Intense debate about weighty issues like racism, abortion, and immigration... between animals in funny hats! This is the silly punditry of Scenario: Dog v. Cat: Round 1, round 2, round 3.
posted on May 28, 2008 - View this thread

History is a Weapon -- Featuring Propaganda by the inventor of modern PR, Edward Bernays, essays by Bill Clinton, Eugene Debs, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Mark Twain, the entirety of A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, and much, much more.
posted on May 26, 2008 - View this thread

Are Liberals and Conservatives Different Species? Get this: Everyone in our sample was an American, a teenager, and belonged to the same major religious tradition of Protestantism. In these respects they were culturally uniform. But some belonged to conservative denominations such as Pentecostal and others to liberal denominations such as Episcopalian. As Ingrid combed through the data, which involved tedious hours in front of the computer, the differences that began to emerge were astounding. It was as if these conservative and liberal religious youth were--different species. [via 3quarksdaily]
posted on Feb 29, 2008 - View this thread

From unprecedented chart-topping, to crossover appeal, to the bizarre image change and retirement from music, he was truly country's Michael Jackson. While many of us may not have cared for his music or paid much attention to his core audience, those of us who were inspired despite ourselves by the (previously posted) Will.i.am video might just find something in the surprisingly liberal prince of the red states.
posted on Feb 14, 2008 - View this thread

In an experiment reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at NYU and UCLA demonstrate that political orientation is related to basic differences in cognition - how the brain processes information. Psychological studies in the past found conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments while liberals are more "open to new experiences." The latest study finds these traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.
posted on Sep 11, 2007 - View this thread

My Right Wing Dad is a new-ish and rather informal blog that aims to provide "a chance for folks to examine the unrestrained rhetoric that is quietly passed from in-box to in-box in America," by hosting a collection of the emails that form an often untraceable and unacknowledged part of public discourse in the U.S., especially on the Right. Tagged by category (for example: God, college, flag, liberal, and World War II), the amateur archive presents a range of colorful opinion, not all of it strikingly accurate, and some of it offensive. In efforts to understand liberal and conservative habits of communication, it may be worth considering the role of forwarded email in the electoral process, and the reasons that the forwarding of email is popular among some people, and whether this behavior tends to correlate with particular political opinions. The emails hosted on MyRightWingDad may in any case be enlightening, unless you're already on the forward list of someone in the know.
posted on Aug 15, 2007 - View this thread

Tim Kreider's editorial cartoons have that sort of vulgarity, puerility, absurdity, topicality, pith, bile, and self-awareness that help me get through the unending despair of reading the news every day. (He also draws great faces.)
posted on Jul 17, 2007 - View this thread

The American Left's Silly Victim Complex
posted on Jun 14, 2007 - View this thread

Results of tonight's election in Quebec are in. The Quebec Liberal Party has managed just barely to hold onto power in that province, winning a minority government--the first time this has happened in la belle province since...well...since the year the phonograph was first patented. But there's an even bigger story. And that's the apparent collapse of the separatist Parti Québécois vote, in favour of the centre-right Action Démocratique Party, surprising just about everybody other than those who actually live in the province. Here's the breakdown in the vote as of 11:00PM:
Liberal (32.50%) - ADQ (31.19%) - PQ (28.48%). What these results mean for Canada's federal parliament---also in a minority situation---is anyone's guess at this point. The smart money is on Prime Minister Harper calling an early summer election. These results tonight would certainly give him reason to think that Quebec voters are in the mood for change. But like spring weather in these parts, things are quite changeable these days.
posted on Mar 26, 2007 - View this thread

Thanks to Peace Moonbeam's weblog, I now truly understand my liberal friends. And for those willing to reciprocate, Shelley the Republican is a similar blog from the opposite end of the spectrum.
posted on Aug 11, 2006 - View this thread

On December 3rd, 2006 Canada's next Prime Minister will be decided by a few thousand delegates at the Liberal party convention in Montreal (join for ~$10). Don't believe me? In the last 110 years of Liberal party history only one leader has failed to become Prime Minister. No fewer than sixteen candidates met in Edmonton last week. On the surface the candidates are making nice.

