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Meaningless Update

Nothing political or otherwise life-impacting to report, but I saw this over on Elissa Carey’s Livejournal, so I figured “what the hell.”

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 23.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

“Dee was probably retained to work as a tutor for William’s sons.” —The Queen’s Conjurer: the science and magic of Dr. John Dee, Adviser to Queen Elizabeth I, by Benjamin Woolley.

A meaningless bit of web-fluff, or a tantalizing hint at my latest project? You decide!

GMS

The New Segregation

Interesting news snippet in Salon today, taken from the from the Austin American-Statesman newspaper, which shows that while the Red-Blue dichotomy is true on the national level, locally, most Americans don’t live near people who are politically different from them.

“… There is little competition in presidential contests between the parties in most U.S. counties, according to an Austin American-Statesman study of election returns since 1948. American democracy is based on the continuous exchange of differing points of view. Today, most Americans live in communities that are becoming more politically homogenous and, in effect, diminish dissenting views. And that grouping of like-minded people is feeding the nation’s increasingly rancorous and partisan politics.”

“By the end of the dead-even 2000 presidential election, American communities were more lopsidedly Republican or Democratic than at any time in the past half-century. The fastest-growing kind of segregation in the United States isn’t racial. It is the segregation between Republicans and Democrats.”

Speaking as a resident in one of the two “blue” counties in the overwhelmingly “red” state of Kansas, this appears to be at least anecdotally true…and the point made about homogenous communities leading to a lack of discourse is troubling.

GMS

Worse Than Watergate

From an interview in today’s Salon.com with Nixon White House counsel John Dean:

As Richard Nixon’s White House counsel during the Watergate scandal, John Dean famously warned his boss that there was “a cancer on the presidency” that would bring down the administration unless Nixon came clean. In his new book, “Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush,” Dean warns the country that the Bush administration is even more secretive and authoritarian than Nixon’s — in fact, he writes, it’s “the most secretive presidency of my lifetime.”

“To say that the [Bush-Cheney] secret presidency is undemocratic is an understatement,” he adds. “I’m anything but skittish about government, but I must say this administration is truly scary and, given the times we live in, frighteningly dangerous.”

…obviously, this is because the former White House counsel is a Liberal with an axe to grind and is just trying to help the Democrats.

Or something.

Another great tidbit, about Bush advisor Karl Rove:

…the first time I heard the name Karl Rove was when I was asked if I knew anything about him by one of the Watergate special prosecutors who was investigating campaign dirty tricks. I didn’t have any knowledge. But I recalled that question when working on this book, and located a memorandum in the files of the Watergate prosecutor’s office that indicates they were asking others as well about Rove. Based on my review of the files, it appears the Watergate prosecutors were interested in Rove’s activities in 1972, but because they had bigger fish to fry they did not aggressively investigate him.

Wake up, America. Please.

GMS