Rodent Regatta

This weblog began on January 13, 2002. It was a form of therapy following September 11th and its aftermath. I’ve struggled with matters of ”good looking design” and some service interruptions in the months since that first entry on a Sunday afternoon.

Now I feel focus is returning. Having the most recent disruption resolved allows me to return to topics that are important. Peggy Noonan’s latest work for the Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal.com caught my eye. Here’s a tiny (off topic) sample:

I was reminded again this year that people do what they know how to do. A lot of people tend to go to their default setting when faced with any given challenge. Your default position grows out of who you are and how you think. If your default position on being treated rudely by clerks is patience and mercy you’ll likely go to default patience today if a clerk is rude to you.
But people can change, and the changes within them can produce new default settings. One of the things that can change a person is consistent good fortune, persistent admiration, a luckiness that lasts.

Then, there was yesterday’s wish list from Newt Gingrich. You’ll have to read it, but in keeping with his ability to set a clear agenda and make sure everyone understands what that agenda is, here are five points he says the GOP needs to focus on:

• National security
• Economic growth
• Health care modernization
• Litigation reform
• Scientific environmentalism

These and several related topics will be regular subjects for this weblog in 2003.