The Dialogue

Glenn Beck Kills a Frog on Live TV

2009-09-23T22:26:00.002-04:00

UPDATE: Apparently it was a rubber frog. That's actually pretty funny.

Nate Silver's TED Talk

2009-09-15T20:10:00.002-04:00

As a statistician, I'm a big fan of Nate Silver. And as a curious person, I'm a big fan of the TED talks. So, needless to say, I would highly recommend watching this ten minute video.

Protests!!!!11

2009-09-15T20:04:00.003-04:00

It's been a long summer for a lot of lawmakers. We've all heard about the town hall meetings, tea parties, and protests by now. Here's a link to a few funny protesters. (I hate to link to such a one-sided site like Huffington Post, but hey, it's funny.)

[The Huffington Post]

Here's a news story you may not have read

2009-09-15T19:44:00.002-04:00

For at least as long as I've been alive, the Republicans have had a reputation as being stronger than Democrats on matters of national security. This notion has persisted despite many former military men being elected to office as Democrats. (Jim Webb and John Kerry immediately come to mind.) This idea was further pushed in the final days of the Bush White House as many television pundits were saying "legacy" and "kept us safe" in the same sentence.

I'm hoping Obama can at least begin to put an end to that. The headline of this story reads "U.S. Kills Top Qaeda Militant in Southern Somalia." Here's the first sentence:

NAIROBI, Kenya — American commandos killed one of the most wanted Islamic militants in Africa in a daylight raid in southern Somalia on Monday, according to American and Somali officials, an indication of the Obama administration’s willingness to use combat troops strategically against Al Qaeda's growing influence in the region.

This guy was responsible for the bombing of a hotel in Israel in 2002, and is suspected to have played a role in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in 1998. I just wish this sort of thing would get reported on a little more.

Three Hundred Million Beers

2009-07-31T15:01:00.005-04:00

[The Washington Post]

Arlen Specter is switching parties.

2009-04-28T12:24:00.001-04:00

This is good news. He said:

Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.

Swine Flu Map

2009-04-27T13:14:00.003-04:00

I got this from pigflumap.com. I'm not sure how accurate it is.

It's hard not to feel good...

2009-04-17T18:56:00.001-04:00

...when you watch the now-famous Susan Boyle video. Here's the clip. Here's a great reaction.

Global Cycle Ride

2009-02-20T13:35:00.003-05:00

Mark Doherty is an Irishman who in November, 2008, began a journey to circumnavigate the globe via bicycle. In his words,

The 'dream plan' is to cycle around the world, but the 'reality plan' will be to continue cycling as long as its fun.

Since he started biking on November 19, he's been to Wales, England, France, Italy, and by now he's probably made it to Greece. Mark keeps a blog and updates it pretty regularly.

Here's a video of the first leg of the Global Cycle Ride. (In full disclosure, it was edited by Chris Lamar, a Friend of The Dialogue.)

Final Word on the Cabinet

2009-02-04T23:20:00.002-05:00

First of all, Chip and I tied the tiebreaker, each predicting only one song correctly.

Second of all, and more interestingly, Obama's nominee for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, withdrew his name from the nomination because he didn't pay taxes and acted unethically since he left the U.S. Senate in 2005.

This left Chip and I in an interesting place. Chip correctly guessed that Daschle would be nominated and that he would accept the nomination, but neither of us really expected any of the nominees to withdraw. Here's what Chip had to say:

Let's go with spirit of the law, not the letter. When we said "acceptances," I was thinking confirmations even if I didn't say it (I assumed there would be no confirmation problems), plus I think you could say accepting then withdrawing is not a real acceptance. That, and, if we continued to be tied we have to go to conference record or point differentials for any more tiebreakers.

I withdraw as a candidate to win this bet.

So the final word on the bet: I win. Chip, you owe me one beer... at least until the next bet.

Life

2009-02-04T23:13:00.002-05:00

There's more to it than this, right?

New Site

2009-01-29T13:20:00.002-05:00

Please check out our new site, which is currently a work in progress, at the-dialogue-blog.com/blog and let us know if you have any comments or suggestions.

Bias?

2009-01-29T13:15:00.004-05:00

Here's a chart showing the number of cable news appearances by members of Congress this week.There's a related article, too. I do have a few concerns, though. Would the chart look any different if it tracked minutes on air? What about favorable vs. unfavorable appearances? How many tough questions vs. how many softball questions did each guest field?

