Avoid Trivia

George F. Kennan, 1904-2005, American advisor, diplomat, political scientist and historian, whose writings inspired the American foreign policy of communist containment that governed American foreign policy for a half century, headed a State Department "think tank" under Secretary of State George C. Marshall. Kennan credits Marshall, who hired him to constantly reappraise America's grand strategy in the world, with giving him the best advice of his career:

"Avoid trivia."

Great advice. Contrast it with this blog, which at its best can only dredge up old quotes, historical trivia if you will, as food for thought. Sigh.

After the jump, another principle that guided Kennan in his thinking of how to apply American power in the post-war world.

CCI: How Google Failed Me

"I will kill you, CCI." With just 20 characters (Twitter allowed him a generous 140), Ian McCann of The Dallas Morning News (@imccanntx) sent me scrambling to Google to figure out just WTF he was mad about. Here are the possibilities. Your guess is as good as mine.

• Clinton Climate Initiative: Mad at the weather? No one has cabin fever that bad.
• Canine Companions for Independence: Mad at his guide dog? Say it ain't so, Ian.
• California Criminalistics Institute: You'd think they might be after Ian, not the other way around.
• Custom Chrome, Inc.: I just can't picture Ian shooting up his tricked out Harley.
• Component Concepts, Inc.: Maybe this "quality paintball maker" sent Ian got a defective batch.
• CCI Ammunition: Another gun association. What's with the letters CCI anyway?
• Center for Collective Intelligence: On Twitter? Who are we kidding?

I don't often say this, but this time Google failed me. Help me out someone. What's the CCI that Ian McCann wants to kill?

Sessions and Perry: The Moderates In Their Races

The Dallas Morning News endorsed Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) in his District 32 GOP primary against challenger David Smith. Smith did something I didn't think possible. He managed to make "Taliban" Pete look like the moderate in this race. Kind of like how Debra Medina managed to make Gov. Rick Perry (R-TTC) look like the moderate in his GOP primary race against Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-DC). Yeah, I know. It's a crazy year.

What To Do About The Shrinking Gas Tax

The gas tax hasn't gone up since 1993. It's still 38 cents a gallon, even though the purchasing power of that 38 cents has eroded a lot. On top of that, rising fuel economy standards mean that 38 cents has to stretch to cover more miles driven on each gallon of gas. The result is a highway trust fund that's broke. The result of that is highway construction lagging population growth.

After the jump, one idea about what to do about the problem.

The Odd Republican Who Still Believes in Balanced Budgets

For a while now, Texas state Senator John Carona (R-Dallas) has been a puzzle to me. He's an old-style Republican who still believes in balancing a dollar of gov't expenditures with a dollar of revenue. He is open to raising taxes to pay for all the new roads Texans want. He calls other Texas Republicans fiscally irresponsible and hypocritical to boot. Where does he get the courage? For a short profile of this GOP heretic representing Richardson, Garland and north Dallas, be sure to read the cover story, "The Last Republican," by Wick Allison in the March edition of D Magazine.