tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50398436978686120602023-11-15T08:20:16.507-08:00Commonplace BookFrederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-4272007600159706032012-01-02T15:38:00.001-08:002012-01-02T15:38:30.563-08:00<br />
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Totalitarianism extends a promise of plenitude, of a
harmonious life and of happiness. While it is true that the promise is not
kept, it remains nevertheless, and we can always tell ourselves that next time
it will be fulfilled and we will be saved. Liberal democracy does not extend
the same sort of promise; it is only committed to allowing everyone to seek
their own measure of happiness, harmony, and plenitude. In the best of
circumstances, it insures the contentment of its citizens, their participation in
the direction of public life, and justice in their relations with one another
and with the State; it in no way promises salvation. Autonomy corresponds to
the right to search for oneself, not to the certainty of finding. (Todorov, Tzevetan,
“Totalitarianism: Between Religion and Science” in <i>The Great Lie: Classic and Recent Appraisals of Ideology and Totalitarianism</i>
ed. F. Flagg Taylor IV, (Wilmington, Del.; ISI Books, 2011) pg. 602.)<o:p></o:p></div>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-74569422002321797162011-08-27T13:20:00.000-07:002011-08-27T13:22:10.881-07:00Why I love AristophanesI was reading Timothy Sandefur's blog <a href="http://sandefur.typepad.com/freespace/">Freepace</a> and his post <a href="http://sandefur.typepad.com/freespace/2011/08/sam-harris-anti-reason.html#more">Sam Harris, anti-reason</a> where his discusses some of Harris's fundamental misunderstandings of economics, and I came across this paragraph:<br />
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<blockquote>Is a person’s beauty morally unjustified because she didn’t earn it? Is it just only insofar as men get to lust after her? Or have intercourse with her? Certainly they would gain value from this. What right does she have to hoard her body to herself? If the answer to this is that she owns her body and that principles of dignity entitle her to herself and guarantee a presumption of liberty around her—in other words, that she has a moral right to herself which nobody may infringe so long as she respects the same right in others—then why is wealth not analogous to this? The mere fact that I would enjoy consuming a value belonging to you is not sufficient to justify taking that value from you. In short, a person is “allowed” whatever belongs to him or her so long as he or she has harmed no person with it or to acquire it.</blockquote><br />
I immediately thought of Aristophanes and how all red-blooded males think of this problem working in the way that Sandefur describes, but that it would really be <a href="http://bacchicstage.wordpress.com/aristophanes/women-in-parliament-2/">much, much worse<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=commonp-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0553213431&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe></a>.Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-10981532931899945392011-04-04T15:13:00.000-07:002011-04-04T15:13:41.812-07:00James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 17 October 1788<blockquote>...the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the Constituents.</blockquote><br />
<a href="http://www.constitution.org/jm/17881017_bor.htm">James Madison, Letter, 17 October 1788</a>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-75311854694619762112011-03-20T11:50:00.000-07:002011-03-20T11:50:04.986-07:00Novus Ordo Seclorum<blockquote>...before the American founding, democracy was mostly a term of opprobrium; since America, even the most undemocratic systems must attempt to present themselves as democracies--the compliment vice pays to virtue, certainly, but more significantly, an indication of how political virtue has come to be redefined (Zuckert, Michael P. <i>The Natural Rights Republic</i> (Notre Dame, Indiana; University of Notre Dame Press, 1997), pp. 3-4).</blockquote><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=commonp-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0268014876&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align:left;padding-top:5px;width:131px;height:245px;padding-right:10px;"align="left" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-6889988365968962272011-02-09T15:14:00.000-08:002011-02-09T15:14:07.396-08:00On the Duty of Man and Citizen<blockquote>One's obligation to the young is such that no work undertaken for their benefit should be thought to be below anyone's dignity even if it gives no opportunity for brilliant or profound thought (Pufendorf, Samuel, <i>On the Duty of Man and Citizen</i> (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pg. 6).</blockquote><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=commonp-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0521359805&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align:left;padding-top:5px;width:131px;height:245px;padding-right:10px;"align="left" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-68990380900419977672011-01-17T12:20:00.001-08:002011-01-17T12:22:51.346-08:00Edgley Park, Stockport<div style="float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/campdave/2155827364/" title="photo sharing"><img alt="" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2387/2155827364_a2450efc2a_m.jpg" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/campdave/2155827364/">Edgley Park, Stockport</a><br />
Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/campdave/">campdavemorecambe</a></span></div><br clear="all" />Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-32754962010498249052011-01-17T11:51:00.000-08:002011-01-17T12:15:50.061-08:00Ideological Blinders<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Against whom is the following <a href="http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/01/who-taught-you-how-to-mourn/comment-page-1#comment-87423">comment </a>directed?</span><br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It’s not intelligence, exactly, that’s the issue. I think it’s the lack of a moral compass or sense of guilt which allows them to use any and all means, including outright falsehoods, against their percieved [sic] enemies, and allows them to hypocritically do the same things their percieved enemies did (or vice versa, to accuse their opponents of wrongdoing for things which they themselves did). It’s a sheer instrumentality in which there is nothing but tactics.</span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">They don’t even have an internalized sense of shame anymore, though they can still, at times, be shamed into some restraint if the right leverage is applied.</span></blockquote>I've seen any number of examples just like it, on blogs representing all manner of ideological persuasions. Sadly it's deeply paranoid and there's little chance that you could get ever get its author to give up the point, just as you would have little chance of moving his opposite number.Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-41056250524362044832011-01-17T11:27:00.001-08:002011-01-17T11:28:15.051-08:0066/365 The one man who made us Equal<div style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;"><br />
<span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariawantsherface/4285079529/">66/365 The one man who made us Equal</a></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;">Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/mariawantsherface/">▲Maria</a></span></div></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariawantsherface/4285079529/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;" title="photo sharing"><img alt="" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2637/4285079529_9def2130f4_m.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 2px; border-top-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 2px;" /></a>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-33544648355010288362011-01-17T11:20:00.000-08:002011-01-17T11:21:13.895-08:00Operation Mincemeat<blockquote>You are a British Intelligence officer; you have an opposite number in the enemy Intelligence... What you, a Briton with a British background, think can be deduced from a document does not matter. It is what your opposite number, with his German knowledge and background, will think that matters--what construction he will put on the document... In other words, you must remember that a German does not think and react as an Englishman does, and you must put yourself in his mind (Montagu, Ewen. The Man Who Never Was (Oxford; Oxford University Press, 1996) pp. 39-40).</blockquote><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=commonp-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1557504482&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-31489893636733676142011-01-05T16:10:00.001-08:002011-01-05T16:11:22.675-08:00Everyone drinks tea<div style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/4511722157/">Everyone drinks tea</a></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span></div></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/4511722157/" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;" title="photo sharing"><img alt="" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4069/4511722157_cb77481de9_m.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 2px; border-top-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 2px;" /></a>This is my brand of choice.Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-72214098308527870352011-01-02T15:27:00.000-08:002011-01-02T15:27:41.891-08:00This is Huge in GermanySee "<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2133551/">The Mystery of Dinner for One</a>" by Jude Stewart at Slate.<div><br />
</div><div><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=8908622153579785434&hl=en&fs=true" style="height: 326px; width: 400px;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed> </div>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-21522610527031861092010-12-27T10:48:00.001-08:002010-12-27T10:48:35.231-08:00View from Ronald Reagan Memorial Library<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5041/5296876111_c1d16a6f16_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5041/5296876111_c1d16a6f16_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-32907480101576968842010-12-21T16:21:00.000-08:002010-12-21T16:21:30.804-08:00So Long To Ya, 2010 | The JibJab 2010 Year in Review!