Preposterous Universe

• At Alas, a Blog, ampersand says what I said below, but with considerably more brevity:

  The big mistake the Democrats, and most of the left, made was to believe that by winning elections we will change the country.
  
  Just the opposite is true. It is only by changing the country that we will win elections.

• Over at Daily Kos, a quote worth remembering from Barack Obama's convention speech:

  In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation; the belief in things not seen; the belief that there are better days ahead. I believe we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity. I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair. I believe that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us. America!

  Like kos says, "He speaks of God in a way that not just fails to offend this atheist, but inspires me."


• Daniel Drezner is right: Thomas Frank's speaking fees just went through the roof.
  


• At Crooked Timber, Daniel poses a fascinating math problem:

  If you flip a coin four times and it comes up heads, heads, tails, tails, then does it make even the slightest bit of sense at all to spend the next month thinking about what major structural changes need to be made to the coin if it is ever to come up heads again?

• Majikthise collects more responses. Couldn't agree more: I'm so proud to have all these folks on my side.

~ posted by Sean Carroll at 8:25 PM ~ link ~ ~ ~