Jonathan Miller's Blog, page 445

Tomorrow at The Recovering Politician

Tomorrow morning, at 8:30 AM, RPTV presents 15 Minutes of Fame with an A-list movie star.

Like the RP, she is a Kentucky native and huge Wildcat basketball fan, a Harvard graduate, an environmental activist, and married to an international beauty. (Mrs. RP was born in Canada.)

Unlike the RP, she is an internationally renowned, award-winning star of stage and screen; she's an author of a moving new book on her global humanitarian work; and she gets really, really good seats to UK basketball...

The RP's Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Tech

The Politics of Tech

Has the iPad already won the tablet war? CNET looks at the recent history of the iPod and the mp3 wars for the answer. [CNET]

Do you enjoy mobile gaming on a smartphone or similar device? Of course you do. But we all hate those banner ads and pop-up ads. However, good news is on the way. Recent mobile start-up Kiip is proposing a revolutionary way of advertising within mobile games. [TechCrunch]

Apparently, there is a creepy (albeit cool) walking table that could soon be...

The RP's Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Faith

The Politics of Faith

Atheists can be just as irrational as believers…and believers can be just as rational as atheists. [Huffington Post]

Traditional Christian notions of heaven promote a "theology of evacuation"—at least that's what megachurch pastor Rob Bell argues. His book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, leads critics to call the progressive-minded Christian a heretic.  [CNN Belief Blog]

Rob Bell

Terry Jones, the Quaran-burning preacher who ...

The RP's Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of the Web

The Politics of the Web

The browser wars continue: latest ranking puts Google Chrome on top. [USA Today]

A new way to browse the internet coming soon? A look at alternative web-browsing. [Forbes]

U.S. House of Reps to the FCC: "Drop net neutrality!" [The Boston Globe]

As certain as death and taxes: Illinois Gov. imposes internet tax, and Amazon strikes back. [The Wall Street Journal]

Sign the Online Petition to Stop Political Campaign Online Petitions!

While the Internet has provided some extraordinary new vehicles for the modern campaign to share its message, a particularly abhorrent one has emerged over the past several months: The Online Petition. 

In what appears to be a nakedly transparent method to collect email addresses and/or to raise small-dollar campaign contributions, our email boxes have been filled since the last election cycle with hundreds of banal, completely ineffective, poorly-considered online petitions seeking our...

John Y. Brown, III: What Do We Do Now?

 

When Jonathan Miller told me about his idea of starting a website titled The Recovering Politician, I thought it was a clever concept—-a partly tongue-in-cheek, partly insightful look at life after elective office. There is the famous last scene in the film The Candidate where Robert Redford's character, a charismatic underdog running for the US Senate, pulls out a narrow upset against an entrenched incumbent. Just before his acceptance speech he ducks into a small room to avoid the throng o...

Welcome Fellow Al Cross Fanboys/gals

For those of you introduced to this web site by Al Cross' column this morning (if not, we've linked it here), welcome to The Recovering Politician!

Here are links to our mission, our host, the RP, and our civility-promoting comment policy.

As a quick primer, some of the more popular pieces during our first week online include:

Jeff Smith's stunningly candid personal tale of political rise, fall, and future redemption.

The RP's deeply personal essay about his father, RFK, and the greatest speech...

Next week at The Recovering Politician

Thanks to all of our readers for making our first full week such a big success.

Next week, the site gets even bigger and better.

Of course, we will be debuting three new recovering politicians as regular contributors to the site.

Late in the week, two Congressmen who shot for higher office and lost will share their plans for the future exclusively with RP readers.

And starting off first thing on Monday morning, you will be able to enjoy the satiric stylings of one of the funniest people ever to h...

The RP's Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Wealth

The Politics of Wealth

Could Trump really tell President Obama, "You're Fired?" [Politico]

Time to fill up! Some analysts predict oil going over $130 a barrel! [CNBC]

Some super-rich see Mumbai, India, as a future global hub. [Times of India]

Tax tips for your mortgage. [The Street]

800,000 Federal employees at risk if government shut-down happens. [CNN Money]

The RP's Weekly Web Gems: Politics of the Planet

The Politics of the Planet

People have been searching for a technical fix for global climate change for a long time.  One of the leading plans has been "cloud whitening" which would decrease the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth, thereby decreasing the greenhouse effect.  However, new evidence from Europe shows that this technique might actually warm the planet even more.  [BBC]

Are you more optimistic about the use of technology to solve the planet's climate ills? Scientists at the...