breakfast in Midvale, you might as well go to the Midvale Mining Company. There is an abominable dearth of breakfast eaters in this world, with the masses switching to nutricious yogurt “drinks” and fortifide granola like bars in lieu of the traditional breakfast.
You know what I’m talking about–you ran out of the house this morning with one of them in your hand (if you ate anything at all), and you let the hash-browns, pancakes, oat mill, cereal, waffles, fruit, bacon, sausage, orange juice, and a myriad of other God-given gifts on the table, cupboards and fridge. Because seriously–what is a morning if it doesn’t include at least a pound of bacon grease? [cont...]
