Supreme Court v. Montana

by liberal japonicus While there is no intention to turn this into a legal blog, questions of law are particularly ripe fruit for blog discussion because of the way they both channel and expand the discussion. Channel by giving some definitive context and expand by letting folks point out how these things can impact a … Read more

Delaware should be the first state

by Doctor Science

Delaware license plates boast that DE is “The First State”, the first to ratify the Constitution.

DelawareLicensePlate

But that’s not what I’m talking about. I think Delaware should be the first state on the Presidential primary calendar.

Juan Cole posted about the Iowa Caucuses as the Conservative White People’s Primary, because the population of Iowa is so much whiter than the national average. He is not the first to point out that Iowa (and New Hampshire) are not necessarily the best choices for lead-off Presidential Primaries, because they’re so demographically unlike most of the country.

So I started to wonder, what state(s) *would* be good choices? I collected data and analyzed it; you can follow along in the Googledocs spreadsheet I created. I tried to do it in Tableau, but I ended up in a maze of twisty passageways and eventually gave up. If any of you can show me how to use Tableau, please chime in.

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The Stephen Lawrence trial

by liberal japonicus For the new year, going to try for a midweek post about some recent news that I hope will give folks something to talk about. As with all new year resolutions, I don't hold out much hope, but here goes. The recent UK conviction of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the murder of … Read more

Tab Dump: Iowa Caucuses

by Doctor Science I am surrounded by incomplete posts, too many open tabs, and a couple of work projects, so I give you: tab dump! The Genuinely Difficult Cases — Hillary Bok, writing about the Institute of Medicine Report saying that chimpanzees should not be used for research except under exceptional circumstances. Guys Aren’t Always … Read more