Free Republic

Interview with Warren Buffett reveals an amazing stupidity on the choice for the next American president.

'Dry' counties are drying up in Texas Even more are putting the liquor option to voters since easing of law LUFKIN — Sarah Strinden is tired of what she calls the "pain-in-the-neck" drive she must take as a consequence of Texas' patchwork of local liquor laws. From her house it's a 10-mile jaunt to the metal-sided beer barns and package stores in either of two adjoining wet counties. ''We don't buy a lot and store it, so when we're planning a casual drink with friends it's a 40-minute trip," she said. ''It's just inconvenient." Strinden and others in Angelina County...

It’s the best part of two decades since Denys Arcand gave us The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire, a very Quebecois gloss on The Big Chill about a group of boozy, bed-hopping, bantering boomers connected one way or another to a university history department. They were in their prime, though they did not fully realize it. Eighteen years on, one of their number is now facing the biggest chill: death. In his mid-50s, Remy (Remy Girard), a self-described “sensual socialist”, is perforce heavy on the latter and lighter than he’d wish on the former. He’s no longer banging...

It is a familiar complaint that newspapers only report the bad news. But that applies to economic news, too -- particularly with a presidential year coming up. By all objective indicators, the news about the American economy has been remarkably good since the summer. But what is good news for ordinary people can be bad news for politicians, just as good health is bad news for morticians. For some strange reason, recent Democratic candidates have been looking for the dark cloud behind every silver lining. They seem to think voters always want to hear the U.S. economy is fundamentally rotten...