I'm still on Season 1 -  watched Episode 3 last night. The power of love--so moving and so beautifully done. It could stand alone without even being part of a series.

I'm watching Season 1 on my ipad and DVR'ing Season 2 to enjoy later.

I didn't realize Vanessa Redgrave did the narration until the credits...Perfection.

Really, really enjoying "Call the Midwife"--thanks for the recommendation!

File this under both: "why idiots believed the pre-election polls" and "voter fraud's an imaginary figment shared by losers".

Democrat Melowese Richardson has been an official poll worker for the last quarter century and registered thousands of people to vote last year. She candidly admitted to Cincinnati’s Channel 9 this week that she voted twice in the last election.

According to county documents, Richardson’s absentee ballot was accepted on Nov. 1, 2012 along with her signature. On Nov. 11, she told an official she also voted at a precinct because she was afraid her absentee ballot would not be counted in time.

“There’s absolutely no intent on my part to commit voter fraud,” said Richardson. . . .

The board’s documents also state that Richardson was allegedly disruptive and hid things from other poll workers on Election Day after another female worker reported she was intimidated by Richardson. . . .

During the investigation it was also discovered that her granddaughter, India Richardson, who was a first time voter in the 2012 election, cast two ballots in November.

Richardson insists she has done nothing wrong and promises to contest the charges: “I’ll fight it for Mr. Obama and for Mr. Obama’s right to sit as president of the United States.”

My son is a poli sci major at Penn with an IR concentration--he hasn't taken American politics since a survey course freshman year. He found the actual IR major there, as in many places, too loosey-goosey--too much emphasis on "culture," blah, blah.  He is a Russian language minor.

I agree with everything you said. I have a friend whose husband was a math/physics major, and he performed brilliantly on the LSATs--took it cold.  Last my son talked to me about it, he said on the practice tests he was doing great on the reading comp type questions, and struggling with the puzzles.  He decided to take an LSAT course to familiarize himself with the "tricks" involved in solving the puzzles.

I would really like him to watch "Suits," because it does a great job painting the cutthroat nature of the profession. The character of Harvey is becoming more and more interesting. I don't think and never have thought that my son is cut out for the law--at least at the level he is aspiring to (i.e. like the firm in the show). He graduates in May and is planning to work for a couple of years before applying. A lot can change in two and a half years with kids this age. We'll see what happens!

I'm on the fifth episode of "Suits" and enjoying it.  Will most likely stick with it, and then watch the third season which starts Jan 17. I told my son about it, since he's interested in going into law. Is it me or is the premise similar to "House?"

Thanks, winchester!

I'm also catching up on "Homeland." 

Just finished Richard Russo's The Bridge of Sighs, and enjoyed it.

Still, kicking the politics habit--it's one day at a time. 

 

Seven states qualify for secession response from White House

3 hr ago  By Ian Simpson of Reuters

The petitions for secession from the U.S. filed by Texas, Louisiana, and five other states have collected more than 25,000 signatures each, which the White House website says is enough for review and response.

WASHINGTON - Citizens from more than 40 states have filed petitions with the White House seeking to secede from the union, and by Wednesday, seven states had gathered enough signatures to qualify for a response to the largely symbolic protest.

The petitions, which have been signed by a small percentage of state residents, have virtually no chance of succeeding. The United States' bloodiest conflict, the 1861-1865 Civil War, erupted after 11 states withdrew from the union.

The White House has set up a "We the People" page on its website that allows Americans to file petitions on issues of concern. If a petition collects 25,000 signatures, the website says, the administration will review and respond to it.

The petition filed by Texas residents has racked up about 100,000 signatures. Six others from Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee have collected 30,000.

Among the seven states, only Florida gave its electoral votes to Democratic President Barack Obama in last week's election.

The Texas petition says the United States is suffering from economic troubles stemming from the federal government's failure to reform spending. It also complains of alleged rights abuses committed by agencies like the Transportation Security Administration.

"Given that the state of Texas maintains a balanced budget and is the 15th largest economy in the world, it is practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union," it said.

A counter-petition has been filed calling for the state capital Austin to secede from Texas and remain part of the United States.

... all I wanted to say is that our country and our people have a way of surviving anything. We can grieve what we think is a bad outcome, but as a country we will prevail, and at the end of the day we'll be okay regardless of the results of any one election. Take care, everyone.

Well, there's surviving and then there's living, hayden -- though OK is probably ambigous enough to cover the likely result of another four years.

Nicely put, though, and while I couldn't have phrased it as well the sentiment would have been just as sincere.

