Election

DOMA in the Supreme Court: For or against?

One of the biggest events in the news these days and perhaps one of the biggest historical occurrences of this decade, the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is finally having its day in the Supreme Court. The title of this act is dubious at best, for it does little to defend marriage as a whole and really only exists in order to “defend” the antiquated view of marriage as it has been perceived during our country’s primarily Christian-driven history. As of Wednesday, March 27, 2013, DOMA is being put to the vote.

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The continuing troubles of North Korea

It seems that every year presents the same scenario - the small rogue state of North Korea, last bastion of true communism, gets everyone in an uproar by doing something to develop its military that the rest of the world doesn't like. From nuclear testing to launching missiles through the airspace of its neighbors to kidnapping fishermen, they seem to have no limit on what they’re willing to do to piss people off.

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Learning from George Washington and Independents

As long as there have been politics in America there have been independents. While it is more typical to think of politics in terms of two parties duking it out with polarized viewpoints, the two-party system as we know it didn't come into being until after George Washington was president.

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How to Become Pope

It is never too late for a career change (well... it might be a little late for the upcoming "election"... but not for the one after that!).

Who wouldn't want to be Pope? All of the pageantry, alone, is reason enough for me!

C.P.G. Grey has a whole blog with tips, too, in case the video is not really your thing...

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The Greens, the Libertarians and the future of parties

America is, without question, a two-party political system. We have the Democrats and the Republicans and every election cycle, you spend your time finding out what each side says that is a little different and pick your poison. Most people are vaguely aware of "third" parties, but often consider that voting for a third party candidate is the equivalent of throwing away a vote.

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Politics and the geography of happiness

How important is where you live to how happy you are? And how much does how happy you are influence your politics? The Atlantic put out a fascinating map today based on the geographical origins and the sentiment of over 10 million tweets. Put more simply, they figured out which cities and states were the happiest based on 10 million tweets from around the country. Here's that map:

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The dangers of lies and half-truths

People like to talk, there’s no doubt about that. We are, after all, in an evolutionary sense, thinking machines that have come to use information exchange as one of our chief methods of survival and progress. The transfer of this information is important to continued evolution and to understanding both our world and ourselves.

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Presidential election preview for 2016

Browsing through the news this morning, I was struck by the casual mention of whether or not certain prominent politicians will be running for president in 2016. And if so, how is what they are doing now going to affect or influence their chances? My first thought was really? Didn't Obama just get inaugurated last week? Are we really talking about the next election-- the one after the mid-term elections?

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Obama's Second First Year

I wrote up a retrospective earlier this week about Obama's accomplishments during his first term where I agreed with Paul Krugman that Obama did a lot of great things and that while he may not have pleased everyone on the Left, what he did is still pretty impressive.

If you remember, Obama spent much of the first year of his first term securing money to bail out banks and industries, essentially making sure the entire country didn't go the way of Lehman Brothers. Well, check.

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New leadership in Israel?

Israel. It's funny to me when I hear that word because two contradictory images jump into my mind. First, I remember the idiosyncratic way that my pastor would say it during sermons or songs when I was growing up. Think "Iz - rye - el."

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