The idea that if you donโt like how things are going, you can just leave is so engrained in Texas, the secession movement is no surprise.
Gail CollinsOf course, Texas is so huge it really is empty places; people can easily drive an hour and a half to work every day, so even if they're actually living in the suburbs, it sure feels as if they're in a remote location.
Gail CollinsI did some research once on the way people in the past imagined the year 2000. They tended to picture the things they already had getting more sophisticated - flying cars, self-cleaning windows. And the folks in the early 1900s had a wildly optimistic estimate of the future of pneumatic tubes.
Gail CollinsOne line I'd draw would be on raising the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare. It sounds fair, since people are living longer. But it isn't. Lower income workers are the ones who find it hardest to keep working after 65. And they'll get penalized with lower benefits.
Gail CollinsWhat naturally you want to do if you were a prominent person in the public light and you are disgraced, you want to make a comeback, and normally that begins with somebody saying, โI want to do something to help people. I want to do something to help the lepers in the Third World. I want to do something to help abandoned wives in India.โ
Gail Collins