... surprised at the general confidence that Romney was going to win.  None of you has to answer, of course if it's opening wounds, but I'm curious as to why you thought Romney was going to win.  I see that the Romney campaign itself were very confident they were going to win, and everyone on Fox thought he was going to win, some said even by a landslide.

I could say turnout's a busy witch in a ditch, Nate Silver aside, but that would be sloughing off. The fact this year's polls were almost correct is really the more amazing thing but, ... possible reasons for another four years of collective progressivism?

The incumbent ran against:

- A tax cheat. (Harry Reid, Senate Majority leader.)

- A likely felon. (Stephanie Cutter, Obama campaign babe... sorry, forget her title.)

- A murderer. (some disgruntled ex-employee  who, while not clear Romney's involvenment, was seen most clearly by whatever at-arms-length Obama campaign organ that produced the spot.)

- A moderate, but not just any moderate: one that had hanging around his neck the exact same thing that, amongst other things, flipped the House in 2010.

Doesn't look like much of a candidate when you look at his vitals, does he? Makes one wonder why the bright lights figured running a pale version of the incumbent was going to work out pretty well when it was all said and done.

Life goes on, the economic boom's just over the horizon, Chris Matthews can sleep better knowing that at least a slim majority of the country isn't racist, those who vote social issues will sleep just as well thinking the president's going to make sure only the haters get the tab for the debt collapse they refuse to acknowledge, ....

It's all good.

Hope, Check out a BBC show " Call the midwife". - you can watch them on your computer. Great show!

Which is why I am do this forum, CNBC, and cleaning the bathrooms. 

In my life time, we've gone from pit toilets to port-a-pots and running water. From radio to flat screen TV's that are now cheaper than my first portable radio. Kids now have to learn everything that you learned plus social upheavals since whenever. I think about my parents (mid 90's) who were born in the midst of war, adults in WWII and Communist conflicts, Culture Revolutions, economic miracles, science and technology miracles. 

If you’re quoting McCullough, hope, then I presume you think he’s right? And if so, then why are you letting the ignorance stand? Why aren’t you arguing against it; correcting it?

 

McCullough was on "60 Minutes" last night, which is where I heard that quote. Interestingly, when asked how the situation can be remedied, he said two things: a) teachers need to be better educated, and b) it is up to parents to teach their children history.

By implication, he is telling people not to rely on our public education system.

 

Since my boycott of all things political, I've been searching for other television options. Have you seen what total and complete rot is on cable? It is sickening. Even the remake of Upstairs/Downstairs is mind-numbing. I happened across a History Channel show on American Industrialists that looked promising--until I saw that Donald Trump, Donnie Deutch and Jerry Weintraub were featured as experts on the show. I kid you not.

 

This country is cooked.

 

 

When you are ahead, you'll always be ahead with just a little effort. Unless, you get too greedy. 

corrollary: When you are behind, It takes a lot of luck and a great deal of effort to get ahead. Greed is no where to be found. 

Not much will change in  PBO's second term. I plan to get greedy, but not too greedy.

Clearly, you disagree, john.  Your right.  Not sure why you have to put people down as you do it.  

Obama had not clearly articulated a plan for the second term except "Forward!"  To what, nobody knows.  The fiscal cliff? Yes, perhaps.  

Honestly, I figured Benghazi was a deal breaker for him.  Either he, his staff or several major agencies simply dropped the ball and let a diplomatic mission turn into a PR nightmare.  It would have been great if the major networks would have covered it.  They didn't.  

Sandy seemed to improve his ratings.  Tell that to those who are experiencing horrific conditions on Staten Island where both FEMA and the Red Cross have not necessarily been awesome.  The photo ops were awesome, though.  

Not same sex marriage, either.  He just told the MTV crew this on Friday, after the election. Thinks it should be a state's rights issue.  Yet, not for medial marijuana, even when the states thinks it is an okay idea. 

Some of us here thought that the voters would catch on and actually think ahead, beyond their own immediate self interests.  We were wrong.  Eventually, everyone will pay for this monumental, bone crushing debt.  Our children and their children will be saddled with it.  There is no stopping a 2nd term Dem who believes in redistributing the wealth.  It's a fantastic message to send to our kids - work hard, but if you do "really well", we will take more of your money to give it to others, who aren't doing so "well".  Of course, we will define what "well" is.  

Good luck with that.  

 

 

 

"We are raising children in America today who are by and large historically illiterate." - David McCullough

 

Samurai,

That was also true for GWB. People liked him and Laura more than Al/Tipper or John/Teresa.

