Recreational Poli Sci
hedge industries from yesteryear, combined with politics and politicology from deepest suburbia
A late development in MA’s off-cycle senate race involves AG Martha Coakley, the Democrat, committing an unthinkable gaffe in Boston: referring to Curt Schilling as a Yankee fan. Oops. Maybe Coakley should take heart from John Kerry, though. As ‘Sconis can remember, John Kerry referred to the hallowed ground in Green Bay as “Lambert Field,” and still carried the state (if only by a whisker) two months later despite mangling Curly Lambeau’s name.
"We see vast untapped grounds in our home base and we believe there are still plenty of prizes to be claimed by the best players."
In all this Google / Beijing dust-up, I wanted to see what this “Baidu” engine was about, so I went there. My Chinese literacy, is, shall we say, poor, but I did see the “Baidu Story,” where the last line cracked me up. Link to About Baidu.
What is the North? What is the South? Does it matter where we draw our fuzzy lines defining groups? Turns out, this is a common question. The Brits do it. The Americans have the post-carnage Civil War legacy that will continue to bedevil us, but it’s good to remember that the M/D line is too far north and not extrapolatable westward. Try Zelinsky instead. But the most recent and most amusing one is North Jersey v. South Jersey. Ben Franklin called Jersey a barrel tapped at both ends, and it’s a suburban zone divided by its NYC and Philly sides (media markets too). The Yankees / Phillies world series made this even more evident. Turns out that someone has made a documentary about where this fuzzy barrier is in the Garden State (here’s their blog) (trailer). Maybe I’ll pop in in my netflix queue.
Extra credit goes to knowers of which side Jay and Silent Bob are on.
Sexy iPhone apps? Clever? Funny? Useful? YES! Political? NO!
Saw this via Engadget. Some eAdvocacy effort, in the form of “iSinglePayer,” can help you locate your congressional district by GPS (that is cool), and of course, call the office to shame, blame, or congratulate a member of congress. It seems to have some bulletpoints on the health care debate, and probably has some sort of special feature that allows you to pin the tail on the Baucus’s rear end. Anyway, Apple Store Said No. It’s too “politically charged.” More info here.
What does the quantity of media coverage of returned fallen soldiers mean?
The Washington Examiner, via Drudge, reports today that media attention to returning caskets containing fallen US servicemen has dropped to nothing, following very high attention paid when Obama lifted the ban on photojournalism of the dead. Byron York concludes, “With casualties mounting, the debate over U.S. policy in Afghanistan is sharp and heated. The number of arrivals at Dover is increasing. But the journalists who once clamored to show the true human cost of war are nowhere to be found.” So how much attention is ideal? Was the media surge to cover returning caskets some sort statement disapproving of the previous policy?
Overusing Obituaters of Omniquotism
Could someone please have a nice entry on Safire with mentioning the “nattering” line? Please?
