From the NEW YORK TIMES: A new edition of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” has generated much controversy because it will replace the word “nigger,” which occurs 219 times in the book, with “slave.” (The edition also substitutes “Indian” for “injun.”) Alan Gribben, an English professor at Auburn University at Montgomery, proposed the idea to the publisher because he believes the pervasive use of that word makes it harder for students to read or absorb the book.

The Watchdog is reading Robert Reich’s “After-Shock, The Next Economy and America’s Future” not because he expected new ideas, but because he sought statistics that could be used to drive home past messages. Reich is to be commended for his well founded ideas, but he occasionally takes short cuts with the facts to make his point, and that is unfortunate.

President Obama’s approval rating in the latest Gallup Daily tracking poll sits at its highest point in eight months. Fully half of Americans approve of the job Obama is doing, while 42 percent disapprove. Obama’s approval last stood at 50 percent during a three-day, rolling sample conducted last May 29 to June 1, partially over Memorial Day weekend.

Below is an excerpt from an article appearing in the USA Today of January 3. From the point of view of consumers who purchase air line tickets, hotel rooms and rent cars through third parties, they are benefiting by being able to readily compare prices for services.

Gil Smart’s Sunday News Column “Black clouds, green shoots” is pleasant, farsighted, and foreboding.

However, it sent the Watchdog to Wikipedia to look up “Dystpoia”, to wit: “A dystopia (from Ancient Greek: δυσ-: bad-, ill- and Ancient Greek: τόπος: place, landscape) (alternatively, cacotopia,[1] or anti-utopia) is, in literature, an often futuristic society that has degraded into a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian.

For the outgoing 2010, the Award is to the almost ‘Over the Hill Gang’ who recognized an impending community tragedy and had sufficient confidence in their own abilities and integrity to ‘go where Angels fear to tread’, that is to take the leadership of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music. Holmes Morton, MD and Tom Godfrey, MD were not deterred by the turning on the Academy by its past benefactor and chair and the public chagrin…

Over the past two years, the Watchdog has repeatedly lamented the failure of the federal government to empower mortgage servicing agents to “cram down” the principle and interest owed on loans so that both reflected market conditions. This would allow families to remain in place and save lenders the huge expense of foreclosure, restoration of the premises, transaction costs, and sale at a big loss, aggregating as high as 30% to 35% of market value.