“There was a great article from The Atlantic about me helping evade airport security. We printed fake boarding passes, explained how anyone on the no-fly list could get through security, and brought on more liquids than should be allowed.
Kip Hawley, head of the TSA, has responded to the article on his blog.
Unfortunately, there’s not really anything to his response. It’s obvious he doesn’t want to admit that they’ve been checking ID’s all this time to no purpose whatsoever, so he just emits vague generalities like a frightened squid filling the water with ink. Yes, some of the stunts in article are silly (who cares if people fly with Hezbollah T-shirts?) so that gives him an opportunity to minimize the real issues.”

“President No Drama doesn’t want a Cabinet full of undisciplined prima donnas. But it makes sense for Obama to give greater weight to intellectual acumen and subject-specific knowledge than his recent predecessors have, both because of the depth of the problems he faces and because of his own style as a thinker and a decision-maker. Bush, whose ego was threatened by any outburst of excellence in his vicinity, politicized all policymaking and centralized it in the White House. Obama, happily, has the opposite tendencies. He is intellectually confident, enjoys engaging with ideas, and inclines to pragmatism rather than partisanship. He can handle a Lincolnesque “Team of Rivals” or a FDR-style brain trust. And he’s going to need one.”

“In 1932, a young New York City lyricist named E.Y. “Yip” Harburg, together with composer Jay Gorney, penned what is considered the anthem of the Great Depression, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” Pianist and composer Rob Kapilow joins NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg to look inside the song and find out why it was so successful in its time, and why it still speaks to listeners today.”