Tag Archives: unitedstates

Music Monday – “Some other way/There’s got to be another/Some other way/There’s got to be another/Some other way”

The song, “Vote” by the Submarines, details a real-life break-up that happened between the duo who lead the band, just before Super Tuesday during the 2008 US Election. Except for the fact that the last line is “We all know, our system’s broken, And I, I’ll never vote again“, I thought it would be appropriate […]

Books That Are Most Representative of Various Countries?

AskMF has a great list of novels that capture the essence of various countries around the world.  (Unfortunately, why do I suspect that even with the wider selection offered by our province-wide SILS consortium, many of these won’t be available anywhere in Saskatchewan?)

What Are the Main Factors In Being Elected?

With a federal election underway and a provincial election coming up later this year, I’ve been thinking about “what are the main factors involved in getting a candidate elected?” This is what I’ve come up with (ranked roughly in order of importance) but would love to hear things I missed (or mis-ranked). 1. Name Recognition […]

Five Theories on Why Cuba Is Still Embargoed

Why there’s still a US Embargo against Cuba, especially since the Cold War is over and it’s now easier for a US citizen to travel to Moscow than Havana, is a question I’ve pondered in the past but especially since our recent trip. Here are a few theories I’ve come across… 1. After I got […]

Our Man in Havana

I was going to do a list of some of the highlights of our trip (and still might) but I just came across a business card for a taxi while sorting the various papers I accumulated during the trip and so I thought I’d focus instead, on one of the singular highlights of our trip. […]

Too Many Tabs Tuesday – Cuba Bound!

Pace has been counting down the “sleeps” until we go to Cuba on Thursday. Meanwhile his daddy has been counting down “how many days left of standing at the bus stop freezing my butt off?” 😉 We leave Thursday for a week’s vacation and since Cuba is one of the least connected countries in the […]

FTRW 2011 – Day Four – Political Censorship

There are numerous ongoing examples of governments and political institutions preventing the sharing of information – often in the name of “security” but often, more accurately, in the name of “not being embarrassed”. The United States is one of the biggest hypocrites in this area, applying a “the same rules we want for other countries […]

Music Monday – “What so proudly we watched/At the twilight’s last gleaming”

The Superbowl is always one of the most watched TV events of the year so most people probably saw this live yesterday or have heard about it by now. So you probably also know that Christina Aguilera screwed up the words to the US national anthem before the game. What you might not know is […]

State of the Union

Watched the “State of the Union” address and thought it was pretty decent – not Obama’s best by far – but good. A few random thoughts… Boehner always looks like he’s about to cry Can’t remember what the point was about but I counted exactly once where Boehner clapped and Biden didn’t. Love the focus […]

In Defense of Sarah Palin

[Edit: I’ve gone back and added a few links to this post and re-worded a few points for clarification in the subsequent days and weeks after this was originally posted.] Just to be clear, even to write that post title made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. In fact, I still strongly […]