Still more...

A very interesting extension of the pattern I noted below. See it HERE

Geology Controls Everything

I was looking at the electoral map by county and I saw a familiar pattern. It's most obvious of the picture below that shows the counties that Republicans made gains in this election.


I know it's a little blurry but that's ok we're just looking at at VERY general trend. I've circled the area we're interested in. Now look at the geologic map of the United States. I've circled the same area.


See how the Mc Cain voting pattern ends as the rocks that make up the Appalachian mountains end? Here's a closer pic of the region.


Back in the good old days when dinosaurs roamed the Earth there was a giant inland sea called the Sundance Sea (or Western Interior Epicontinental Seaway for those of you who like the words). In the central Alabama Georgia region this sea lapped up against and weathered the rocks that make up the Appalachian mountains, depositing the younger (green) rocks. Geologically what we're dealing with here are older (Pennsylvanian, about say 300 millionish years old) rock of the Appalachian mountains truncated by and overlain by much younger (Cretaceous, about say 80 ish million years old) rock.
Geopolitically I'm sure there are a number of factors that play into why Appalachia is Republican country (and if there's a political scientist out there who would like to collaborate on something get in touch) my guess is that a lot of them are controlled by the underlying geology.
Interesting that on this map anyway the political boundary and the Geologic boundary coincide.

Mountains and such

The arc of history is long but it bends toward freedom.
--M.L. King

A man who would have had to sit at the back of the bus when he was a child is now the president of the United States Of America.
Thank God.

Have a cry

But in a good way

These two boys waited as a long line of adults greeted Senator Obama before a rally on Martin Luther King Day in Columbia, S.C. They never took their eyes off of him. Their grandmother told me, "Our young men have waited a long time to have someone to look up to, to make them believe Dr. King's words can be true for them." Jan. 21, 2008.

That picture and text come from a great photo essay by Callie Shell that can be found here

Picrtures to soothe the nervous Democrat's heart

Normal paleo-oriented (mostly) blogging will resume after election when I can breathe again.

Bassets for Obama

Continuing a theme (click the picture to enbiggen and get the whole effect)

best add ever

I cannot find it on you tube so I'll link to it on Ackerman.

all in the game....

Breasts for Obama

say no more*

*except that I have the coolest wife in the world
(now THAT'S some real content)

Politics

Ok I really wasn't going to go here but: Barak Obama just did an interview in the Wall Street Journal in which he said:

I tend to be eclectic. I do think we're in a different time in 2008 than we were in 1992. The thing I think people should feel confident in is that I'm going to make these judgments not based on some fierce ideological pre-disposition but based on what makes sense. I'm a big believer in evidence. I'm a big believer in fact. You know, if somebody shows me we can do something better through a market mechanism, I'm happy to do it. I have no vested interest in expanding government or setting up a program just for the sake of setting one up. It's too much work.

QUICK someone elect him president before he changes his mind!!!!!!

4000 Dead

Plus tens of thousands wounded plus no one is even sure how many dead, wounded, homeless, displaced Iraqis, but all told probably millions
And why? I have yet to hear an official reason that makes any sense. Meanwhile the people who actually attacked us are running wild in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
And here we are.... 4000

at last our long nightmare is over.

Seriously isn't there anything more important. I mean... DAMN