Words for a Sunday Evening

Abide with us, Lord, for it is toward the evening and day is far spent: abide with us, and with your whole church. Abide with us in the evening of the day, in the evening of life, in the evening of the world. Abide with us in your grace and mercy, in you holy word and Sacrament, in your comfort and your blessing. Abide with us in the night of distress and fear, in the night of doubt and temptation, in the night of bitter death, when these shall overtake us. Abide with us and all your faithful ones, O Lord, in time and in eternity.

From Rhythm of Life: A Celtic Prayer Book by David Adams

Your Video of the Day

We are going crazy here at Redhead in Rapid. Here is another video, telling you how to make a 90 second news story.


Awesomesauce (particularly if you've ever watched the bbc)

Parties and the American Political Process

One of my favorite political commentators (not policy commentators, those are two different things) is Jay Cost of realclearpolitics.com. His use of analysis combining historical understanding with the modern day situation is outstanding. From his latest post:

At its essential level, a political party is an extra-governmental conspiracy to control the government. Our constitutional system disperses power across three branches, two chambers of Congress, and federal, state, and local levels. The parties are centralizing forces, trying to unite all governmental power under the party banner. They accomplish this task when conspiring officials across the government coordinate their activities with others whose views are similar. 

To be successful, a conspiracy requires a shared belief among the conspirators that their interests are linked - something to the effect of, "Whatever happens, we sink or swim together." This is really the only glue that binds a political party together. American party structures are very weak; partisans participate in the "conspiracy" only if they believe it will help them in the long run.

He goes on to argue that Dems have nearly reached the tipping point--where political calculation will drive the party apart, limiting the leadership's ability to get anything substantial passed. Excellent analysis.

The Failure of Post 9/11 Interrogation

I am not a Bush hater or baiter. I don't ascribe magical evil powers to him and his underlings. That said, his administration was extremely disappointing in how it handled interrogations and intelligence. The push to get information from suspects led to gross miscarriages of justice. But more than that, the waterboarding and other measures were ineffective and hurt our nation's ability to fight the Global War on Terror. First, we lost the moral authority to act; and, second, we hurt our ability to gather good intelligence from the bad guys. Rumsfeld and Cheney failed us. And now it is harder for our intelligence officers to do their job.

Only on the Internet

Much ink has been spilled about the changes wrought with the coming of the internet. Much smarter people have given much better insight about these dramatic shifts. But let me throw my proverbial hat in the ring.

When you turn on the television you can see sights from around the world. Dig through imaginations on Sci-Fi channel or head to the markets of India on the Travel Channel. You can rent dvds about anything. But it is only on the internet where you can get the latest update on the developments of the People's Liberation Army Navy (China's Navy). Like any old intelligence analyst you can break down the meaning of new mast on a new ship, discuss capabilities, and give your opinion on how the USA should respond. Really amazing.

Your Video of the Day

For all economic freaks:

Gut Punch

The Vikings lost in the most horrible way possible. Fumbles, interceptions, and some lame calls. Still hurts.

Conference Championship Picks

The Vikes survived and thrived last week. But we got another one. I'm picking the Vikings in a close win, but I wouldn't be surprised if they won by 30 or lost by 30. We'll see what team shows up.

Vikings 31 ;  Saints 27

Colts 20 ;  Jets 13

GO VIKES!

Reason #17 that I'm Getting Old

When you read this blog, please be aware of the time it was posted. Then subtract an hour. Then remember that the 24th is Sunday. And then you'll say to yourself, man, unless Redhead in Rapid has kids (which he doesn't) he must be old, cause who is going to get up so freaking early.

Fortunately, the internet exists to confirm my bias and make me feel good about myself. To that end:
Early risers are more proactive than evening people:

Yes, according to Christoph Randler who surveyed 367 student participants and found a correlation between their self-reported 'morningness' (as revealed by their answers to questions about how easy they find it to get up in the morning and how alert they feel) and their self-reported proactivity (measured by their agreement with statements like 'I spend time identifying long-range goals for myself' and 'I feel responsible for my own life'). The correlation was relatively weak (.44, where 1 would be a perfect match) but was statistically significant. 

Yay! Statistically significant!

Money Money Machine...

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court expanded "corporate personhood" and allowed unlimited spending on political campaigns (but not for politicians). Like most change in politics, this news brought lots of hyperventilating...it's the end of the world and Exxon is going to buy all politicians from here to Timbuktu. I'm not so sure. As highlighted in Marginal Revolution, from a paper by Stephen Ansolabehere, John de Figueireido, and James Snyder.

Finally, we illustrate that when one controls for unobserved constituent and legislator effects, there is little relationship between money and legislator votes. Thus, the question is not why there is so little money politics, but rather why organized interests give at all. 

Now there are some problems with this paper because it only accounts for direct campaign contributions (from individuals, PACs, etc...) and doesn't address 507 spending. Nevertheless, the study holds true with my experience of politics. At the end of the day we still have one vote for one person. The hyperventilaters assume that people are idiots. I don't think they are idiots and I don't think this is the end of the world.