Neall Alcott

Interesting stuff happening on Capitol Hill. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) proposed an amendment to a major health spending bill that said no lawmakers’ pet projects (i.e., earmarks) would be funded until “all children in the U.S. under the age of 18 years are insured by a private or public health insurance plan.” Sen. Coburn has [...]

Another dispatch from Michael Yon in Iraq: Resistance is Futile: No thinking person would look at last year’s weather reports to judge whether it will rain today, yet we do something similar with Iraq news. The situation in Iraq has drastically changed, but the inertia of bad news leaves many convinced that the mission has [...]

I’m not a big John McCain fan, but this is a GREAT debate line that only he could have delivered:

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry: Man accused of hacking into 911 SWAT officers expected to find a victim shot to death, drugs and a belligerent armed suspect when they surrounded the home of an unsuspecting couple, but found they were only a part of a false emergency call caused by a teenager [...]

I just received this email from Michael Yon via Basra, Iraq: Greetings: Iraq is on the mend, al Qaeda is on the run, and the civil war has abated to a point where the term “civil war” no longer applies. Accurate war coverage is increasingly important. Even prominent seemingly well-informed persons can get it wrong, [...]

Paul McCartney – Memory Almost Full Paul McCartney released his latest studio album on June 5th and it’s pretty good. It’s not as good as his 2005 release, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (which I think is incredible… more about that another time) but it’s definitely worth listening to. In general, the songs find [...]

From the video: Nathaniel Brooks stole a line from an old Western movie to capture a pair of burglars. A Fort Bend County, TX homeowner fought back when he found burglars in his home. “You know there’s something about when you hear a pump shotgun click,” said Nathaniel Brooks. “It makes everybody think twice.” And [...]

Part Two: Building A Home Studio On With NO MONEY DOWN! During the summer of 2006 we had our basement finished. Whenever you get your basement finished, it forces you to do something you’ve probably been putting off… cleaning it out! While cleaning out the basement, I came across my Strat. Just for fun, I [...]

It was an impressive year for Al Gore… he convinced Iran to abandon their nuclear program. He brokered the Anbar Awakening in Iraq. He jetted to Palestine and convinced Hamas and Fatah to stop fighting. Then he got the Israelis to join them. Then he drove up the road to Damascus and got the Syrians [...]

Yesterday (Oct. 10), the ground shook violently at record companies around the world as a major artist, Radiohead, decided to release their new album, In Rainbows independently and with a new price model: Name Your Own Price That’s right. You can order the album from their website and name your own price… whether you enter [...]

Chris Matthews appeared on the Daily Show last week to promote his new book, Life Is A Campaign. It’s meant to be a self-help book about how to succeed in life using tactics of a political campaign. Jon Stewart gave him a pretty hard time about the book’s message and I found it quite revealing [...]

I’m going to try and post music reviews every Monday morning. I’ll cover an album from a major (i.e., signed) artist as well as an indie (i.e., unsigned) artist. I’m a big proponent of indie music and these people don’t have huge marketing and promotion budgets. Please help support the indie artists by purchasing their [...]

Well, not me but my blog! My blog has been picked up by the Daily Local News, a newspaper in West Chester, PA with a daily circulation of about 35,000. It’s also being syndicated to another newpaper, the Trentonian (in Trenton, NJ of course). The Trentonian’s circulation is about 45,000. I’ll still be using neallalcott.com [...]

Find out how Osama feels about the new iPhone and Apple’s price drop… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZK5os5mUgA