Ignatieff: "None of us, none of us are going to run against each other. All of us are running against Stephen Harper's vision of Canada."

It is even said that Bob Rae and Ignatieff are life long close friends. That didn't stop the Ignatieff campaign co-chair.

David Peterson: "[Rae's] got some terrible burdens to overcome. One is his record and one is his loyalty."

Emphasis mine, and <more inside>
posted on Apr 9, 2006 - View this thread

Michael Ignatieff, the candidate parachuted into Etobicoke by supporters who would see him as the next leader of the federal Liberal Party of Canada, has just given a speech outlining his vision for Canada, which is probably the forerunner to an official announcement about his candidacy. (Previously, on MeFi.) If he runs, he will be up against Martha Hall Findlay, John Godfrey, and Maurizio Bevilacqua who have all declared. Other contenders might well include Stéphane Dion, Joe Volpe, and hockey legend Ken Dryden. Finally, the race appears to be hotting up.
posted on Mar 30, 2006 - View this thread

Things we already knew: Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. ... A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity. The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests.
posted on Mar 22, 2006 - View this thread

On Evil: An Interview with Alain Badiou
posted on Mar 12, 2006 - View this thread

True Majority Weird+political+gadgets: The inventor of Hokey Spokes has teamed up with Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry's fame) to add a computerized EL-wire light display system to Ben's family of motorized pigs, which illustrate the relative size of the military, education, and world health/AIDS budgets. All is service of Ben's TrueMajority project. Pics here.
posted on Mar 1, 2006 - View this thread

Come Home, America: Pat Buchanan's magazine, The American Conservative, prints a passionate defense of George McGovern. (via)
posted on Jan 27, 2006 - View this thread

Why does the Supreme Court Make Justices More Liberal? Does it? If so, why, and why more liberal not more conservative?
posted on Jan 12, 2006 - View this thread

Conservative Blogs Rock! NEW YORK In an argument sure to be challenged in certain sectors of the blogosphere, a story in The New York Times magazine coming up this Sunday declares that conservative blogs continue to best liberal blogs in political and electoral influence.
posted on Dec 9, 2005 - View this thread

truthdig --drilling beneath the headlines. A new webmagazine, offering expert in-depth coverage of current affairs as well as a variety of thoughtful, provocative content assembled from a progressive point of view. The site is built around major “digs,” led by authorities in their fields, who will drill down into contemporary topics and assemble packages of content... Robert Scheer is editor in chief (you may know him from the SF Chronicle). The current featured "dig" is on religion and homosexuality.
posted on Dec 2, 2005 - View this thread

UK politician chooses his blog over his party: Paul Leake, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Durham, was asked by his local party to remove any "controversial" posts from his weblog and to give them the right to vet future posts. Denis Jackson, another Liberal Democrat on Durham City Council, said that the Labour councillors were using the blog to find "lurid headlines". Leake refused, and stepped down from the party. He'll now serve his constituents as an independent. [Via The Political Weblog Project]
posted on Sep 19, 2005 - View this thread

Hillary Clinton? The progressive side of the blogsphere is a twitter with news that 53% of the public would vote for Hillary. What do you think?
posted on May 28, 2005 - View this thread

The truth behind the spin? - three party political broadcasts (.wmv) made by Lee and Dan, the men behind the VW Suicide Bomber advert, and commissioned by the UK's Channel 4
posted on Apr 30, 2005 - View this thread

Britain's new opposition party?! Despite outraising and outspending all other parties, Britain's conservative Tory party is falling in the polls to P.M. Tony Blair's "New Labour" party. This collapse seems likely to increase; just days after conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch indicated his love of cheap labour, his paper "The Sun" is endorsing Blair. What isn't being pointed out, though, is that the Liberal Democrats are gaining former Labour voters just as fast as Labour is gaining conservative voters. A British public opinion site indicates that 43% of its visitors support LibDem policies, while the Guardian's unofficial "poll-u-like" shows 45% support for the LibDems, even though The Guardian has encouraged its readers to "hold their nose" and vote for Blair. Given that prior election polls in Britain have been off by as much as 19%, could there be a major shift here?
posted on Apr 21, 2005 - View this thread

Liberal Groupthink Is Anti-Intellectual is the catchy title of a thoughtful piece in the Chronicle Review, an offshoot of the Chronicle of Higher Education. While it may be an op/ed piece, it's interesting to hear Mark Bauerlein, an English Professor and Director at the NEA discussing the False Consensus effect and the Group Polarization Effect in the context of academia in America (and likely elsewhere). His wish? "An intellectual climate in which the worst tendencies of group psychology are neutralized."
posted on Nov 11, 2004 - View this thread

What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It? According to Philip E. Agre, previously discussed here and the guy behind the Red Rock Eater News Service, the answers to these questions are simple (if 13k+ words = simple).
posted on Aug 15, 2004 - View this thread

Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper? Of course it is. By Daniel Okrent, New York Times Ombudsman Public Editor. (reg. req'd)
posted on Jul 26, 2004 - View this thread

A bushy-tailed morning in the quest for truth : MemeTank and dKosopedia This morning, I wondered - where's the update to (the deceased) Steve Kangas' mighty liberal FAQ ? "Update?", thought I, "Well, this attempt ran out of steam" Then..."Ah, a Wiki !" Then, "well, isn't truth the point ?...shouldn't it be Bipartisan, or multipartisan ?" Daily Kos was just sniffing (May 28th) along that trail, it seemed....partway : "We hope the dKosopedia will become the progressive-political version of the Wikipedia, a political FAQ so to speak" Would the "Dkosopedia" benefit from a less partisan stance ?

But, the MemeTank rocks -with it's bestiary of Liberal/Progressive, Right Wing, and "other" memes and the (MemeTank's) "Meme Development Project....This section is for people who want to invent new memes and try to encourage professional journalists to start using them."
posted on Jun 6, 2004 - View this thread

Paul Martin, Canada's current Prime Minister, running for re-election for the Liberal party, suggests that voting for him will prevent us from being like the US in his latest television AD campaign (sorry, they only make a WiMP 9 version available). Will your country be next?
posted on May 26, 2004 - View this thread

Forget Fiction And Non-Fiction, Bud: Is The Book Liberal Or Conservative? The National Review's bestseller list (scroll down and click) is starkly divided into "Conservative Bestsellers" and "Liberal Bestsellers". Is this a quirky innovation and deliberate provocation or just plain stupid and sad? Does such a dichotomy in fact exist? How would the literature of the world fit into such a classification? (This isn't the end of the world as we know it, is it?)
posted on Apr 14, 2004 - View this thread

Today's the Day. Air America, the liberal talk radio network, goes live today with "The O' Franken Factor" at noon (first link is currently a splash page--the real site is here). Though the network is only available in a handful of markets, all the network's programming will be available online, and on XM.
posted on Mar 31, 2004 - View this thread

Is the American left regrowing its backbone? Kurtz: For hard-core libs who are angry about impeachment, Florida, the war, the budget deficit, the tax cuts, the "bring 'em on!" president, the Texas redistricting and the California recall, Dean and Franken, in different ways, provide a welcome sense of relief. Finally, someone out there who feels their pain! Politics as group therapy, maybe.
posted on Sep 4, 2003 - View this thread

Oh, I So Wish So-And-So Were On The Other Side! Just move over, dude! For conservatives, it's often the case that our allies are a damn sight worse than our worst so-called enemies. Here's a prime example, extremely rare in its totality: an embarrassing piece by an embarrassing neo-con, John Laughland, about an even more embarrassing neo-con, Michael Ledeen, in a totally embarrassing magazine, American Conservative. Do liberals and lefties have it any easier? Who are the Center's and the Left's most difficult-to-explain compagnons de route dudes? Quite honestly - and although they're certainly not immune to the exquisite unease of political companionship - I enviously fear that they do.
posted on Jul 5, 2003 - View this thread

