While I have the utmost respect for this site’s bipartisanship, readers know my views skew quite left. However, I like to think that humor and music have bipartisan appeal — I grew up in Orange County (the red state in the middle of California… cue rim shot), and even my most rabidly right wing classmates will […]
Those of us old enough to remember rotary phones, black & white TV, and cars without seatbelts are now at an age when a forgotten name or misplaced car keys can make us worry about age-related memory loss. My response is always to joke about my hard drive being full— it’s not age, it’s data […]
Citizens of Europe, I despair of you. Well, some of you. The results of the elections for the European Parliament have not been wholly surprising, but the extent of anti-EU feeling across the continent is disheartening. Let’s have a look.
Later this week, 508 million Europeans from 28 member states of the EU will be able to vote for their Member of the European Parliament (MEP). I am just one of those people, and most of the technicalities of European politics will probably need to be explained to me again, but here’s why this election […]
Greetings, all. I’m subbing for Karo this week, so we’ve got a mix of links that are right up her usual points of interest, as well as some newsy bits that struck my fancy. Let’s see what’s been going on in Europe this week, shall we?
Oh, the electoral college. You’ll be hearing a LOT about it over the next few hours and days, but how the hell does it actually work? Why in the world do we have a process by which the candidate who loses the popular vote can still win? Let’s see if we can make it a […]
The news may be serious, but that won’t stop us from having a giggle about some things.
I live in Eastern Canada, and I’ll admit that I read a lot more news about Eastern Canadian politics than Western Canadian politics. But Alberta is having a provincial election shortly, and with both the Progressive Conservative party and the Wildrose Party headed by women, Alberta is almost certainly going to elect a woman for […]
Chances are that if you have any friends under the age of 35, at least one of them is a big ole’ Ron Paul supporter. Okay, maybe if your judgment is better than mine, none of your friends are Paul supporters. Consider yourself lucky. But you can’t help but notice that the young “˜uns flock […]
I recently came across a very interesting post on YouGov, a polling data site, that analyzed whether electability makes a difference in Republican voters’ candidate preferences. Political scientists usually agree that in a two party system, there’s a sophisticated pattern of strategic decision-making that happens when people vote, whether consciously or unconsciously. The prevailing idea […]
Odd-year elections in the US are often…well, odd. Federal officials like Presidents and Members of Congress are elected predominantly in even years; odd years are usually a mishmash of local offices like town councils, mayors, county legislatures, and the occasional statewide proposition. Frequently, these elections are held without a lot of national media attention (although […]
Yesterday, the Huffington Post published a thorough and interesting article about the state of women in the US Senate and the disparity between the Republican and Democratic Parties in tapping female candidates. The whole thing is worth a read, especially the slideshow at the end featuring the thirteen women running for Senate next year. But […]
A study published last fall in the academic journal Political Behavior but that has only recently gained attention in the popular media suggests that pre-election polls consistently underestimate the success of female political candidates. Unsurprisingly, this phenomenon is particularly strong in states that traditionally have a more conservative culture when it comes to gender roles.
Possibly because we haven’t had a presidential election for 14 years, this election season has so far been utterly mad. The election is set for Oct. 27, and as of now, the candidates include a Eurovision winner, a reality TV personality, and a former terrorist. Click through for an introduction to the madness, in which […]
It has been five months now since the historic evening where Mubarak stepped down. The revolution sent seismic waves through the Arab world and touched off unrest in Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Oman and even Saudi Arabia. Yet for the many young Egyptians who fought through tear gas, government thugs, bullets and mass arrests, change […]