Fear itself

"Fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough measures and hard-line postures. ... They may accept and even welcome repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities."

Quoted by Molly Ivins, from an obituary for George Gerbner, former head of the Annenberg School for Communication

Figures.

Apparently the Republican idea of campaign-finance reform is to make it harder to fund 527 groups. Because, y'know, moveon.org is the real heart of the ethics problem.

(Via Talking Points Memo.)


Remember all those alarmist pieces about voting machines? Well, they may have been right.

The error caused Tarrant County to report as many as 100,000 votes in both primaries that never were cast, dropping the local turnout from a possible record high of about 158,103 voters to about 58,000.

Because the errors added votes equally for each candidate, the glitch did not change the outcome of Tarrant County races but narrowed the margin of victory in some statewide races.

And in other news, the inventor of the cubicle apologizes. (Interesting. I didn't know that a Herman Miller employee invented them. We have the modular HM furniture in our office, although we don't have cubicles, thank goodness.)

Naming my nonexistent baby

Ya know, I'm 45 years old and have never had a baby. I'm pretty sure that I will never have a baby. (Although saying that immediately makes me worry about birth-control failures. Eek!) But for some reason, I still pay way too much attention to baby names. I guess it's one of those girl things.

And who knew my taste in names was so trendy? Except for the top choice, Ava, which I'm not too crazy about, I like all of the "rising" names. (Well, except maybe Cadence. Eh. And while I like Madison, it may be a little too trendy for my taste, which may be why it manages to be in both the Rising and the Falling list at the same time.) I said not long ago that Violet was probably my current favorite girl's name, and there it is at #2. I have always liked the "old-fashioned" names, and that's what most of that list is - Emma, Olivia, Sophia. The names that nobody would have dreamed of giving their children when I was a kid. (As I said, I'm 45. Every other girl in my class was named Cindy.) By contrast, most of the Falling list are names I'm not terribly fond of. Allison? Meh. Melissa? Yawn. (Although obviously I like the short version!)

Oh, and this whole alternate spelling things has got to go. I mean, Aidan-Aiden, okay, but this one?

Caden-Cadin-Caeden-Kaden-Kaeden-Kaiden

Shudder.

Google-bomb!

The ladies over at Smart Bitches have invented a new verb: Napolied.

Religion and politics

This article is the most encouraging political news I've seen in ages. I didn't think the Democrats could pull off a comeback - well, not that I thought it was impossible, really, I just hadn't seen any real evidence that they were working in the right direction. But this? Might just be the right direction.

Even though I'm not a religious person, I have no problem with the Democrats actively working to shed the anti-religion label. It was always pure baloney, anyway, and as long as they're not selling out to do it, I think it's great. I also have no problem with the specific things they mention - the Bible is legitimately literature, I don't mind it being taught that way in the least, and I think shifting the abortion debate to preventing unwanted pregnancies in the first place is an absolutely wonderful idea. I mean, there's a reason we call ourselves "pro-choice" instead of pro-abortion, right? Because nobody is really pro-abortion. Even if you don't think it's murder, it's still not a pretty thing, to say the very least. In a perfect world, abortions would not be necessary, so why not work towards that?


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And to shift gears completely, there's this:
10 Strangest Lego Creations