August 2012
23 posts
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Ayn Rand, Conservatism & Liberals →
Perusing my news feeds this afternoon while killing time at the office, I came across this column by Debra Saunders, a San Francisco Chronicle columnist, about Paul Ryan, Ayn Rand and Rand’s threat to liberals. Her general thesis seems to be that Rand’s philosophy is a threat to liberal beliefs, but Ms Saunders states:
Rand was conservative, Shaw was a socialist; yet both writers...
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U.S. Convention History →
The Wall Street Journal has a feature on their website that allows you to explore the history of the Democratic and Republican conventions, including information about the platforms for both parties over the years. The first Democratic Convention was held in 1832, but their first platform wasn’t created until 1840. The first Republican Convention was held in 1856, and their platform called...
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Cancelling Civilityfest 2012
Pastor Rick Warren is apparently cancelling his forum, which was to be a repeat of his 2008 affair with John McCain Barack Obama.
Warren pulled the plug on this year’s forum, explaining that the current negative campaign is opposite to what the church’s civil forum is about…
“I’ve never seen more irresponsible personal attacks, mean-spirited slander, and flat-out...
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Texas Longhorns 2012
The season begins on September 1st for the Texas Longhorns, and I’ll probably be in bfe (it’s Labour Day Weekend, which means Church auction), so I’ll probably have to listen to the game online, if I get any coverage of it at all.
The Longhorns are coming off an 8-5 season (including a Holiday Bowl win over Cal), which was an improvement over 2010, and it’ll be the...
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Voter ID and Poll Taxes
During the debate over Voter ID, which I have endured ever since I began working in and around the Pink Building (about a decade now), photo ID requirements have been compared to poll taxes; the implication being that photo ID requirements would have a similar effect on turnout.
So, what were the effects of the poll taxes? In Texas, after the implemention of the poll tax, turnout dropped by over...
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Voter ID, Pennsylvania & November
Pennsylvania Judge Robert Simpson recently ruled that the state’s Voter ID law could be implemented in time for Election Day (Source). The judge reportedly stated that the petitioners had not established that disenfranchisement as a result of the law would be inevitable or immediate. You can read his opinion here [pdf].
nowwithbmiller states, “Ladies and gentleman, this is how Mitt...
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Miseducation on Parade
Mother Jones has a new article about the textbooks used by private schools who are receiving funds as part of Louisiana’s new voucher program. I’ll leave the voucher debate for some other time, but I want to look at a couple quotes from the books, excepting the comments about dinosaurs and mankind living together (in harmony), since I’ve talked about that before.
First, there is...
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Does the Electoral College Favour Small States?
The guys over at Monkey Cage (well, one guy, Andrew Gelman) have been looking at the Electoral College in light of some recent comments by Jonathan Bernstein. In two posts (here and here), complete with charts, Mr Gelman makes the argument that - on average - the Electoral College favours voters in small states. According to Mr Gelman, voters in small states are more likely to have a decisive vote...
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Setting Social Media All Atwitter →
Going to harp on social media some today. Shoot the messenger if you want, but the media, some consultants and others have become completely enamoured with social media based on no evidence.
Hearst reporter, Richard Dunham, is crediting social media for Ted Cruz’s victory in the Texas Senate primary. According to Dunham and those quoted, social media allowed the campaign to communicate with...
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Texas Run-Off: Voter Turnout
Early vote turnout for the Republican primary run-off was not far off the mark of the regular primary, and we saw the same with the total turnout.
During the regular primary, 1.4 million people voted, and during the run-off, 1.11 million people voted. Early voters (549,993) represented 49.5 percent of the total turnout [slightly higher than the 48 percent in the regular primary].
This...
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