Political Science

For reasons not worth explaining, I've been listening to the audiobook of George Lakoff's Whose Freedom?: The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea, which is about the conflict between progressives and conservatives over the idea of freedom. The book's subtitle is a bit misleading, although technically correct. I was expecting a book about different ideas of freedom. … [Read more...] about Whose Freedom? Models For Government.

Now that I've got some sleep, I have a few more thoughts on the State of the Union address. I'll be skipping around a bit. I liked some of the general fluff at the front: The rite of custom brings us together at a defining hour -- when decisions are hard and courage is needed. We enter the year 2007 with large endeavors underway, and others that are ours to begin. In all of … [Read more...] about State of the Union 2007 – Some Notes

I haven't seen it yet (I'll wait for the transcript and read along), but I'm predicting that the state of our union is strong, and we can make it even stronger. But that's just a guess. Update: Okay, now I've seen it, and I was close: ...the State of our Union is strong, our cause in the world is right, and tonight that cause goes on. That was near the end. The … [Read more...] about State of the Union 2007

This political quiz asks you to make some odd choices. For example, who do you trust more, the Postal Service or the Pentagon? I scored a 22, which puts right in the middle. That's about what I expected. As a libertarian, I'm all over the place on a quiz that assumes left and right are the only options. Sometimes I hated all the answers. In some ways I'm what might be … [Read more...] about Political Quiz

Over at the Intrade predition market, the price for GOP control of the house has plunged to 21.3 over the weekend. I think this probably means the uncertainty in the polling data is going away as people are running out of time to change their minds. The smart money (55.1) seems to be on a Democratic House and a Republican Senate. I don't know how smart Intrade's bidders are, … [Read more...] about GOP Looks Like a Loser in the House