I've seen lots of people talk about this year's Presidential candidates in terms of equivalency: "They're both so awful this year," or "Why do we have two people who ought to be disqualified this time?" I doubt anyone's going to change my mind at this point, but I always really want to understand viewpoints that differ from my own. And yet when I ( Read more... )

I've been absolutely glued to news about the popular uprisings in the Arab world over the past few weeks. Tunisia was somewhat under my radar, but once that revolution succeeded and the spirit of it began to spread throughout the region I was electrified. This may wind up being one of the most significant political developments we've seen for a ( Read more... )

The comments on my last post have helped me better understand my reaction to the mosque protests, so I thought I'd promote some of that to a followup post. (But this will be the last one, really ( Read more... )

I'm clearly naive and idealistic, but I continue to be astounded when I see mainstream public figures spewing blatant bigotry and hate and fear. I'm not talking Mel Gibson here: his racist outbursts have generally been publicly condemned by just about everyone (including himself, in a series of increasingly threadbare attempts to apologize). I'm ( Read more... )

I've followed most of the news about the oil leak in the Gulf, but I haven't read much commentary or analysis about it lately (too many guests and travel). So perhaps those of you who have been following the discussion can answer a question that's come to my mind ( Read more... )

Kim: "It's 3am and a phone is ringing in the White House. Who do you want answering that call?"

Me: "Hey, at least they didn't give it to him last year ( Read more... )

I'm still mostly on LJ hiatus (I've got yet more job applications due next week), but I've got to share one of the rare bits of positive news from my home state: after mail-in ballots were counted, Barack Obama has won Omaha's electoral voteI was surprisingly obsessed with the Omaha count on election night (as Kim can attest), and I'm thrilled that ( Read more... )

Utúlie'n aurë! Aiya Eldalië ar Atanatári, utúlie'n aurë!

Yes, it's old news that Congress tends to give nasty pieces of legislation names that imply exactly the opposite of what they actually do (e.g. see "Patriot Act"). But sometimes an example just jumps out at me. Today, in a newspaper article about the surveillance system that flagged Eliot Spitzer's involvement with prostitutes, I read the ( Read more... )

There we go: the Democratic primary has been decided. Barack Obama has been endorsed by xkcd creator Randall Munroe. I'm glad that's settled. (As most of you know, Obama's had my vote for years.)

[Hmm. I almost just wrote that "Obama's had my vote for ears". I'm not quite sure what that means.]