Quote of the Week- Mark Twain

Today, we conclude with our month-long quips from cultural radicals and subversives from Mark Twain. Though he is considered a mainstream author today, there have been various times when Twain's works have been considered controversial. The use of the n-word vernacular that was used quite often at the time of publication (1885) of Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" has caused a stir at times for some local schoolboards even though no could rationally suggest that Twain was a racist.

The Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn., is among the most popular tourist attractions in the Nutmeg State.

Here is Twain's quote:

"A person who won't read has advantages over a person who can't read."

SIDEBAR ONE: Though I am a Democrat, David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, is among my favorite politically conservative pundits as he talks in terms of broad pictures as opposed to the likes of Rush Limbaugh who today proclaimed that Barack Obama 'wanted Hurricane Irene to be a huge disaster.'

Of course, like most liberals, my favorite conservative pundit is (of course!) David Brooks, but Frum, who is also keen and objective in his commentary, is a close second.

Yesterday, Frum tweeted the following regarding how Hurrican Irene affected his weekend: "Side benefit from Irene: taking my daughter to see Declaration and Constitution at National Archive with no line at all. Unprecedented."

SIDEBAR TWO: Speaking of Hartford, I actually saw a Hartford Whalers bumper sticker in Roanoke, Va., today. This was interesting to me because the Hartford Whalers have not existed since the team left for the Tarheel State and became the Carolina Hurricanes.

As the 'Canes, the team won the Stanley Cup in 2006, which actually made some people in North Carolina pay more attention to hockey than NASCAR-racing. But, of course, since racing legend Richard Petty is from Randleman, NC, and the late Dale Earnhardt hailed from Kannapolis, NC, that didn't really last. Of course, their offspring is involved in the sport as well.

But, I found out some interesting information while googling the Hartford Whalers. The current minor league hockey team in Hartford renamed themselves the Connecticut Whale last year to honor the Hartford Whalers. And, ironically, the team's previous name was the Hartford Wolf Pack, which is the same nickname for North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where the Carolina Hurricanes now play (they temporarily played in Greensboro).

The Hartford Whalers existed from 1979-1997. And, they left, in part, because the likes of then-governor of Connecticut John G. Rowland, a Republican, didn't want to spend tax payer money on a new hockey arena for the team.

But, there is still an active group that wants to bring the Hartford Whalers back in one way or another (perhaps having a new team with that name, such as what happened with the Cleveland Browns in the NFL). And, The Whalers Watchers, as they are called, will meet in Hartford on Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m.

As for the Connecticut Whale, they have their home opener on Oct. 15

50 Beers Around the World- Barena (Honduras)

We stay here in North America for our next Beer Around the World which is Barena, a popular brew in the Central American country of Honduras which has experienced political problems within the last year. But, we'll let smarter people like David Brooks and E.J. Dionne sort through that (forgive the NPR listener in-joke).

We learned about Barena Beer through Don Godo, a blogger from New Orleans who now resides in Honduras. He says that beers in the country has substantially improved in recent years.

Honduras was also in the recent World Cup in South Africa.

I actually know the name of their capital, but it is too hard to spell and alas we don't have interns to verify these things for us (it does however start with a "T").

Our Person of the Year- President Barack Obama

Perhaps, we saw this coming. "The Rhinoceros Times," a conservative weekly newspaper in Greensboro, NC, sarcastically congratulated Barack Obama by placing an emphasis on his middle name Hussein. The right has not been able to let up ever since even though their president George W. Bush was a bona fide idiot who bragged of never touching a newspaper. During his final year in office, even many intellectual conservatives like David Brooks and George F. Will had a very hard time defending him.

But, Obama has met the challenge in areas like health care reform, global warming and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He has been criticized by some on the left for many of his positions. "The Nation" has criticized him for going forward in Afghanistan, which in my view is the appropriate thing for him to do. Matt Taibbi of "Rolling Stone" has accused Obama of getting too cozy with Wall Street insiders, but it seems like that would be true of any president given the amount of corporate influence that political positions of power now entail.

Of course, right wing media numskulls like Glenn Beck and their counterparts in Congress, such as Cong. Joe Wilson (R-SC), criticize any efforts by Obama and the Democratic Party to have a functioning government. As Jonathan Chait of "The New Republic" brilliantly put it, this is Republican nihilism (do-nothingism) at its finest.

But, in order to capture the brilliance of Obama at its core, we simply need to quote him in his own words. Obama was not my choice for person of the year last year because I felt he hadn't proven anything yet. Well, now he has:

"Americans still believe in an America where anything's possible- they just don't think their leaders do."

"I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war."

"I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office."