<iframe width="480" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CCuoLd0K4lY?fs=1" frameborder="0"></iframe>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-90619521259007011092010-12-20T15:11:00.000-08:002010-12-20T15:11:20.183-08:00<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/13025313@N00/5159084595/" title="Bellsdale Park, Beith by poity_uk, on Flickr"><img alt="Bellsdale Park, Beith" height="768" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1437/5159084595_c73d766091_b.jpg" width="1024" /></a>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-81469889046063754312010-12-20T15:00:00.001-08:002010-12-20T15:03:06.543-08:00Arsenal Tariff<div style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;"><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squadronleaderhayes/5195874033/" title="Stockport County V Torquay United, Edgeley Park, Stockport by Squadron Leader Hayes, on Flickr"><img alt="Stockport County V Torquay United, Edgeley Park, Stockport" height="336" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5082/5195874033_8e9df53ffe.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squadronleaderhayes/5196474780/" title="Stockport County V Torquay United, Edgeley Park, Stockport by Squadron Leader Hayes, on Flickr"><img alt="Stockport County V Torquay United, Edgeley Park, Stockport" height="336" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/5196474780_c6bc09788b.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squadronleaderhayes/5196475064/" title="Stockport County V Torquay United, Edgeley Park, Stockport by Squadron Leader Hayes, on Flickr"><img alt="Stockport County V Torquay United, Edgeley Park, Stockport" height="336" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/5196475064_7a989669c8.jpg" width="500" /></a>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-71546940305947749832010-12-18T22:12:00.000-08:002010-12-18T22:12:11.026-08:00Cross-examining according to Rumpole<blockquote>"Cross-examining," I explained to Edmund, "is not the art of examining crossly. I was polite to Mr X. I treated him like a friend. I led him gently by the hand up the garden path and dropped him in the compost heap. I'm sorry you missed it."</blockquote>-Mortimer, John. "Rumpole and the Boy" in <i>A Rumpole Christmas</i> (New York: Viking, 2009), 63<br />
<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=commonp-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0670021350&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-48502718338176567652010-12-12T21:13:00.000-08:002010-12-12T21:15:07.411-08:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I have my enthusiasms. Right now it's Orwell. Here's the essay <a href="http://georgeorwellnovels.com/essays/bookshop-memories/">Bookshop Memories</a> at the blog <a href="http://georgeorwellnovels.com/">George Orwell Novels</a>. Orwell writes,</span><br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In a town like London there are always plenty of not quite certifiable lunatics walking the streets, and they tend to gravitate towards bookshops, because a bookshop is one of the few places where you can hang about for a long time without spending any money. </span></blockquote>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-25657749448071491282010-11-22T09:01:00.000-08:002010-11-22T09:01:46.194-08:00On the home front, gasoline, food, and other commodities were rationed. The east and west coasts were blacked out at night. The ages for drafting men were lowered to eighteen and raised to forty-five, and the physical standards were steadily diminished; towards the end of the war, it was said half in jest, that the only requirements for draftees were that they be able to see lightning and hear thunder. Over fourteen million American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines were under arms (Rhenquist, William H. <i>All The Laws But One: Civil Liberties in Wartime</i> (New York; Vintage Books, 2000), pg. 188)<br />
<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=commonp-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0679767320&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-39003622588132433052010-11-17T09:35:00.000-08:002010-11-17T09:37:44.223-08:00Mr. David Dudley Field, on behalf of Lamdin P. Milligan, argues, regarding the prerogative power of the president, that:<br />
<blockquote>The oath of office cannot be considered as a grant of power. Its effect is merely to superadd a religious sanction to what would otherwise be his official duty, and to bind his conscience against any attempt to usurp power or overthrow the Constitution (<a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=71&invol=2">Ex parte <i>Milligan</i>, 71 U.S. 2 (1866)</a>).</blockquote>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-49284092336875700752010-11-08T16:43:00.000-08:002010-11-08T16:43:49.091-08:00Civil Disobedience<blockquote>There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man.</blockquote>-Thoreau, Henry David. <i>Walden and Civil Disobedience</i> <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=commonp-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company Riverside Editions, 1960), pg. 240.<br />
<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=commonp-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1451520360&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-77979737144226870292010-10-31T10:31:00.000-07:002010-10-31T10:43:16.246-07:00"Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity, and Humanity"Please read "<a href="http://www.theamericanscholar.org/writing-english-as-a-second-language/">Writing English as a Second Language</a>" by William Zinsser at AmericanScholar.org.<br />
<br />
Zinsser writes,<br />
