Free Agent, Professor, and Superforecaster
You hear it all the time: “Big government is the problem.” “We need to reduce the size of the government if we want to eliminate corruption.” As it turns out, just because the government grows in size doesn’t mean that corruption will grow along with it. From a journal article published last year [Emphasis added]: This study’s …
Continue reading “Big Government NOT Linked to Greater Corruption”
I saw a post yesterday from Chris “The Fix” Cillizza that made me instantly think of the self-fulfilling prophecy. I didn’t include this as part of my series on biases in judgment and decision-making, but it’s certainly something to keep in mind. The post from The Fix was titled: “Just 7 percent of journalists are Republicans. That’s far …
Continue reading “Journalism, Republicans, and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy”
In the past two weeks, I’ve seen a lot of people make a lot of different arguments about why they support/oppose intervening in Syria. Of all the arguments I’ve heard, the ones that irritate me the most: “I’m a Democrat/liberal and Pres. Obama thinks we should go to Syria, so I think we have to …
Continue reading “Listen — Let It Swirl Around Your Head, Then Form Your Opinion”
Earlier today, I saw a series of tweets from the GOP Chairman, Reince Priebus: Today I sent letters to @NBC & @CNN telling them to halt production of Hillary Clinton programming. http://t.co/L3oDeq7KBC — Reince Priebus (@Reince) August 5, 2013 Tell the media: Dump the Hillary docs or no debates! http://t.co/T80t8AIDtf — Reince Priebus (@Reince) August …
Continue reading “Massive Miscalculation by GOP Chairman Reince Priebus: No Debates with CNN or NBC”
A few months ago, I saw this very argument made in Slate. At first, I’m sure you’re doing a double-take? Why would we pay them more? They are hardly doing the job that we elected them to do in the first place. Why would we reward failure, stagnation, and an inability to get stuff done? That’s absurd! All …
More than a week ago, the Supreme Court of the United States rendered a decision on a case that had implications for the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The Court ruled that the formula from Section 4 of the VRA was unconstitutional. The decision has certainly enraged liberals and the political left as is clear in …
Continue reading “Political Implications of the SCOTUS Decision on the Voting Rights Act”
The other day I was playing with my dog and I said something about moving ‘to the left.’ Naturally, my wife recalled the Beyoncé song, “To The Left.” However, since I spend a lot of time watching and thinking about politics, my first thought was that our dog was moving “to the left” — politically. That …
Continue reading “If Cats and Dogs Could Vote, Which Party Would They Vote For?”
[Editor’s Note: This post’s title was changed on September 16th from “if you’re a conservative, tell me which liberals you read: if you’re a liberal, tell me which conservatives you read.”] I was born and raised in Canada and really didn’t start paying attention to politics until I moved to the US, so most of …
Continue reading “You Need To Seek Out Ideas and Opinions That Are Different From Your Beliefs”
I was watching some old episodes of The West Wing on the weekend and I came across two scenes that I think epitomize part of the problem with politics today. Both scenes are from Season 2 and the first one is of a Republican lawyer, Ainsley Hayes, speaking with two other Republicans about how the …
Continue reading “A Rose By Any Other Name: Labels for Political Ideologies and Parties”
While history is made everyday, in the 2010 United States midterm elections, there was at least a bit of foreshadowing. During these elections, the net gain/loss of house seats was the highest it has been since 1938 – when FDR was President. Much of the ink printed around the midterm elections was focused on the …
Jeremiah Stanghini 