"The only thing needed for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Some Numbers Circling Me: The numbers in this article from the WashPost are very thought-provoking (to me, anyway). These data seem to show that political polarization grows with party affiliation. If true, one logical conclusion is that voters identify with the party rather than the person, a big change from our past. It would suggest that parties hold more sway than individual politicians, and that it is possible for a political party to guide an electorate, rather than the reverse!

A Busy Weekend!: Wow, lots of stuff on Friday and over the weekend to ponder:

Boston's Cardinal Law resigns -- it's about damned time. In conjunction with Cardinal Lawbreaker's resignation, the Vatican finally agreed to the reforms that the U.S. Catholic prelate had thrown together in July in the face of the firestorm, albeit modified. A step in the right direction (though it took too long), but it still won't get me back to Mass.

Al Gore announces that he will not be a candidate for the Democratic Party Presidential nomination in 2004 -- I feel a bit saddened by this. I voted for Mr. Gore for Vice President in 1992 and 1996, and for President in 2000. I genuinely like the man, even more so after his funny and biting participation on this week's Saturday Night Live (Dec. 14, 2002). However, I do agree that this will open up the field, and perhaps give the Democratic Party an opportunity to try on some new ideas.

What is a blog? These students have some great ideas about it, and I think that eventually there will be a kind of demarcation between blogs and "journals" along the lines of the comment posted by steyblind:

A blog could go one of two ways, IMHO:

1 - A blog could be a professional or intellectual exchange of information that encourages progress & promotes thinking wherever it goes...

2 - ...or a blog could be a personal ball of complaints and/or deep (read that: shallow) thoughts about his or her day.