Stray Pins: 4-11-07

I would like to introduce a new feature of The 7-10 called "Stray Pins." I've been thinking about doing this for awhile. Like many of you, I use a newsreader to keep track of all of my favorite sites. (I personally recommend Bloglines.) One of the features of Bloglines allows you to select various articles and posts that you want to save and read later, as opposed to having them be lost forever.

So over the course of the past few months, I've noticed that a lot of these old articles are still stuck in my newsreader taking space. These are articles that I've either A) been meaning to read, but never got around to do so, B) found to be quite poignant and wanted to read again, C) found interesting enough to write a blog about, but never had the time to do so, or D) found interesting enough to comment on, but simply didn't know how to write about extensively.

I've had this idea for awhile, but it looks like the writers at The Online Scribble beat me to it with their new "Tidbits" feature. I suppose "Stray Pins" is much like "Tidbits" except that it won't be updated regularly. Basically, whenever enough articles begin to collect dust in my newsreader, I'll update it. This means some of the stuff I include might be yesterday's news, or even older.

Anyways, here are the stray pins I've found scattered around the lanes today:

It's a shame that the Bush administration is willing to spend $100 million to encourage unmarried 20-somethings not to have sex when 95% of Americans do not practice abstinence. People who are surprised that Bush is oblivious to reality in Iraq today could have found clues to this three years earlier with this nonsense. After all, what more could you expect from the worst president in history?

TV Newser brought up an interesting point about the Nevada Democratic debate fiasco early last month. If 38% of the Fox News audience is self-identified as conservative, that would mean the remaining 62% are moderate and liberal. Because of FNC's superior ratings, the non-conservative Fox News audience is larger than the entire audience of CNN and MSNBC. Also, polling data indicate that FNC viewers supported Bush overwhelmingly in 2004. That's a lot of voters to potentially enrage. Was scrapping the debate really in the best interest of the Democratic presidential candidates? Did they alienate a lot of potential supporters, or did they just fire up the voters who would never consider them to begin with?

As we all know, legislators in Washington generally treat voters like garbage until campaign season rolls around and they need votes and fundraising support. Well, apparently these same politicians treat their own staffs like garbage too. Lovely.

I was talking with a cashier in Walmart tonight about my interest in political science. She said she gave it a try, but hated it because she had a bad professor. Now she thinks it's boring. Perhaps the life of a political junkie is not for everyone? It's easy for me to see why so many politicians are divorced. There's no time for "extra stuff," like romance!

Barack Obama better hope that he does not become an indirect casualty of the Don Imus firestorm. His slow response did nothing but reignite the doubt that lots of Black voters have about his commitment to their issues. How could his consultants and PR people let him wait five days to respond?!

Which state borders both Nebraska and Tennessee? If you had to find South Dakota on a map, could you do it? Which state is south of Idaho and Oregon and shares a border with Utah? Try the 50 State Map Challenge and see for yourself!

Conventional wisdom says that Rudy Giuliani is too liberal to win the GOP nomination. Everyone seems to be doubting him, but he has been performing quite well in the polls. His success has completely befuddled veteran pundit Stuart Rothenberg. I don't get it either.

The AP is reporting that character wins votes when it comes to presidential candidates. Is experience overrated? Have voters not learned anything from the 2000 and 2004 elections?

How many people are still talking about that anti-Hillary ad that made the rounds on YouTube? I'm not hearing much about it, personally. Looks like Rothenberg has struck again.

So, now Connecticut wants to join in the mega-primary fun on February 5 next year, presumably giving Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd a chance. But at what point does enough become too much? Absolutely ridiculous. Even poor little Nevada is getting left out of the mix even though the schedule was tweaked to give it a bit more influence for the sake for "diversity" and improving the process. Thanks a lot, Iowa.