John Updike

2009-01-28T17:10:00.004-05:00

On the off chance you haven't heard, John Updike died yesterday at the age of 76. Updike was a prolific writer, and won pretty much every major literary award with the notable exception of the Nobel Prize. If you haven't read anything by Updike, here is his body of work from The New Yorker, which includes original short stories, book reviews, and other writings.

One of his most recently published short stories is called Outage, which begins like this:

The weatherpersons on television, always eager for ratings-boosting disasters, had predicted a fierce autumn storm for New England, with driving rain and high winds. Brad Morris, who worked at home while his wife, Jane, managed a boutique on Boston’s Newbury Street, glanced out his windows now and then at the swaying trees—oaks still tenacious of their rusty leaves, maples letting go in gusts of gold and red—but was unimpressed by the hyped news event. Rain came down heavily a half hour at a time, then pulled back into a silvery sky of fast-moving, fuzzy-bottomed clouds. The worst seemed to be over, when, in midafternoon, his computer died under his eyes. The financial figures he had been painstakingly assembling swooned as a group, sucked into the dead blank screen like glittering water pulled down a drain. Around him, the house seemed to sigh, as all its lights and little engines, its computerized timers and indicators, simultaneously shut down. The sound of wind and rain lashing the trees outside infiltrated the silence. A beam creaked. A loose shutter banged. The drip from a plugged gutter tapped heavily, like a bully nagging for attention, on the wooden cover of a cellar-window well.

Facebook

2009-01-27T15:55:00.001-05:00

The Dialogue is now on Facebook! Please visit our Facebook page and become a fan!

Cabinet Picks: Tiebreaker

2009-01-27T13:30:00.005-05:00

Loyal readers of this blog may recall that Chip and I bet on who would be appointed to each Cabinet post. We each got five correct answers, so as a tiebreaker, Chip suggested we guess what songs Bruce Springsteen will play at the Super Bowl halftime show. Here are the picks.

	Chip	Dan
1.	Glory Days	Born to Run
2.	Mary's Place	The Rising
3.	The Rising	Thunder Road

One point is awarded for a correct song, and one point if the song is in the right place, for a total of six possible points. One song that Bruce played a lot while he was campaigning for Obama was Arlo Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land." And while I would love to see him play that, I think the NFL just wants "classic Bruce" songs and no wardrobe malfunctions.

Historic Week

2009-01-22T18:09:00.003-05:00

[image from someecards.com. Hat tip goes to Ara K.]

Dissecting President Obama's Address

2009-01-21T15:09:00.002-05:00

Here's an article from Slate that takes the transcript from Obama's address and compiles notes from some of the more relevant lines in his speech.

Look forward to getting more article postings from me. I'm not a wordsmith like the other two publishers.

Free Time

2009-01-17T17:26:00.002-05:00

...this guy has lots of it.

Change We MUST Believe In

2009-01-17T13:04:00.003-05:00

Below is a guest post from Chip, the co-founder and a contributor to this blog. It's pretty long, but absolutely well worth reading.

Its that time again: when, as we have all heard again and again, the American Constitution shows us exactly why we have it and exactly why it is the best in the history of man. This Tuesday, we will witness a peaceful transfer of power. The behemoth that is the Executive will pass from the control of one person, who represents the opinions of a large percentage of the people, to that of another, who represents the opinions of another (I'm not talking about supporting President Bush, or President-Elect Obama - just that in a 49% Republican and 51% Democrat country, this peaceful transfer still takes place). Amazing. We should all reflect on the beauty of this moment and thank God we live in a country where that is possible.

So, I direct your attention to an online anthology of Inaugural Addresses. I'm going to guess that the President-Elect actually quotes none of these and instead looks to his political hero's greatest (in my opinion) work, The Gettysburg Address. It's a refresh and renew moment, which I think the President-Elect is already showing he's going to try to evoke (See Obama's Trip Through Philly on the Way To DC). I'm sure the President-Elect can co-opt some of the "Eloquent President"'s word, far beyond my poor power to add or detract, but I wouldn't be surprised if he echoed these sentiments (sentiments we should all consider, everyday, as citizens):

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
- A. Lincoln

Never better said.

There are, of course, other ways for the then-President Obama to go: Kennedy's 1961 Address, Jefferson's 1801 First Inaugural, FDR's 1933 First Inaugural...any others?

