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Monthly Archives: January 2012
Iowa Nice
My friend in Iowa tipped me off to this. I’m not from Iowa myself, but this pretty much encapsulates my feelings about bias towards flyover country.
Posted in Uncategorized
16 Comments
What the Evidence Says about Strategic Voting in Open Primaries
This ran a couple weeks ago as a guest post at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen. The discussion there was two-fold, one line argued about the legitimacy of strategic voting, with the other line arguing about whether it actually happened … Continue reading
Posted in Research Blogging, The Democratic Process
6 Comments
Your Thoughts?
I assume all you political junkies watched the State of the Union address? (I felt compelled to because I’m teaching my Presidency course this term, and I’ll be damned if I get caught out by one of my students.) So … Continue reading
More on the Middle Class
One of my favorite topics: Is the middle class disappearing? Scott Winship says, “no.” For the record, Scott Winship works at Brookings and this was published in the National Review–so let’s set aside our instinctive ideological context filters, which aren’t … Continue reading
Posted in Economical Musings
7 Comments
Iran a Mortal Threat to the U.S.?
Surely you jest, Mark Helprin. How seriously can we take the following comparisons? Its conceptions of nuclear strategy are very likely to be looser, and its thresholds lower, than those of Russia and China, which are in turn famously looser … Continue reading
Posted in Politics in General
10 Comments
Birds at Play
Here’s a couple of amazing videos demonstrating playfulness and intelligence in our avian friends. First, here’s a kea parrot (New Zealand) rolling snowballs. Next, here’s a crow sledding on a roof. Not just sliding, sledding. The little bugger’s got himself … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
4 Comments
The Weirdness of the 2012 Republican Primary
Mitt Romney has long been the presumptive winner of the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. After only one primary and a single caucus, it’s nearly impossible to seriously entertain the idea that this presumption won’t be confirmed. There’s been damned little … Continue reading
Posted in The Democratic Process
17 Comments
Ben Franklin’s Flying Car?
From a student: 200 years ago, the framers probably thought we’d all be driving flying cars by now. I’m pretty sure that’s mentioned somewhere in Madison’s Notes on the Federal Convention.
Posted in Teaching
2 Comments
Syllabi
I’ve been working on syllabi this week. I’m the kind of guy that tends to continually tweak courses. Something in my nature makes it impossible for me to just settle on a particular scheme and stick with it for very … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching
11 Comments
The Bawdy House Provisions 