In 1985, a fellow investigator at a research center in Jackson Hole recommended a paperback she had just finished.  “Whip Hand,” she said, was set in the world of English horse racing.  When I demurred, claiming no interest in that world, she gently persisted, to my great pleasure.  By the mid 90′s I had read all of the Dick Francis crime novels to date, and looked forward to the yearly additions he made to his oeuvre.  I wasn’t alone, as by that time Francis had become one of the most popular and widely read authors in the world.

I’ve always felt that Francis’s most appealing quality was his ability to create extremely likable characters, both his protagonists and their associates.  One cares about the people in his novels, and their hopes and fears and the dangers they encounter matter to us.  In the last few years I have reread a few of the novels, and given the gratuitous violence so common in contemporary entertainment, the books seem pretty mild.  Still, that may have its own appeal.  If you haven’t read Francis, start with “Odds Against,” and then “Whip Hand.”  With any luck, you’ll be hooked.

A new Gallup survey finds that perceptions of American leadership worldwide improved significantly, from 34% in 2008 to 51% approval in 2009.  Significant improvements in sentiment toward U.S. leadership are evident in all four major global regions, with the largest year-over-year increase in approval measured in Europe.
And Steve Benen has more here: IMPROVED INTERNATIONAL STANDING

Here to help soothe your unease over the astonishing ignorance revealed in the previous post is some straightforward demographic analysis of the electorate.  Many Republicans may be woefully and willfully uninformed, not to say hateful and mean-spirited, but there aren’t that many of them around these days.

BTW, the same firm shows that Mr. Obama’s approval rating, in spite of conservatives’ non-stop lying about essentially everything about him and his policies and the MSM’s refusal to call them on it, is currently at 56%.