Sputnikmania: Saw this documentary the other day. It was an epoch time when it seemed the advance of Communism was becoming, if not unstoppable, at least a real threat to Capitalism.
As it turned out it was a false dawn as I have often said in my Rubbish Tins story
However, one sidelight was the change of America into a nation more absorbed with science and education when they realised they may be falling behind. This meant that, as Eisenhower said, the religious nuts took a back seat. But they have changed and now the nuts seem to be in the ascendancy.
As I have got older I have become more of an admirer of Eisenhower as a sensible mainstream Republican. He would turn in his grave at some of those now declaring themselves as Republicans in the US.
The upside in the US of the sudden concentration on education was the upsurge in inventions and technology that took place over the next 20 - 30 or so years as those highly educated people entered the workforce.
On a site (Reddit) I go to, the other day somebody stated they needed a a Preferential system to change the voting structure. As you could comment I pointed out the US needed a Proportional system. Then again the old rich white males here want to turn the clock back to FPP.
I hope not. Women should support MMP or they will go back to 1950.
The SheilaCommonwealth Games: What a mess in Delhi but I am confident it will be right on the day. The Chief Minister of Delhi since 1998 is the unfortunately named Sheila Dikshit, sometimes known as Sheila Dixit, which is a little better.
Rugby: Southland (The Stags) team are just fantastic. Is there a better hooker in the country than Jason Rutledge. On their day I suppose Mealamu and Hore maybe a bit better but Rutledge is the 3rd best in my view. Of course they say he is too old. How old was Frank Bunce when he became an AB - and he was a back. In this mornings Sunday Times they have a quote - 'Flynn is the 3rd best rake in the country - Yeah Right!'
Blogging: On Mediawatch this morning they told the true story of Jim Anderton saying ' it needs a seismic shift for me to win the Mayoralty'. What he said was along the lines of 'it needed a seismic shift for me to shift' when he was talking about his leaving the Labour Party when Rogernomics came along. Some bloggers changed it around and it then got picked up by the MSM (Main Stream Media).