This is what I have said for yrs. The presidential election is more like American Idol or DWTS than people realize. The vast majority vote for someone because they relate or like them, policies be damned.


I look at my home state and wonder how on earth 2 yrs ago they thought an 86 yr old man was the best option, but at the same time they are saying to their friends and relatives their folks need assistance and their keys taken away at a younger age than the person they voted for to represent their state.

Common sense is gone, welcome to partisanship. You have a D or an R behind your name and that is all that matters.

In NC, a small town said they wanted to get rid of the D or R and people went into a fury...how will we know who to vote for was their angst. I will tell you how...use your brain and learn about the issues!

If I am correct we are now 3 yrs without a budget. Budgets run 10/1-9/30. I agree with you what makes anyone think they won't do what the Hill has always done...kicking the can down the road.

What gets me is 10% of the country approves of the job they are doing on the Hill, but 90% is the re-election rate. If you don't get voting in the same people time after time will result in the same answer than you proved the definition of insanity.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

Another reason is that no reasonable person who has even a passing understanding of America’s founding principles, what freedom really is, and how to protect it, can possibly come to the conclusion that Obama is doing anything other than destroying all of them. It is simply not fathomable that such a person could ever vote for Obama. It defies reason. It defies any semblance of reason. It’s just not believable.

I guess a lot of people were under the thrall of the delusional belief that people can actually see and understand the real world around them, and you know, think.

Three words: cult of personality. Obama got elected because people like him.i mean he is cool, right? He goes on the cool talk shows and late night shows. Even third world leaders like him. He gets a Nobel Prize before actually, well..earning it.

On the most basic level, half of the country wants free stuff and wants the rich to pay for it. Okay. But economists have already said that if all the wealthiest folks pay a little more, there still isn't enough money to fund it. Eventually, they will come after more and more of your money, and that doesn't mean just Warren Buffett or Jay Z, and people like me in the middle, but also Honey Boo Boo's neighbors.

There is a finite amount of resources. Eventually the money runs out...oh, yeah. It already has.

I see this election as basically the death of common sense for America. I thought Romney had a good chance for victory, particularly at the end of the election cycle. The Obama campaign has been playing the class warfare card since 2008. It was the main selling point for his campaign in 2012. Obama didn't articulate a plan for a second term.

He couldn't convince his own Congress Democratically controlled in his first two years to pass a budget. Why? Not a priority. You think it will be now?

-- Edited by SamuraiLandshark on Saturday 10th of November 2012 07:38:19 AM

Hayden, many conservatives that I know really thought Romney had a good shot at winning. The thought being, with the economy in such a disaster, and Obama doing such a poor job over the last four years, how could he not? And if you spend a fair amount of time listening to conservative talk shows and watching Fox, it definitely would steer you that way too. Talk about how the polls were always so skewed, look at the polls when Reagan won, etc. Believe me, I've been listening to this hopeful stuff in my household the last month or so, shaking my head, saying, "Honey, it ain't gonna happen. We have to cut back, save more, and figure out a way to hang on to our wallets." Many people were listening to a different reality, and there were some very knowledgeable conservatives singing the same song.

As far as, "By the way, I saw that some of you were asking why Petraeus resigned for an affair, when Clinton didn't. Pima, you said there had to be more to it, and you were right. You will probably already have heard this by now, but the news is reporting that the FBI, in the course of an investigation, came across evidence that the woman improperly accessed classified information by getting into the General's private email account. Sad, sad end to a stellar career"

My conspiracy theory is that someone made him resign by holding that information over him. The FBI can keep things secret, or they can not. I wonder if he was basically blackmailed into stepping down for some nefarious reason (maybe not testifying about Libya)? Just wondering.

I do not subscribe to the idea that if I'm gonna get screwed anyway I may as well relax and enjoy it.

 

You are most likely younger than I am, winchester. I've had an eye on the culture since the mid-sixties.  It's over. They've won.  We were at a tipping point with this election, and we've tipped.  The deliberate dumbing-down of our public education system combined with the demise of religious belief has combined to create the looming brave new world. It's not so much that I am going to relax and enjoy it, but rather I intend to relax and ignore it.

 

Exactly hope!

In the end of the day you will not ever change a D's position regarding entitlements IMPHO.


That's exactly right, hence, my recommended solution.

Well sure pima, of course, everything you say is right. And that's the problem, isn't it?

