The Reaction in Review (Dec. 26, 2008)

A week's Reactions that deserve a second look:

Friday

By Creature: "Pharmacist to the world" -- Creature explains the CIA's latest head-spinning use of U.S. "soft power" in our quest to save the Afghans from themselves.

By Libby Spencer: "Happier Times" -- We see Libby after she "worked through" to a very successful encounter with a Florida manatee, and lived to tell the tale!


Thursday

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Christmas 2008" -- Michael's personal Christmas letter, with greetings to us and the reading world out there; includes an encounter with a Scrooge in the comment thread.


Wednesday

By Libby Spencer: "Count your blessings" -- Libby's Christmas message to us, including video of her favorite "White Christmas" movie scene.

By J. Thomas Duffy: "Top Ten Cloves: Things about Christmas around the nation's Capital" -- Another ever so clever list, through which we breathlessly pour to get to Duffy's #1, "Cheney's still making lists, and torturing them twice." Includes Bonus Xmas Links.

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Next year in Minnesota" -- Michael presents an excellent analysis of the still contested Senatorial race between Al Franken-D and Norm Coleman-R.

By Carol Gee: "What will the new Congress do?" -- Will the new 111th Congress mean real change, or just a change of bodies? Suggestions included.


Tuesday

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Headline of the Day (Pope Benedict XVI edition)" -- Michael explores the latest controversy with Rome involving " 'gay groups' [who] have good reason to be angry not just at the pope's remarks but at the pope himself."

By Carl: "Echoes down the corridor" -- Carl's brilliantly written call for re instituting the many Constitutional freedoms so eroded under the current Bush administration.


Monday

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Christmas in Baghdad" -- Michael says, "On the list of bad ideas for 2008, Christmas in Baghdad, as presented by the Interior Ministry, ranks up near the top."

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Sign of the Economic Apocalypse #1: Toyota in the red" -- Michael explores his own history with cars, with a worried reaction we all share, explaining, ". . . we already do Signs of the Apocalypse, (we're up to #61) mostly cultural indicators of imminent doom, but with the economy where it is, and worsening, it seems appropriate to turn our attention to the coming Economic Apocalypse."

By Creature: "Drawing lines" -- The question with bailing out everyone . . . comes down to drawing lines; "enough is enough," Creature declares.

By Carl: "Recovery" -- This very good analysis of how the U.S. got into its economic crisis and how renewable energy could be one of our answers, by The Reaction's resident expert on the U.S. economy.

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Permanent minority" -- Michael makes a persuasive argument that Republicans could be in the minority for a long time, saying, "The GOP is ideologically extreme, regional in focus, and, to more and more Americans, simply repellent."