So Many Interesting Things to Read!

I'm so exhausted from staying up late last night, but I want to take just a second (ok, an hour) to note the best things I've been reading today.

I know data mining has a mixed reputation, but the Time article today on the Obama campaign's masterful use of data and statistics is quite a read, if you haven't already seen it.  I've also really enjoyed watching the nerdy portion of the Twitterverse cheering Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, who has stood calmly by his statistical poll-aggregating engines for months and came out with an essentially perfect call on all 50 states.  Score for math, reason, science.  (And worth noting that FiveThirtyEight deserves some credit for preventing a nervous breakdown in yours truly in recent weeks.)  (Ok, I have to sneak in and add this response to a "humorous" tweet by David Frum, "Horrible possibility:  if the geeks are right about Ohio, might they also be right about climate?" I was myself mulling that over last night, wondering if the idea might be dawning on some people.  Math.  Reason.  Science.  Too late?)

Bill McKibben's proposal that we start naming hurricanes after fossil feul companies and ThinkProgress's recap of five things we can now count on from Obamacare warmed my heart.  So did the victory speech I stayed up ridiculously late to hear.  And "Barack Obama and the Death of Normal" by David Simon is a symphony for the liberal soul. 

When I needed calming reading material during the wait last night, I was comforted to have my spiritual reading group's current selection, "The Wisdom of No Escape" on hand.  It's a short and wonderful book on the transcendent practice of loving-kindness.

For more on the spiritual grounding side of things, I listened to some of Krista Tippett's discussion with Pete Domenici and Alice Rivlin yesterday evening after polls had started closing but results weren't yet in and I was getting way too agitated.  Krista Tippett is like an anti-agitation pill.  I also felt enobled by Jonathan Haidt's piece in the NY Times this morning (which Tippett tweeted about, which is how I found it) on getting our own minds out of partisan gridlock.  I had trouble explaining that one the first time I tried today...  I think the point, for me, is that because we can easily get so tribalized about our politics, we would do well to seek out the glimmer of light in the opposition's most sacred worries, even if it's painful for us.  Not that we have to agree, but that we would do well to recognize the worthy values at the core of their concerns.

It reminded me that a few weeks ago I was deeply moved by another Tippett conversation, with pro-choice activist Frances Kissling and pro-life activist David Gushee.  I appreciated that Kissling was willing to say that the way the pro-choice movement has talked about the fetus has often been "crass", but she remains strong in her convictions and responded firmly to Gushee's leading question, "Is abortion empowering to women?" saying that "I would not say childbearing is necessarily empowering to women, either".

But voting in an election that crushed so many arrogant men with an utter lack of moral imagination when it comes to people different than themselves?  I bet Kissling would agree with me that was pretty empowering.

Comments

[MLE]

Ooh, I enjoyed reading that Haidt piece earlier today as well. It made me want to go out and talk with some "cousins" on "the other side". I often feel that if I were to be more politically active, I wouldn't necessarily want to do so as a partisan. Instead, I'd really like to find a committee of compromisers, working toward a common goal.

[mar mar]

Too tired for reading right now.........but I sure do feel empowered with all the Democratic wins. Yes we can!!

[Trish]

Thank you for this!!
...and fivethirtyeight was a lifeline for me, too, during the last months :)