Christina Larson

EXIT POLLS, 1994 vs. 2006 … I?ve just sat through a marathon of post-election press conferences, each explaining how the major structural shift of this election was the behavior of …. Unmarried persons! Midwesterners! Voters with “some college” education! I?m with Kevin; it mostly sounds like much ado about very little. If you scrutinize this […]

I KNOW WHAT YOU MAKE…. Pro sports players, Hollywood starlets, and law-firm associates have long been among the few professionals whose salaries are publicly known, discussed, and compared. Now the same fun is coming to Capitol Hill. Voila, Legistorm, a new database of congressional staff salaries. As the site notes: “Who is employed by Congress, […]

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL… Vogue editor Anna Wintour must be an insufferable boss. But as The Devil Wears Prada, a movie based on a former assistant’s vitriolic roman a clef, hits screens, l hope Wintour doesn’t have a proverbial bad hair day. Last year, in reviewing Jerry Oppenheimer’s unauthorized bio of Wintour, I came to […]

SUPREME COURT TO TAKE ON GLOBAL WARMING CASE… From the AP: The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether the Bush administration must regulate carbon dioxide to combat global warming, setting up what could be one of the court’s most important decisions on the environment. The decision means the court will address whether the administration’s […]

EVANGELICAL SPORTSMEN … “Do you consider yourself an evangelical Christian?” On first reflection, that might seem an odd question to have been included in the National Wildlife Federation’s recent poll of sportsmen’s attitudes toward global warming. Yet, 50 percent of American hunters and anglers identified as evangelical. One enduring story has been that of evolving […]

SHOOTS AND LADDERS…. The new American Hunters and Shooters Association, which aims to be a pro-gun, pro-conservation, pro-safety alternative to the NRA, is already a rumor magnet. Noting that the group’s URL was first registered by an Internet consulting firm, DCS, with the address 600 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, John Lott smells conspiracy: So ALL three […]

BAYOU DISPATCH: Coming Clean… It’s raining again in Lake Charles, La. That means the hotel computer room is crowded here at the conference of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. Right now the room is abuzz with hook & bullet writers discussing the Clean Water Act and scrambling for updates on this morning’s Supreme Court […]

AL GORE VS. TOM CRUISE… An Inconvenient Truth is gradually rolling out in cineplexes across the country. Last weekend, the film opened in Kennesaw, GA; Olathe, KS; Louisville, KY; Omaha, NE; Albequerque, NM; Dayton, OH; Salt Lake City, UT; Dallas, TX; among other cities. (Find your hometown here.) Anyone have a scoop about local reaction? […]

BAYOU DISPATCH: Pro Gun, Anti-NRA … A lifelong Republican, Korea vet, and former world-record holder in trap shooting (he broke 730 consecutive clay pigeons in 1967), Austin Dorr has nothing good to say about the NRA: ?They want to take me for granted, but don’t speak for me.? Criticism of the NRA from within the […]

GREENSPAN FOR HYBRIDS… This morning Alan Greenspan testified before the Senate Foreign Relations committee on the end of cheap oil (“The energy abundance on which this nation was built is over”), our economic vulnerability, and the need to “wean ourselves off gasoline.” On this last matter, where to focus attention and funding … corn ethanol? […]