The reason they don't get the big picture is that they can't. And the reason they can't is that liberalism is a sefl-fulfilling prophesy which has a practical monopoly on what we see in the news, in our entertainment, and in academia. Further, that morality controls not only WHAT we see in those places but also how it is presented, how it is spun.

It defines our entire culture, it does more harm than good, and now we're beginning to be able to prove these truths scientifically.

And we should do what? Say it's too big of a problem? Say it's inevitable so we should just lay back and enjoy it?

Look what that misguided culture does to us. One, news outfit, ONE, comes along which DARES to tell the whole story, and it is demonized and vilified by the dominant culture, and people from that culture actively try to shut it down, force it off the air. Talk about Orwellian-style thought control! And all in the name of "care" and "fairness" and "diversity."

Our culture swims in the sea of liberalism, and even the hint that there's more than just a sea, but there's also land and air, where not just liberal fish live but conservative mamals as well, and to the fish, who dominate and control our culture, that morality is seen as death and destruction and must be removed from the face of the planet.

You think I'm exaggerating? You think this is hyperbole? Then you're not paying attention. (I don't mean you, personally, pima. I mean generally.)

Here's a quote, from Haidt's web site, from a H. E. Baber, a professor of philosophy at the universtiy of San Diego, in response to his findings. In this quote professor Baber refers to conservatives as "the lower classes and primitive people," and to liberals as WEIRD (a term Haidt uses):

“Why should we regard the moral universe of the lower classes and primitive people as a consequence of their ability to taste more moral flavors than those we poor WEIRDs can distinguish? … lower class people try to give a rationale in terms of harm for their gut feelings that sex between siblings, cleaning toilets with flag rages, etc. is bad by contriving scenarios involving harm. These poor, dumb, ignoramuses … I’m a liberal, one of your WEIRDs, and an academic. But I have nothing but hatred and contempt for working class Americans and members of non-Western cultures. And, c’mon Haidt: don’t you think that if these people get some education and financial security, they’ll become as WEIRD is us? The 6-dimension moral structure you describe is a defect—the illusion of stupid, unreflected, uneducated people. Our aim should be to dismantle their detestable **** cultures …”

She teaches our children. She is not alone in her beliefs. There are a lot more professor Babers out there in the world than we realize, and they control our culture through the arts, the news, and academia. How can that kind of thinking NOT filter through to our children? How can it NOT affect the way our cutlure responds to what it sees in the social world.

Imagine if things were the other way around? Imagine if ALL of human nature were reflected in our entertainment, our news, and in academia, and not just half of it? Imagine if the culture, as a whole, land, sea, and air, the real world, reallity, were understood by everyone in it, and we weren't plodding along making decisions based on the fallacies and half truths of liberalism.

Below is my recommended solution. It would be a life's work, maybe more than one life's work. It would require the formation of a foundation dedicated to that work. But if humanity is to survive then it is the direction in which we must travel. The good news, if there is any, is that science is now in the process of proving its validity. The bad news may be that we're too far down the slippery slope to turn back. But on the other hand, if all goes well, humanity will be around for a long, long time, many more thousands of centuries, and if that's true then maybe it's never too late.

We can reduce demonization and shrink the political divide by teaching the lessons of The Righteous Mind in age appropriate modules in practically every subject – from literature to history to civics to health to economics – in our public schools from K through 12 and beyond. I am confident that if our children understand how Moral Foundations influence the way people think in all walks of life and how they affect the way people relate with one another in the social world then future generations will have a deeper grasp of human nature and will thus be better equipped to get along; leaders who emerge will make better decisions through an increased empathy for how our righteous minds really work.

In the introduction of The Righteous Mind Dr. Haidt says:

People who devote their lives to studying something often come to believe that the object of their fascination is the key to understanding everything. Books have been published in recent years on the transformative role in human history played by cooking, mothering, war . . . even salt. This is one of those books.

I believe Dr. Haidt is more right than even he realizes. I believe the righteous mind (the phenomenon, rather than the book) is an integral part of the history of mankind, and certainly of politics. For example, I believe that the liberal and conservative righteous minds provided the intellectual underpinnings of the French and American Revolutions, respectively, and more recently of the Occupy and Tea Party movements in America. The two outlooks are also reflected, I suggest, in the economic visions of Keynes and Hayek. Moral foundations are evident in the stories and fables we tell our preschoolers, and in the literature our teenagers read in high school English. Practically every subject in our public education system could include a module which explicitly identifies and reinforces the ideas of The Righteous Mind and shows how those ideas are brought to bear on that subject; Even, or possibly especially, “Health” classes, where our kids might be taught how moral foundations can sometimes make it difficult to see eye to eye, and how understanding where others are “coming from” can help them to get past that problem.

