There’s lots of push lately in the tech community to chase the dragon of real-time. I do see real-time it most valuable during events that I’m not able to attend in person (the recent IgniteMpls event comes to mind immediately). Even then, there’s always delay. Each second delay brings an opportunity to filter for relevance. […]
Category: Politics
Decision 2008, and My Vote Goes to…
Attention, St. Anthony Villagers, your sample ballots are here (Hennepin | Ramsey) My votes; Presidential & Vice Presidential: Barak Obama & Joe Biden U.S. Senator: Dean Barkley U.S. Representative District 5: Keith Ellison U.S. State Representative District 54a: Mindy Greiling Constitutional Amendment: Clean Water, Wildlife, Cultural Heritage and Natural Area: Yes. Overall, the decisions were […]
McCain & Obama Tax Plans: Small Change
Viveka Weiley redrew Washington Post’s chart of Obama’s and McCain’s respective tax plans. First off, a caveat: Basing a vote on potential personal financial changes is as one-sided as basing a vote on gender, skin pigment, or hair color. It’s one factor and one that I hope to argue it is a wash to vast […]
Now That It’s Either Obama or McCain….
The 2 parties have a 6-month opportunity to show the American public how serious they are about solving this country’s problems. “…Spend 1/4 of the money [raised by the campaign] telling everyone how you’re using 1/2 of the money to help people. This proves that your Presidency will be about solving problems, because you’re not […]
America, Which is Your Lesser Insecurity?
Within 6 months, we will know which of the following three insecurities we, as a country, have less of; ageism, racism, sexism. While it’ll be nice to know the answer, it’s unfortunate we have to ask. Thanks to Mungowitz for the video.
Lazy Libertarianism
A couple of conversations about Libertarian Paternalism came up on the iTunes this week, centered around Thaler and Sunstein’s book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. The most enjoyable being the EconTalk with Richard Thaler, where Thaler does an amazing job of challenging Roberts. Not there’s enough of that on EconTalk. 😉 I […]
The War That Wasn’t
In addition to the the BBC’s editorial policy promoting using terms more accurate and less loaded than ‘terrorist’ the UK government has declare the “War on Terror” non-existant.1 “‘The people who were murdered on July 7 were not the victims of war. The men who killed them were not soldiers,’ Sir Ken Macdonald, Director of […]
Garrick Balances the Minnesota State Budget
My pass at MPR’s Minnesota Budget Balancer with the differences from Gov. Pawlenty’s budget. Numbers in $$ millions. Spending Garrick Pawlenty Difference K-12 Education 685 685 Same Pre-school 200 38 -162 Healthcare 300 48 -252 Long-Term Care 76 76 Same Welfare & Other 48 48 Same Local Aid 300 65 -235 Property Tax Relief 40 […]
After New Orleans…
“After New Orleans, the people in Baghdad said, ‘Oh, now I get it.’” – Thomas P. M. Barnett I’m 2/3 of the way through the presentation, and it just keeps getting better.
Done Monkey-ing Around
“…my fear on this one is that no one will want to drink [the beer] for fear they will be implicated, or worse yet, sympathetic to the kidnappers.” – Bongo’s slightly regretful kidnapper.