Why I read the boring news

Faithful readers and Holler visitors probably know that I am an enthusiastic reader of The Economist, which is generally respected, if considered a bit dense and dry to get through in a week. Au contraire to the "dry" bit. The following, taken from a column this week on the newish leader of the Conservative Party in Britain, illustrates how hilarious political and economic commentary can be:

"... Most often, when asked to sum up his political creed, [David Cameron] says he is a “modern, compassionate Conservative” — modern because he's open to new ideas, compassionate because he wants to help society's unfortunates and Conservative because he doesn't believe that every problem can or should be solved by state action.

Most people like to think they are open-minded and few would admit to wanting to grind their heels in the faces of the deserving poor. ..."

I choked back laughter, and occasionally failed, all the way from Metro Center to Farragut North. I'm laughing right now, re-reading this.

The Financial Times is also respected but considered dull (in spite of its sassy salmon paper). There's a pretty good Lucy Kellaway column in today's edition on bad "motivational" memos. (Free registration seems to suffice to get you access to the column.)