Brainwashing, Science, & Al Gore

From Holman W. Jenkins' Wall Street Journal article, Wed, 12/5/07, The Science of Gore's Nobel: ... "Availability cascade" has been coined for the way a proposition can become irresistible simply by the media repeating it [emp added]; "informational cascade" for the tendency to replace our beliefs with the crowd's beliefs; and "reputational cascade" for the rational incentive to do so."...

Non-partisan offices...not really

From CRP Chairman Ron Nehring's E-Report 11/26/07: "Recently, some have complained about political parties being involved in local, so called 'non-partisan' elections. The notion that there is any government office in this state that is immune from questions of what is the proper role of government is a fiction. Every office invariably involves the taxation of citizens and the use of those funds, making the very assertion of a "non-partisan" office a quaint theory divorced from reality. [emphasis added] Anyone who's endured even a single city council or board of supervisors meeting understands this truth."...