U.S. Unemployment History

There is a lot of discussion in the American presidential campaign about unemployment rates and the state of the economy.  The graph below is from a government source. Now let’s compare the statistics to the dates for the terms of Republican and Democrat presidents.  Remember that presidential terms are from a January to January. First [...]

North Carolina’s Amendment 1

Freedom and democracy are when a duly elected legislature can vote on a question or a law, come to a resolution and then enact that law.  Why would a group want to insert a state constitutional amendment that restricts the legislature’s ability to do just that?  Why not have a straight up vote?  A constitutional [...]

Canadian Majority Government Does Not Reflect Any Majority

Once again I’m going to question Canada’s Parliamentary system, where a political party can hold a majority government when more people voted against it in the most recent election than voted for it.  Also, in current polling, only 32% of the population say that they approve of the government, while the NDP can claim 33%. [...]

Santorum On Unemployment

It’s no fun taking shots at Rick Santorum any more.  He’s become too easy a target and generally regarded as a buffoon.  On the subject of unemployment, Santorum recently stunned Republicans by asserting: I don’t care what the unemployment rate’s going to be. Doesn’t matter to me. My campaign doesn’t hinge on unemployment rates and [...]

PRO LIFE ? ?

The Right Wing idea of pro life is one that confuses me.  I do understand that issues are complicated and multifaceted, but it’s not hard to see and identify generally held trends and beliefs. Pro Life tends to believe that any sort of abortion, for any reason, is unacceptable on religious and moral grounds.  Even [...]

Santorum claims the Dutch euthanize their elderly

One one hand I’m grateful that we don’t have Santorum caliber kooks campaigning for leadership in Canada, but on the other hand it is a great source of amusement and entertainment. Just when you thought that Rick couldn’t beat his comment about carbon dioxide (“Just ask the plants.”) he makes the surprising statement that 10% [...]

Once Again the U.S. Right Looks Like the Gov’t of Iran

Once again the social/political right in the U.S. is demonstrating a preoccupation with sex and showing an affinity with Muslim extremists. The Clinton Chronicle published an article a few days ago outlining a new oath that will be required for all Republicans running for local offices.  The oath was passed in a 30 minute, closed [...]

Robocall Election Fraud – Canadian Style

When talking about the recent allegations made against the federal Conservative Party about the “dirty tricks” robocalls sent out in the last election, the response I usually get is that it’s nothing new and that politics is a dirty game.  These allegations accuse Conservative hired companies of sending out misleading phone calls to Liberal and [...]

Santorum an anachonism

Rick Santorum is beating his anti-intellectual drums again.  I know I’ve made similar posts before, but nothing irks me more and makes me more frightened than a campaign to hobble intellectuals and scientists and to constrict reasonable discourse. In the past week, Santorum has made three clear statements on social issues in the media, without [...]

Luddites and Conservatives

The most recent installation in the Dune SciFi series is Sisterhood of Dune, continuing the story of the post Butlerian civilization.  Don’t stop reading; this is not a book review, although I’m enjoying this new book particularly because of its relevance to current political trends.  I’m going to guess that Herbert and Anderson, the authors, [...]

Canadian and American Politics

Not having any TV reception, I’m probably not the most informed person to have this opinion, but I tend to regard the coverage of the current Republican leadership race as the best reality TV on the air right now.  Who needs Dancing With The Stars or The Bachelor when you can watch a bunch of [...]

Tolerance within the Left and Right

I saw an interesting poll today on CNN which answered something that I’ve wondered about for a while.  The question was “Do you feel that your way of life is superior and right to the exclusion of others?”  There was a very clear pattern in the answer.  The question was answered “yes” by 63% of [...]