<blockquote>So what is good English—the language we’re here today to wrestle with? It’s not as musical as Spanish, or Italian, or French, or as ornamental as Arabic, or as vibrant as some of your native languages. But I’m hopelessly in love with English because it’s plain and it’s strong. It has a huge vocabulary of words that have precise shades of meaning; there’s no subject, however technical or complex, that can’t be made clear to any reader in good English—if it’s used right. Unfortunately, there are many ways of using it wrong. Those are the damaging habits I want to warn you about today.</blockquote>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-54261131047675070902010-09-26T15:43:00.000-07:002010-09-26T15:47:59.784-07:00<blockquote>In another national survey (Internet) just after the election itself, Sniderman and Stiglitz (2008) thoroughly explore racial prejudice and 2008 vote choice. They find that American voters do not hesitate “to make frankly derogatory comments about blacks.” For example, about one out of five whites surveyed described “most blacks” as “violent”; essentially the same fraction also described them as “boastful”; almost one out of three said they were “complaining.” Overall, the investigators ranked 10% of respondents as high scorers on a prejudice index (built from five items). Among Republicans, variation in this prejudice index does not significantly relate to declared votes for Obama. However, among Democrats, the effect is significant and strong; for those in the bottom third on the prejudice index, 95% voted Obama; but for those in the top third the percent drops to 62, for a difference of minus 33 points. This large defection appears partially offset by voters who view blacks with “esteem.” Considering those in the bottom third on this esteem index, 77% voted Obama; but for those in the top third the percentage rises to 96, for a difference of +19 points. (Relatedly, Craemer et al. [2009] report that some white voters may have come to a psychological closeness to Obama, enabling them to vote for him.)</blockquote><blockquote>Using these above differences, as reported in Sniderman and Stiglitz (2008), we go on to take the positive esteem number (+19) from the negative prejudice number (−33), implying a 14-point loss among Democrats. While that calculation suggests to us a substantial racial cost, translation of that number into a precise vote estimate remains uncertain, and the authors themselves do not offer any such calculation. However, that task is carried out by Aistrup, Kisangani, and Piri (2009) in their analysis of a pre-convention survey from the South. In a logistic regression model, with the dependent variable vote intention for McCain or Obama, and under extensive controls (e.g., ideology, party identification, SES), they find racial resentment has a strong impact. For example, among Democrats, when the race resentment index shifts upward one standard deviation, the probability of a McCain vote increases from about 40% to 58%. Unfortunately for our purposes, this survey confines itself to one part of the country.</blockquote>-Lewis-Beck, Michael S, Charles Tien, and Richard Nadeau. "Obama's Missed Landslide: A Racial Cost?" in <i><a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=PSC">PS: Political Science and Politics</a>, </i>Vol. 43. No. 1 (published online January 15, 2010).Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-11148727266964957972010-09-21T19:48:00.000-07:002010-09-21T19:48:42.957-07:00<blockquote>Having had the filibuster wielded against them so effectively in the 103rd Congress, Democrats, now in the minority, made full use of their prerogatives under Senate rules; major legislation frequently encountered extended debate-related problems. The minority Democrats because increasingly adept at using extended debate and the Senate’s loose amending rules in combination to get their issues onto the Senate agenda. By threatening or actually offering their bills as often non-germane amendments to whatever legislation the majority leader brought to the floor and using extended debate to block a quick end to debate, Democrats forced Republicans to consider a number of issues they would rather have avoided–most prominently the minimum wage, tobacco taxes, campaign finance reform, and managed care (Sinclair, Unorthodox Lawmaking, 107)</blockquote>Sinclair, Barbara. <i>Unorthodox Lawmaking: New Legislative Processes in the U.S. Congress</i> (CQ Press: Washington, D.C.), 2000. <iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=commonp-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0872893065&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5039843697868612060.post-21292949252572127602010-09-20T16:12:00.000-07:002010-09-20T16:12:56.934-07:00Manual LaborI am not a manual labourer and please God I never shall be one, but there are some kinds of manual work that I could do if I had to. At a pitch I could be a tolerable road-sweeper or an inefficient gardener or even a tenth rate farm hand. But by no conceivable amount of effort or <iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=commonp-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1409211509&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>training could I become a coal-minter; the work would kill me in a few weeks (Orwell, <i>The Road to Wigan Pier</i>, 32-33).Frederick M. Hemker IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539711735912916082noreply@blogger.com0