1.12.2009

Brains Over Brawn



January 15 prairie dog hits the streets with our look at U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. In advance of the 2004 U.S. election, we did a Bush Bash issue. No, that didn't entail us throwing a big party to celebrate George W.'s imminent victory over John Kerry. Instead, we sought to highlight all the things we hated/despised about arguably the worst president America has ever had. Will things be better under Obama? We certainly hope so. In our Jan. 15 cover feature we discuss some of the changes we can expect to see in terms of Saskatchewan/U.S. and Canada/U.S. relations. One area we don't address directly -- but do indirectly in an article on what Obama's election means for the Religious Right -- is that while Obama himself professes to be a man of faith, he is not a dogmatic Christian who believes in Biblical literalism. During the election campaign, some of the rhetoric emanating from the Republican camp, especially Sarah Palin, made it seem that anyone with a university degree was an "elitist". Call it Revenge of the Eggheads or whatever, but intellect and scientific rationalism are now in, and we're not the only ones who think that's good a thing.

The Harder They Fall

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is within 60 days of shutting down. If no one buys the newspaper -- and in America's current economic climate, who would? -- it'll either become a web-only publication or be gone for good. Whitworth's favorite alt-weekly, The Stranger, also based in Seattle, blogs about the announcement party.

Hat tip to TPM and Americablog