Month: July 2008

A critical review of Walmart’s new logo:

The change to title case helps humanize Walmart with a name that reads more like John, Albert, Sarah or Wilbur; it really looks very different and sets a different tone. The wordmark is nice and friendly and has enough customization to feel more proprietary than out-of-the-box. The new icon, however, is very questionable. It reflects technology start-up or telecommunications company before it does discount retailing that will make anyone live better. Sure, it might represent a flower or a sun, but the execution is too modern and cold to be seen as a natural element.

Diddy did it! The visual of Hitchens, however, may well be worth avoiding.

He had a great obit today. But the Onion, as ever, was ahead of the game.

More evidence of the rotting of the right’s brain. Conservapedia objects to the finding that a bacteria strain evolved the ability to better utilize sugar over 20 years.

A reader points me to an important section in Obama’s speech today on faith-based initiatives:

Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don’t believe this partnership will endanger that idea – so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them – or against the people you hire – on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs. And we’ll also ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work.

It’s the local and grassroots dimension of the religious groups’ social work that appeals to Obama, more, perhaps, than the religion:

You see, while these groups are often made up of folks who’ve come together around a common faith, they’re usually working to help people of all faiths or of no faith at all. And they’re particularly well-placed to offer help. As I’ve said many times, I believe that change comes not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up, and few are closer to the people than our churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques.

Conor Clarke argues that Heller will help the Democrats:

D.C. v. Heller takes the Court off the table as an electoral liability, and it takes the National Rifle Association off the table as an electoral threat.

Maybe. Jonathan Martin reports that the NRA is planning to spend $15 million against Obama. At the rate things are going, they’d better.

A reader writes:

As a Obama supporter through the primaries, all these shifts have me questioning pretty much everything I thought I believed about this guy. Who again is running for Bush’s third term?

This strikes me as over the top. Telecom immunity is not – to most people – a huge deal. Renouncing public financing is simply pragmatism, and doesn’t make him vulnerable to major donors given his large donor base. In fact, none of the positions I cited in that post are that new. More developed perhaps – especially on the faith-based initiative – but no major reversals.   

McCain takes a stand:

In an interview with reporters on the back of his campaign bus, the “Straight Talk Express” Monday afternoon, McCain said that even in retrospect he would still have voted to authorize the war, as he did in 2002.

Jay Newton-Small comments on Bush signing Webb’s GI bill and thanking McCain.

A looker.