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Well, I've fully suffered the consequences for speaking out about politics! XD

It's been fun debating, and I truly apologise to anyone I've offended. I get very passionate about beliefs and what they mean for our lives, and I accidentally mix that with assumptions about people's personalities when I debate or argue with them. To clarify, I don't think all republican voters are anti-intellectual, and I don't unconditionally support Obama as a few people assumed I do given the anti-republican kick-off to it all.

I do hope Obama wins out against McCain however, because McCain (especially combined with Palin) frightens me more than a little, and no-one's unearthed anything that's changed that for me. Although I've heard a large amount about why I shouldn't put my trust in Obama! There's a lot to think on.

The conversations have ended or are winding down, so I'm posting this to move the journal off the top-spot. Thanks to everyone who had the confidence to post an opinion I obviously didn't share, or called me out about implied or deliberate insults. I've had to think a heck of a lot as a result of talking to you all, and have lots of things to question myself about carefully as I think about what has been discussed further. Please continue to post on the old journal if you have anything more to add

I might not be able to put so much time into replies for the next few weeks however, since this whole debate managed to reach a scale where the research and commenting I was doing threatened my working schedule. Such is the danger of working at home with the internet at my fingertips and no boss to look disappointingly over my shoulder

I'll use this post to point anyone involved towards the sources of information and inspiration that I've used recently or regularly, in case they're of any interest

Blogs/Podcasts
[link] Cosmic Variance - great science blog with occasional informed political commentary
[link] Star Stryder - similar to the above, and Pamela Gay rocks because she also contributes to...
[link] Astronomy cast - a weekly science based podcast that stuffs my head full of knowledge, but more importantly teaches not what we know, but HOW we know what we know!
[link] Bad Astronomy - Phil Plait is angry and funny and adorable, and a fun voice for all sceptics, rational thinkers, and people facinated by astronomy and physics
[link] Dark Optimism - the blog of personal friend who when troubled more and more by what he was hearing about climate change and how little he knew, decided to devote his life to understanding it, and passing on that understanding to others. He's now involved indirectly in national politics as an advisor, and co-runs Teqs a tradable carbon unit scheme that answers peak oil concerns and is in the process of being considered for adoption by the UK government.
[link] - A great source for debate between people you've never heard of, and some you might have done. It's fascinating watching other people bounce off each other when a debate is well informed.
[link] - Interesting stuff, because stuff is cool

Forums
[link] - A mammoth collection of biased and non-biased information and discourse on the current US election in several threads of many hundred replies, with the benefit of taking place in a well moderated forum full of (mostly) well informed and interesting people.

New Sites
I have feeds to a number that aren't worth mentioning because they're so popularly used and a bit obvious, but I stumbled on this neat sub site of the Washington post recently that I thought worth pointing out: [link]


Books/publicaions by
[link] Stephen Pinker (because he challenges a lot of my dearest political beliefs in an annoyingly intelligent and undeniable way)
[link] Oliver Sacks (because, holy crap, the human mind under stress is so fascinating, and Sacks can present a case-study with incredible human and scientific clarity. Who'd have thought neurology could move me nearly to tears!)
[link] A R Luria (because of his impact on Sacks)
[link] Richard Feynman (Because he has an incredible way of illuminating otherwise monolithically complex ideas. A great teacher.)
[link] Brian Greene (he's so cute! OO and the same as above, but with more of a bias on popular understanding)
[link] Walter Benjamin (because he thought a lot about everything, and everything he thought about is worth listening to and at least considering)
[link] Bill Bryson (because he's so fantastic at condensing vital information in an entertaining way while keeping the science intact)
[link] Charles Darwin (because understanding what evolution really is actually bloody tricky, and where better to go than the source)
[link] Ursula Le Guin (because she writes the single most intelligent fiction of any female author I've come across)
[link] Kim Stanley Robinson (because he writes the single most intelligent fiction of any male author I've come across)


If anyone knows of any cool sites/blogs/books in a similar vein, I'd love to know