John Brown
I wouldn’t be able to add much to this brief and well-written remembrance of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. I still see Brown as an ambiguous figure — an idealist who saw a need to take on a great… Continue Reading
Barack Obama
Joe The Plumber
Lots of talk this morning about “Joe The Plumber,” an imaginary, “average” American who John McCain started speaking to in the debate last night. Obama picked up the trope and now Joe The Plumber is in every house across this… Continue Reading
Why Tonight’s Debate Doesn’t Matter
“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”— Winston S. Churchill Ben Smith at Politico proves Sir Winston right with an astonishing e-mail he got from his buddy, a GOP consultant who was watching… Continue Reading
Atheist Meme
I discovered an interesting counterpoint blog to my own, called PinPonPun. There, I saw a meme that apparently was circulating around a number of atheists but somehow never made its way to me. I challege other atheists and nonbelievers reading… Continue Reading
The Upcoming Narrowing Of The Polls
National polls show Obama leading right now by anywhere from four to ten points, with the average being a 6.8% advantage. This spells doom for my bet of a bottle of good Scotch. But on the other hand, the conventional… Continue Reading
A GOP Ticket In Need Of Good News
If you’re rooting for the McCain-Palin ticket, you don’t need me to tell you that you want a game-changer to enter the game. You need some good news, and you need it not much later than two weeks before the… Continue Reading
Something You May Not Have Noticed
And I didn’t either, when I first read the transcript of the debate. But some people did. The debate took place in Nashville, which was called “The place where the Bible Belt has its buckle” by many Tennesseans. But not… Continue Reading
After The Debate
Did Obama Wear An Earpiece In The Debate Tonight?
You decide. I think I’m with Ann Althouse with a “no” answer, but a commenter on Volokh gets the win right out of the starting gate with his comment: he can’t manage to clean his ears! how will he manage… Continue Reading
Chart Adjustment
Today’s charts on fivethirtyeight.com look like this. That’s Obama winning somewhere close to 9 in 10 of the random simulations, and functionally all of the realistic ones. It’s hard to not be disheartened when numbers like this are out there.… Continue Reading