Regardless, soon we will have a new administration and, according to the rhetoric and, I believe, the ideals, of its leader, a "new birth of freedom," one in which "change" - however defined - appears to be an important priority.

We know the realities of the U.S. in 2009: fighting two wars and engaged in a global conflict against those who seek to kill innocents to support their ideological or theological goals; suffering from a severe recession and without the infrastructure to mount a relatively fast recovery; millions without healthcare, many more living in poverty and many more struggling to just to stay out of the predicaments of their troubled countrymen. These should be and, I believe, will be the foci of the new administration and I hope we get to analyze and debate its solutions on The Dialogue Blog.

I thought, however, that we could also take this moment to address to other, not-as-talked-about problems or situations that we would like to see addressed in the coming four years. Let's talk crazy, and throw some stuff on the wall and resolve that, while we discuss and read about the economy and matters of war and peace and the environment (left off my previous list not because its not a priority, but because the sentence got unwieldy...like this one). So, I ask anyone reading this to respond with three suggestions for "crazy" ideas for policy changes. They may not relate to our current two wars, economic stimuli or the environment. You need not commit to what you think is the solution, but you must promise to revisit the problems and think about some solutions, and DO something about it in the next four years. I'll go first:

1. Drugs. We all know by now how the U.S. consumption of oil affects our safety and the global economy. Less talked about, however, is U.S. consumption of drugs and U.S. drug laws and their effect on our safety, our urban poor, and the stability of other nations. Great editorial in the Chicago Tribune about it recently. I vow to learn more about this problem and explore any and all opportunities to improve - including legalization of some drugs (which some argue would cut down on the crimes of violence that are committed because of drugs and drug laws).

2. Israel. We should all be pissed off about the situation in Gaza right now and, I think, we generally all are. WHO, however, should we be more pissed at, and WHAT should we, as citizens and as a nation, do about it. We are working with Israel doing some things and they are one of our biggest allies...is it time for this relationship to end? We all talk about "reclaiming our moral authority in the world." Is this possible while we stay silent as this goes on? Many will tell you that the current offensive is justified and that we must support it...certainly doesn't look that way on TV. I vow to learn more about this issue and to do what I can to pressure federal officials to be nuanced in their response - no more blanket "I support Israel's right to exist" statements. You support Israel's right to do what, and not to do what?

3. Conservation. Ok, I said the environment was off the table but this is slightly different. I'm not talking about emissions or carbon trading or windmills, I'm talking about the great outdoors. Listen, we live on a beautiful continent and, one way or the other, its going to change sooner or later (the whys and hows are important, but that's not what I'm talking about here). I vow to get outside and enjoy the parks and untouched areas I have access to, to see more national parks than I have before, and to learn more about park-related issues - conservation and animal protection. I plan to take a wide view, people expand and economic stimulus sometimes means tearing up untouched land, but I plan to think long-term, about what we are sacrificing and about its cost.

Any other suggestions?

Also, I left out things like service but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. One of the best ideas I have ever heard is that, rather than taking the day as a "day off," make it a "day on." There could be no better way of honoring Dr. King than by finding some way to serve your community - preferably by helping the less fortunate - on Monday or some day this next week.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Thursday is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. This will be my second year in a row missing the pro-life march in Washington, D.C. after being there for ten straight years. If I get around to it, I'll post about that later in the week (or comment to one of Dan's posts).

Embarassing...

2009-01-17T12:52:00.004-05:00

I wonder if this book has sold any copies lately.

Walmart Growth

2009-01-15T19:00:00.002-05:00

I couldn't embed this, but please check out this animated map. It shows the growth of Walmart throughout the US. Starting with one store in Bentonville, AR, in 2005 Walmart had 6,200 facilities worldwide, including 3,800 here in the US.

On an unrelated note, one thing you may not know about Walmart is that Hillary Clinton sat on its Board of Directors for a brief time while her husband was governor of Arkansas.

What If

2009-01-14T16:38:00.001-05:00

Coldplay's "What If" video for Oxfam.

Oxfam America's website.

The West Wing

2009-01-07T14:54:00.001-05:00

Cabinet Picks Update

2008-12-18T13:59:00.002-05:00

About a month ago, Chip and I tried to predict Obama's cabinet and other cabinet-level appointees. Most appointments have been made, and we both got 5 correct out of about 22 picks.

Out of the five we each got right, three we both guessed the same person (Robert Gates, Tom Vilsack and Robert Gibbs). If this ends in a tie, we'll have a rematch in four to eight years.