View From the Bushes

Unless you're living in some sort of self-enforced media-blackout (perhaps as a result of weariness about the upcoming election), I assume you know that the Red Sox finally won the World Series after an 86 year drought. Of course, my Cubbies still have the record, and I was surprised to find out that the other Chicago team last won in 1917 -- maybe it's something about being in Chicago, though I can tell you that during my limited time there I quite enjoyed myself. Though I guess it must be noted that I spent most of the time in Evanston, which is not the same thing.

Some interesting articles about the presidential polls everyone is so focused on in these last few days: First, we have Dick Morris talking about the difficulty of accurately polling. Normally I haven't been very impressed with Dick Morris' predictions, but in this particular case he's not making a prediction and he was in the polling business, so I'm inclined to cut him some slack, plus what he says does make quite a bit of sense. Secondly, we have an article from Slate comparing all of the major polls based on a variety of factors like whether they pressure you to make a choice or whether their survey questions are available online. I have often thought that polling receives a disproportionately small amount of attention for the impact they have on the election, particularly where it concerns the methodology, but that's probably because most people are unable to grasp the methodology.

Finally, the other night my brother-in-law brought over his old Nintendo for my kids to play. And my kids, especially my number one son, automatically want to play video games all day every day. I'm a pretty big proponent of video games. I pretty much figure that playing video games for a half an hour is demonstrably better than most TV programs, but I do recognize that both need to be limited. Though I didn't have a video game console growing up, so there is a part of me that is sort of living vicariously through my children, and as a result wants to let them play video games as much as they want. I mean, that's what I want to do right now.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross