Spectacular Sememes

          Feeling enervated by the dearth of opulent prose in your prosaic routine, ensnared by the treadmill of drab vernacular?

          Me too.  Thus begins our quest to find the most swank words in the English language, entirely without foresight, substantiated background sources, a five year plan, any observation of any other lists that may exist, or caffeine (commitment to one of these stipulations is dubious).

Inspirational 2016 Election Poster

Perhaps this could be the campaign's new slogan in the final weeks approaching the election?

Reflection on Political Satire Experiment

A few months ago I wrote a satirical piece on Trump selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate.  What was meant to be a lighthearted bit about an impossibly irrational and doubtlessly entertaining duo quickly turned into a rather darker demonstration of the trust people place in anything that remotely resembles reputable "news" outlets, as well as the long reach of Poe's law on the internet.

Long story short: if you're not the Onion, you'd better issue a lot of disclaimers, because people find it difficult to believe that satire can be written elsewhere.

Questions regarding Immigration Policy

Here are a few questions and statements from a debate with a friend that I thought would be interesting to share, whether as questions, ammunition for other debates, or just fuel for thought:

I'll just put out a few questions then because I'm genuinely curious what you think: what does it matter if children are living here and their parents didn't go through the official regulatory processes?

If a family has been here for decades and settled down, has kids, the parents have jobs... what is the point of deporting them? Why go to the trouble and expense? Is that justice, or is it going out of your way to flex legal muscles and prove a point?

So a different question: what is the point of forcing immigrants through lengthy, expensive, convoluted immigration processes anyway? 

"Make America Great Again": How Four Words Say Virtually Everything About Trump's Campaign

          Kinda catchy, don't you think?  Certainly most people do, considering how often this phrase has turned up this year since the rise of Trump.  Considered as a meme (Richard Dawkins meme, not the internet kind) it has proven extremely successful, having stuck around for nearly 40 years since Reagan's campaign, and has found a new host in Trump's campaign.  It's fascinating to consider how appropriate this simple and enduring slogan has proven in describing this (thankfully) unique campaign.

Breaking News: Trump selects Sarah Palin as V.P. Candidate

          Amidst the firestorm of debate surrounding the potential V.P. picks by the remaining candidates, billionaire business mogul Donald J. Trump dropped a bombshell this Tuesday by announcing that he would be selecting former Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate for this coming November election.

          While only eight years ago, selecting Sarah Palin as V.P. spelled the end for otherwise reasonable candidate John McCain, it doesn't appear that this move, or indeed any other move made by Trump, has had any influence on his unwavering standing in the polls.

Motivation to save you from procrastination!

As a compulsive lifelong procrastinator myself, I often need a kick to remind myself to live in every moment and stop wasting time I'll soon regret having lost.  Just thought I'd share this quote, it's one that resonates strongly with me and perhaps with you as well.

Language Analysis of the 2016 Election

I'll take a nonpartisan stance and let the data speak for itself.  I think this is an excellent idea and can reveal some fundamental dynamics underlying the candidates' movements themselves.  

It would be interesting to be able to definitively discern between candidates speaking at a low level because they themselves think at that level, and candidates speaking at a low level to speak down to their supporters.  

As the intentions of the candidates aren't so easily determined, I think perhaps this is most revealing about the candidates' movements and their supporters.  Perhaps future studies could correlate this to the average education levels of each candidates supporters, it would certainly be worth a look.

The Political Spectrum as Spaceship Doodles

Now for something fresh in the musty world of politics, here's the (American) political spectrum represented in terms of spaceship doodles. 

A lighthearted representation of a serious analysis of the fundamental reasons that people tend to support one side or another politically.

[Note that the key term is "tend".  Perhaps you are a young urban conservative, or an old backwoods liberal.  That's fine, you're free to break the bounds of what is average or most common.  Of course, however, if we spend all our time analyzing the outliers, we will never find the common trends that unite people, and naturally we need some degree of generalization or we will never get anything done at all.]

The key theory here is that liberal and conservative politics, at least in modern America, represent a continuum based most predominantly on a spectrum ranging from fear to optimism.

This is not to say that one is right and the other is wrong; optimism drives us into the future with goals, while fear keeps us safe from being destroyed or destroying ourselves in the process.  I posit that a radical imbalance of either force is unhealthy to the development of any nation in the long term.

Discussion is always encouraged, bring your A game in the comments section below!

The Edicts of The Dictator Survey

A little research project I started - a very simple survey that asks you to rank a set of rules laid forth by a dictator in the order that you believe to be most ethical.

https://qtrial2016q1az1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1Mq30azxoM6Ha2V

Preliminary results from a small sample size - no peeking until after completing the survey, please!

5 Things Liberals Need To Stop Saying Now

Dear fellow liberals, Democrats, and progressives,

          No one's perfect.  But there are a few key phrases and concepts that pop up frequently that no one really has any good reason to use, and they make all of us look bad.  Let's take a look:

1) GMOs are bad/unhealthy/toxins/pseudoscience et cetera.

This is a pretty bad one from an objective standpoint.  GMO pseudoscience is to Democrats what climate change pseudoscience is to Republicans.

2016 Iowa Caucus Democratic Primary Stats

Here are the stats from the razor-close race in the Iowa caucus, the first meaningful test for the candidates in what is sure to be a historic election year!

Bernie Sanders Dank Meme 2016

Bernie Sanders 2016 Cover Photo