Update: AP and other networks are projecting that Amendment One has passed. With about 30% of the vote in the people of North Carolina seem to be voting in favor of prejudice. About 57% of voters are currently supporting legislation that would ban all legal recognition of any relationship other than male-female marriage.

One of the better members of the US Senate has been defeated in the GOP primary in Indiana. From what I can tell his defeat is partly attributable to the perception that he has lost touch with voters and a poorly run campaign, so I can accept that in many ways he blew it. At the same time I am deeply troubled by the campaign run against him, attacking him for working with President Obama. I didn’t like it when the left attacked Senator Lieberman for working across the aisle and I don’t...

It looks like they may be having elections in Greece again if they cannot manage to form a government. So far efforts to do so have failed and prospects are not good.

Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps, Switzerland In France the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande has defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy to become the first Socialist President of France since 1995. This will give him the power to name the new Prime Minister of France, though no clear front runner has yet emerged. But the victory for the left may not be as much as they had hoped. For one thing there is a debate as to just how liberal Hollande is, or how liberally he will govern. In addition, the French...

For those who get it, CNN International is covering the elections in Europe and it is interesting to see many of the same issues we are dealing with here being discussed there. In Greece for example the economy is in a shambles and the basics of math dictate that there have to be spending cuts, in many cases very severe ones. We don’t quite face that problem here yet but if we do not get our financial house in order we likely will face the issue in the future. And like here, some of the voters...

When I was young I used to read a series of books called “The People’s Alamanac” and “The Book Of Lists”. Each book offered hundreds, if not thousands of interesting factoids. These books came to mind when I grabbed another from my shelves this week. Have you ever had a moment where you wondered about the things that are part of our everyday lives ? Why do forks have 4 prongs, why not 5 or 3 ? Why do we say that we ‘make our bed’ ? What ever happened to that Watson guy who helped invent...

It’s not surprising that we are all burned out on political ads and as a prior post notes, the rhetoric in the 1800′s was even worse. But still I can’t believe some of the commercials out there “Democrat Elmer Fudd wants to give Viagra to child molesters and then put them in charge of day care centers” “Republican Bugs Bunny wants to take your grandma’s social security away so Donald Trump can buy gold plated toilet seats” Obviously the above is a tad...

Agree with him or not it is a bold move in a state not known for being gay friendly. And everyone should oppose the bill as an attack on free speech and intrusion of state government into local affairs

This according to a new book about campaigns and fundraisers.

With the recent announcement that Disney will be bringing The Voices Of Liberty to Disneyland in California I thought I’d post a couple videos of these truly amazing performers. Enjoy

A look at the scandal from a rather unique point of view.

Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor has been found guilty of war crimes by an international court. This is the first such conviction since the trials following World War 2. The conviction stems from his involvement in a civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone, a war in which as many as 50 thousand people died and many more were injured and abused. The trial, which took place in the Netherlands, began in 2007 and was given international support from authorites at the UN, in Sierra Leone and from human...

Now that we’ve all (hopefully) sent our returns in to the government the question in the back of our minds is how long to save those tax records. Of course there is nothing wrong with saving documents for as long as you want, but I thought I’d offer a little primer. The main reason you would intend to save records is, of course, on the very slight chance that the government might come and ask us some questions, raising that dreaded word.. audit. On the state level the rules vary from state to...

A fun article at Atlantic that takes a look back at Presidential pet scandals.

“Oh, Muslims, know that our Empire is at war with the mortal enemies of Islam . . . the governments of Moscow, Britain and France. The Commander of the faithful summons you to the Jihad” Is the above a quote from Al Qaeda ? Iran ? Syria ? Nope…. it’s a quote from the Sultan of the Ottaman Empire…… in 1914…. at the start of WW1 Boy things sure have changed since then…… or have they ?

In Utah this week the GOP nominated the daughter of Haitian immigrants for Congress Here is how National Review covered it. Here is how they took it at Daily Kos Now I would hardly expect DK to say much positive about any Republican, or indeed anyone to the right of Bernie Sanders, but some of the comments certainly seem over the line, especially given that they respond to most critiques of President Obama with the racism card. What a shock… double standards in politics…..

Just a little cheery news for your Sunday morning. Of course just because they made a physical copy of the drone does not mean that they have actually reverse engineered the technology, but the fact they might have is not cheery news.

A few months back I was listening to the radio and the topic was the tax cuts and the general attitudes towards wealth/success/etc. The various callers debated whether success was the result of work or opportunity or both. One caller though caught my attention. He was the father of 5, the youngest in her 5th year of college, so you figure he’s around 60ish. He grew up as one of 12 children in a working class family, not abject poverty but very tight money wise. As teens he and his siblings were...

An interesting look at some facts about elections, things to consider the next time somebody uses the word “never” in connection with the election this year.

Word just breaking today that Dick Clark has died of a heart attack at the age of 82. Clark was an institution in the music and television industries, hosting American Bandstand for 30 years (the day the show debuted nationally his guest was Elvis Presley). He also hosted numerous game shows, including a several versions of the pyramid. For many years Dick Clark was a must do for New Years Eve celebrations. He had slowed down in recent years after several strokes but continued to do what he could...