Some Interesting New Blog Pieces

Strategic Voting

Dr Michael Bassett has published an informative and compelling essay on the two starkly different choices facing us this election. He writes:

So the choices on 8 November are rather stark. On the one hand we can have a more economically literate government than the present one, a ministry containing both experienced people and new faces, which can get to grips with the country’s slow growth, rising inflation and galloping indebtedness. On the other hand we can have a five-party monster made up mostly of extremists with so many weird agendas that you can kiss goodbye to New Zealand’s reputation as a reliable place for investment.

He calls for strategic voting in Epsom and Ohariu and explains why it helps both National and the country. His concluding shot: "We are stuck with a voting system that requires careful strategizing and encourages corruption. Let’s get rid of it once we have managed to fire this awful government, that has become the worst in half a century." Read the whole piece, here.

Democratic Crocodile Tears

On a completely different topic, The Inquiring Mind fisks a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on Barack Obama's crocodile tears over the mortgage melt-down and how Democratic politicians are succumbing to the fallacy of false cause. We have commented on this in previous days--for those interested in this issue, the WSJ article is worth a read. Read the full article, with Inquiring Mind commentary, here.

A Polemical Primer

For those of us interested in debating global warming, Australian Joanne Nova, who describes herself as "a veteran believer in greenhouse gases from 1990 to 2007) has prepared a primer for debating the issues and focusing upon the real not the ephemeral. This "Skeptics Handbook" will be invaluable for those involved in debating over the office water cooler or in the pub. The promo to her handbook invites us to "Rise above the mud slinging in the Global Warming debate. Here are the strategies and tools you need to cut through the red herrings, and avoid the traps."

This is a superb resource, and can be found here. Her website, which addresses a wider group of issues, is also worth bookmarking.