We cannot possibly expect future generations to get along unless and until we “change the path” in a way that gives them a truer grasp of why getting along can be so hard to do, and we cannnot possibly expect them to make decisions that benefit mankind unless they understand how mankind really works. We must do everything we can to see that those things happen.

+1 regarding geeps post.

I would like to say, I didn't expect anything different. Look at the Hill results. 90% get relected, but when voters are polled they give a 10% approval rate. Somehow voters warp their mind into it isn't my guy that is the problem it is the other guys on the Hill that is the problem.

They have lost sight of the fact that by sending back your guy because you like them, and not their voting record is just guaranteeing nothing will be accomplished.

Note PBO said sequestration wouldn't happen. Just announced by several Lockheed employers on WMAL this a.m. they got their pink slip yesterday. It is happening!

Look, everybody here knows that nothing is purely black or white. Everything is shades of grey. There’s probably nobody who lives at either of the extreme ends of the political spectrum. Everybody lives somewhere along the big grey section across the broad middle. We're talking about trends and tendencies, averages and aggregates.

I see this discussion board kind of like a bunch of co-workers giving each other some friendly ribbing about each other’s favorite teams, in a Red Sox - Yankees sort of way. It’s a fun place to bat around some ideas and poke each other a little. I don’t take any of it personally, or all that seriously. It’s all just opinion. It’s all just a bunch of statements which reflect how all the different wirings in all the different brains who participate here “connect the dots” of what they see in the social world around them. Different wirings connect the dots in different ways.

But with that said, there are certain generalizations which, with the advent of new technologies like fMRI and advances in understanding which come from those, we can make about the human “Social Animal.” (See the book by that title by David Brooks for an easy to read overview of the current state of the art of that understanding.)

One of the generalizations that can be made with high confidence is that conservatives value everything that liberals value, and liberals value about half of what conservatives value.

Another thing we can say is that ALL those things of value are required in order for civil society to exist. “All the tools in the tool box” of human social perception and cognition are necessary for the creation and maintenance of civil society.

A third thing we know is that those tools were given to us by millions of years of evolution. There are valid reasons for ALL of them; human survival and well being DEPEND upon ALL of them.

A fourth thing we know is that the morality which uses all the tools is in the majority around the world. It is the morality which uses half of them which is the outlier; the anomaly that begs for explanation. The best explanation that we have, I believe, is the phenomenon of Gemeinschaft – Gesellschaft which all civilizations seem to go through as they grow and mature.

-----

When half the tools of human social perception and cognition are not on a person’s radar; when a morality fails to employ those tools; that person, that morality, is literally dumbfounded in trying to understand them, their necessity, their benefits, and the consequences of failing to use them. It is beyond the capability of the partial morality to process those things. That morality, therefore, is left with no other choice, no other possible explanation, no other way to understand, the half of human nature which is beyond its grasp, but to ascribe to it some sort of personality disorder, or mental or moral dysfunction, like bigotry, racism, homophobia, blind self interest (i.e., greed), a lack of “care.” It is reduced to a position of "don't bother me with the facts, I've already made up my mind, and tactics of name calling (i.e., "creep") and ad hominem attacks (i.e., "bloviating," "condescending," etc.). It is left without any substance, standing only on blind rage, unable to back up its positions with facts, logic, common sense, reason, or generalized understanding of human history. It leads to the inevitable conclusion, on the part of the morality which employs only half the evolution-given tools of human social survival that IT is the morality which “gets it,” and the morality which sees ALL the colors of the human social spectrum is the one which doesn’t.

This is the nature, and the root cause, of the political divide. Take the time to study and understand human nature, and history, and you'll see that it's true. We’ve seen it on full display over the past couple of days right here in this thread.

And unles and until we, as a society, are able to lift the veil of partial blindess to fundamental human nature which aflicts so many, the divide is destined to continue to get wider.

to the OP...how do I feel?...well, 4 more years of stagnation is what we are facing at best. I will not expand my business and will save every penny I make.
That certainly is not good for the economy

When this country continues to vote our President on likeability, then .we will continue to struggle. Obama set forth no plan at all for the future yet was re-elected by the minorities, young, and single women.
Gore, Kerry, and now Romney met the same fate.. Men who are seen as a bit "stiff" and not as hip and cool as their opponent will lose. What does that say about our electorate? The vast majority do not vote on issues.
I find that pathetic.