Civil unions, as opposed to gay marriage, are often advocated for by the moderate right, and sometimes as a pragmatic solution on the left. The main idea is that civil unions provide a more reasonable approach that lets gay people enjoy the benefits of something close to marriage without upsetting those who do
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Progressive Proselytizing: The Left and Ron Paul
There is an ongoing debate amoung the left on how to view Ron Paul. Should we like him or hate him, support him or reject him? The fundamental distinction in my mind is between viewing Ron Paul as sometimes useful in the propagation of certain ideas in the larger political discussion, and between finding Ron
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The biggest loser in Iowa: the Tea Party
Among the Iowa winners were Mitt Romney (establishment candidate), with Rick Santorum (Evangelical candidate) trailing by 8 votes, then Ron Paul (Libertarian candidate). Trailing significantly was Newt Gingrich, an old guard brand all to himself. Where then was the Tea Party candidate? For several decades, there has been an establishment
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Importance of Geography in the NDP Leadership Election
When choosing the next NDP leader, one question that can be raised is considerations for where the NDP leader is geographically based from. How much of a difference does this make, and, if it matters, where ought that region to be? The list, found at the end of this post, shows the
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: My blog: Reviewing 2011, Previewing 2012
Following in the custom of New Years, I take a look at the past year for this blog and set some goals for the coming year. Almost necessarily, this results in something of a broader look at blogging in general, webpage design, and my place in the broader blogosphere and political
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Our fears of airplanes, and terrorism
Many of us have a fear of flying; it ranges from a mild discomfort to a paralyzing fear. For the most part, this fear is not rationally founded. On a per kilometer basis, flying is far safer than driving which usually elicits no fear among us at all. It is
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The importance of likeability in the NDP leadership race
If there is anything that the last decade in Canadian politics has proven, it is that Canadians want a strong leader that can connect and be liked by the people. The Liberal party nominated twice in a row a leader which had significantly problems with likeability and resulted in back
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The expanding War on Terror: their hypocrisy, and ours
It is hard to imagine how the timing could have created a more poignant juxtaposition. At the same time as the Obama administration triumphantly withdraws from Iraq, Congress is set to institute the legal codification of the largest expansion in the War on Terror yet, up to and including the
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The religious nature of the Libertarian movement
In many ways, the modern libertarian movement is deeply religious. Not in the sense of believing some mystical metaphysical claims about the nature of the universe, but in its structure and organizational principles, as well as similarities in many of its core ideas. While there are certainly many ways in
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Culture Wars: The Harper Government’s ridiculous ban on the Burqa during the citizenship ceremony
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has just announced plan to ban the use of the burqa or niqab for new Canadians during the Oath of Citizenship. I was very disappointed not just with the decision, but with how the decision was made and the various justifications used to defend it. Let
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Iowa ABC GOP Nomination Debate Analysis
The following is an assortment of unordered commentary on the people, politics and policies from the Iowa ABC/Yahoo GOP nomination debate. Gingrich vs Romney et al: This was the first debate where Gingrich was now a clear front runner and it showed by many people going after him much as
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Transforming regional representation in democracy
First Past the Post Ballot For reasons purely of pragmatism, our democracies are actually representative democracies where we elect a relatively tiny portion of our population as leaders to represent us in government. In principle, there might be many different ways to go about choosing where these representatives come from
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: A note on Mitt Romney’s Mormonism
GOP front runner Mitt Romney In the GOP presidential nomination contest, the long standing front-runner, Mitt Romney, has never managed to really break out of the low to mid twenties in national polls, and now faces considerable competition for the nomination from a surging Newt Gingrich. One problem for him
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Sisterwives reframes the polygamy debate
It is always easier to dispel some characterization when it is given absolutely; not just as a generalization, not just as something that exists for some people, but as something that is always true. In this case, one merely needs to find a single counterexample to disprove the claim. Polygamy is one of those subjects
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Measuring the success of social movements: Occupy, Arab Awakening, the Tea Party, and Keystone XL
How do we measure the success or effectiveness of a social movement? Ultimately we probably wish to change our society in some way, or perhaps to resist the changes that are occurring. Sometimes these changes can be very targeted such as implementing a specific government or corporate policy. And sometimes
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Ottawa NDP Leadership Debate Thoughts
The debate was good. Exciting even. After several months of being forced to sate my political appetite on the Republican leadership contest, the NDP leadership debate in Ottawa provided a refreshing Canadian contrast. Overall there was far more homogeneity between positions than there was difference. The tone of the debate
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: GOP Leadership Contest: The Likeability Factor
Pundits seem to love to profess multitudes of differing explanations for the see-sawing GOP leadership contest that has seen, respectively, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and now Newt Gingrich surge to the front of the pack in challenging Mitt Romney. These alternative explanations range from the simple to the complex,
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The four ways to defend religion
Sam Harris A year or so ago, I was exposed to prominent atheist Sam Harris’ outline of the three basic ways in which religion is commonly defended. It seemed like a reasonable classification at the time, but I was hesitant to immediately agree that it was a complete classification. Since
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Emphasizing neutrality with respect to the progressive/regressive spectrum
Deficit neutral bills are a stalwart tool of the savvy politician. They allow for the sidestepping of the often raucous and partisan debates about the size of government and the size of deficits. With deficit neutral bills, there is a sense to which the policy can be considered on its
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The Authoritative Conservative-to-English Dictionary
Conservative-speak can be confusing for the less practice ear. I know, I know, it sounds like English, but perhaps it is just a different dialect? And it just all sounds so good; surely fixing the deficit, creating jobs, and promoting freedom and democracy is a good thing? To aid in
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