Categories
Politics & government

[1508] Of expect Democrat but prefer Republican

From the Wall Street Journal (via):

When asked whom they expect to win the presidency, 63% of the economists in the survey picked a Democrat — with their choice split between Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, with 33% of the total, and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, with 30%. (The survey was conducted before Mrs. Clinton’s win in New Hampshire.) Republican Sen. John McCain was the pick of 30% of economists, with two other Republicans, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, each getting 3%.

However, when asked their personal preference, the economists favored Republicans. Sen. McCain led the field with 39% of the forecasters’ votes, compared with 11% for Mr. Giuliani and 7% for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Among Democrats, Sen. Obama edged Sen. Clinton, 14% to 11%, while former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards took 4%. [Odds of Recession Seen Rising. Wall Street Journal. January 11 2008]

I share the same sentiment and I have rationalized it earlier last year.

Categories
Kitchen sink

[1507] Of the meandering Gambia

The Gambia has an interesting political geography. How odd?

See it for yourself:

Public domain.

Too small? I cannot blame you. It is the smallest country in mainland Africa after all. Here, take another look:

Public domain.

Cool, eh?

Categories
Politics & government

[1506] Of those wierdos whom are NH Republicans

Ehem… WTF?

Exit polls found 64 percent of Tuesday’s Republican voters still support the conflict — and Romney, whose criticism of President Bush’s management of the war has been muted, outpolled McCain in that category.

But among the 34 percent who said they disapproved of the war, McCain had a wide advantage over the GOP field — even over Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the sole advocate of a U.S. withdrawal in the Republican field. [A ‘very personal victory’ for McCain in New Hampshire. CNN. January 9 2008]

The anti-war Republicans voted for a pro-war candidate?

I know, I know. Ron Paul has no chance in this world but anti-war Republicans for McCain? That is just out of this world. But yeah, yeah. I know. There are issues other than the war.

After the New Hampshire’s primaries, I think an Obama-Clinton, or a Clinton-Obama campaign is inevitable. Those combinations are most popular at the moment. That is, unless, of course, for some reason, Obama and Clinton hate each other enough that they would not work with each other. There is no doubt that there is still a long way to go but most polls for future races show first and second place for Clinton and Obama respectively or vice versa. Even a poll conducted over a month ago for South Carolina, the state which Edwards was a senator once, shows that Edwards is behind you know who.[1] It is another story for the Republicans though.

As I have said earlier, if I cannot have Paul, I will back Romney. Having Mankiw as an adviser is too cool a factor to resist!

Oh, Mankiw is an adviser to Romney, in case you did not know:

Mitt Romney gets advice from some of my favorite economists.

Update: Several readers have asked for more details about my involvement here.

I first met Governor Romney several years ago, but only briefly at that time. Recently, I have talked with him more substantively about a range of economic policy issues. I was impressed by his intellect, open-mindedness, and overall economic philosophy.

I was honored when he asked me to serve in a more formal advisory capacity. My role will be that of an outside adviser. My teaching at Harvard will continue to be my main responsibility and the focus of my attention, and the posts on this blog will reflect those priorities. [Advisers to Mitt. Greg Mankiw’s Blog. November 29 2006]

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

[1] — From the NYT:

Fair use. Copyrights by NYT.

[South Carolina’s Primaries. NYT. Extracted January 8 2008]

Categories
Society

[1505] Of in the name of religion, in the name of atheism, or not

Not too long ago, just after I finished Dawkins’ The God Delusion, I spotted a review of the book by Mr. Asohan in The Star. While I do think some of the points are valid — truly, atheism has no monopoly over goodness just as religion has no claim over goodness — I simply have problem letting the following pass without a comment:

They’ll just refuse to look at how religion can be a force for good. They will also ignore the acts of famous atheists like Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong, and the atrocities committed throughout the years by revolutionaries and rebels fighting against religious and other types of institutions. [The dogmatic atheist. A. Asohan. The Star. December 30 2007]

Dear sir, you are committing an awful mistake.

They were atheists but they did not commit the atrocities in the name atheism. As an example, if a Christian murdered somebody, he may not necessarily kill in the name of Christianity; he may murdered somebody in the name of nationalism and thus, has nothing to do with Christianity. Or, another example, a man may kill a woman but that does not mean he killed the woman in the name of male chauvinism; it may do so in the name of religion. That are the cases for Stalin and Mao. It is communism, not atheism. This is unlike religious people and institutions — be them dogmatic Christian churches in the past, modern Islamist terrorists, Hindutva, or any other religious extremists — that killed others explicitly in the name of religion.

The difference cannot be overemphasized and the causal relationship has to be clearly identified. The cause has to be explicit and not made up because it is convenient to do so. What you have done sir is merely appealing to guilt by association.

Categories
Sports

[1504] Of O-H-I-O

NEW ORLEANS — Once again, Ohio State was victimized by SEC speed.This time, though, it wasn’t so much a matter of how fast the LSU Tigers could run, but the speed in which they could go on a run.Having spotted the Buckeyes an early 10-point lead, LSU scored 24 points in a little more than 13 minutes and rarely slowed down en route to winning the BCS national championship with a 38-24 victory Monday night in the Louisiana Superdome. [LSU knocks off Ohio State to claim title. Rivals.com. January 7 2008]

This calls for a celebration.

What?

Big Ten brotherhood you say?

We Michigan disclaim OSU. We have no relationship with the people down south of us in whatsoever way apart from the fact that we hate them. We really, really, really hate them.

Heh. Kidding. There is a thread that links us with them; they are our retarded neighbor. Aww, poor neighbor. Allow me to shed some crocodile tears.