A group of rich Democrats plans a full daily slate of liberal-oriented radio programming. The first major figure they're courting to do a show: Al Franken, who wrote a satirical book about a certain right-wing radio host a few years ago. Want to hear smart, funny, liberal radio right now? Tune into Harry Shearer's Le Show, available royalty-free to any station that will broadcast it, or online via RealAudio.
posted on Feb 16, 2003 - View this thread

Virtual Journalist, experience the challenges of working in the liberal media. Fun but the politics are a bit heavy handed. [flash required]
posted on Jan 22, 2003 - View this thread

A Liberal Argument for Iraqi Regime Change from Salman Rushdie Such a pleasure to read a well-written op-ed piece for a change.
posted on Nov 1, 2002 - View this thread

"Cops of the World": remembering Phil Ochs -------------------------------------------- Ochs lyrics: “We're hairy and horny and ready to shack. We don't care if you're yellow or black. Just take off your clothes and lie down on your back.'Cause we're the Cops of the World, boys. We're the Cops of the World.”------------ LISTEN to his songs (realplayer/quicktime) Amidst the unilateralist talk of invading Iraq, and the (mostly media ignored) “biggest anti-war protests since the Vietnam War” [quote-Wash.Post,Oct. 27] last saturday, I thought of Phil Ochs......some of his songs [see Ochs lyrics index] haven't aged well, but some are still as searingly acidic as the day he wrote them, as above or in ”Love me, I’m a liberal”:“Once I was young and impulsive, I wore every conceivable pin...But I've grown older and wiser, and that's why I'm turning you in. So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal.” ------- Phil Ochs ------- (born 1940, suicide 1976)
posted on Oct 29, 2002 - View this thread

Politics are allowed in politics, but there are limits, and there is a pale, and Metafilter has managed to deceive those limits, and sensationalize beyond that pale. What makes this quote funny? It's automatically generated by this site, which can add your name or website to any accusation of liberal bias you'd ever want. This will save so many people so much time.
posted on Oct 14, 2002 - View this thread

I will not forget the liberal media who abused freedom of the press to kick our country when it was vulnerable and hurting. This is just one of the lines of text in a recent email forwarding. The piece is attributed to one Ed Evans, MGySgt., USMC (Ret.). Google turns up page after page of the exact same text. It's being plastered all over the internet, repeated hundreds of times by hundreds of people. By what means does something like this become so ubiquitous? If a person wanted to create this sort of buzz, how would they do it? How do you combat such a tidal wave of jingoistic hooey?
posted on Sep 18, 2002 - View this thread

"Whatever else is going on, the liberal-left alliance has taken as big a hit as the conservative-fundamentalist alliance after the blame-America remarks of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson ... It may be [...] that the far left's bluff has been finally called ... For the first time in a very long while, many liberals are reassessing--quietly for the most part--their alliance with the anti-American, anticapitalist forces they have long appeased, ignored or supported." Andrew Sullivan in Thursday's Opinion Journal. Strong piece, but is he correct? I've seen a few people reassessing here and there, but not a lot, at least not yet.
posted on Oct 3, 2001 - View this thread

Metafilter seems to slant liberal and other favoritisms: BushII's been in office for six months. Occurences of "Dubya" come up 538 times in a Google sitesearch of Metafilter. The word, Clinton: 823--despite his several more years in office since Mefi's inception. "Bush"=1580. "Bush" and "idiot" come up about 1/3 that of simple search for "Clinton". 91 times does "Clinton + idiot" come up, some of which seeming to berate Gore. Mr. Nader, ahem. . .about 618 hits! What other lexigraphic mixtures of keywords can you get the skinny on?
posted on Jul 11, 2001 - View this thread

New Democrats or Old? On one hand you have the New Democrats (Clinton, Gore), who's agendas are more centrist (some would say right leaning) but have had victories (Clinton being elected twice). On the other hand, the more liberal wings seem to say that it's better to stand on principle and convince the populace to come over to your side.
posted on Jun 27, 2001 - View this thread

The Age of Embarrassment "Bush’s cabinet choices are an assortment of right-wing ideologues, fat cats, has-beens, wannabees, and plain ol’ opportunists. There’s not a visionary in the bunch." Truth? Or liberal hysteria?
posted on Jan 4, 2001 - View this thread