As someone who has definitely expended too much of my life on the watching of Gilligan’s Island, this is heartening news. Shirky argues that there has been a cognitive surplus in the developed world and for the past 50 years we have been soaking up that surplus with situation comedies and that now we are [...]

Is it any wonder communication fails?
Her version of the story:
R: I thought of something else you should get at the store.
L: Ok.
R. Hum.
L: I’m getting a pad.
L: What was it?
R: What was it?
L: What was what?
L: What you wanted to me to get?
R: I thought you wrote it down?
L: Wrote what down?
R: Gum
My side:
R: I [...]

Reasoning, when we do it, is mostly to find justification for what we already believe.
Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at the University of Virginia, in here.

Senator Clinton has decided that she is not going to apologize for her vote in 2002 authorizing the use of military force in Iraq.
If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose [...]

Gina Cobb believes that the President is gracious and decent.
In his prepared speeches, he makes a conscious choice to speak as kindly of his rivals as is humanly possible. His graciousness is more noticeable when the vitriol from his rivals reaches its apex — or at a time when his approval rating seems to [...]

The oath the president takes when assuming the office is prescribed in the United States Constitution, Article II, Section I
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United [...]

Bob Altemeyer is releasing his book, The Authoritarians in installments on his web site, a new chapter every week. This seems like an important book.
I didn’t pay too much attention to John Dean’s book, Conservatives Without Conscience when it appeared last year, and still haven’t, but apparently Dean based in book on Altemeyer’s work on [...]

If we can’t have democracy in the US?
Charles D. Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs is complaining about the law firms that are representing, or attempting to represent Guantánamo detainees. According to the
New York Times, Mr. Stimson appeared on Federal News Radio earlier this week questioning the role of lawyers from [...]

Gerald Ford’s policy of healing and moving on, whether it was the right thing to do, or the wrong thing to do, was a failure. Rather than allowing honest conflict of opinion to flourish and consensus to form, Ford attempted to shut down debate and paper over conflict.
The debate addresses whether Ford was right to [...]

What’s laughable about the Alicia Colon piece I blogged about yesterday?
The claim that The Drudge Report is a liberal site is laughable in general. How could you know anything at all about American politics and make this claim?
Here is her supporting evidence:
The propaganda of the enemedia — an excellent descriptive term coined by [...]