Moral Psychology - Liberals and Conservatives

This is a lecture given by Jonathan Haidt, a psychologist, in February 2008 about how five moral values shape our political choices. The lecture was sponsored by TED, a non-profit organization bringing together intelligent minds from the fields of technology, entertainment, and design (hence, TED). To find out more about your moral compass, check out the morality quiz, a study by Haidt and University of Virginia grad student Jesse Graham.

Professor Obama

Check out this article about Barack Obama's former students at the University of Chicago's Law School.

The Colbert Report - Powerless

Dig Deeper

In order to combat the opposition, you need to know what they stand for. So, I checked out the McCain-Palin website and looked up their plan for health care. I found an average-length web page with a series of bullet points. The only additional link is to the McCain-Palin position on autism.

Moving over to Obama-Biden website, the health care web page also has bullet points, although in a smaller font. At the bottom of the page, you can download the full 15-page PDF of the Obama-Biden health care plan, as well as additional information on HIV/AIDS and cancer.

If you continue to compare both sites, the results will be the same. Even if you don't agree with Barack Obama and Joe Biden, at least you will know where they stand.

Please educate yourself on the issues before you vote on November 4.

More from Craig

"If you don't vote, you're a moron."

Here is Craig Ferguson's take on America's political process. Please note that Craig is a recently naturalized American citizen and understands that it's our duty to vote. As I noted on my Facebook page, this clip is long for our instant message society, but it's worth watching.

Obama Waffles

I'm so mad, I can't write about this issue. Check out the story at Christianity Today about a vendor at the Values Voter Summit selling Obama Waffle Mix.

Just to be clear, this is not about free speech or satire. It's racism.

The Page

If you've been keeping up with the blog, you'll know that I'm caught up in political coverage and that I try to read sources that represent both sides of the story. The best of these sources is The Page by Mark Halperin at Time Magazine. Mark is a regular contributor to the Charlie Rose Show on PBS and he is the former Chief Political Director at ABC News. There's been a big gaping hole at that news division since Halperin left. He doesn't have the ideal camera persona, like George Stephanopolous, but he has such a breadth of knowledge and detailed analysis, who cares about his charisma. This is definitely a case of substance over style.

The reason why I like The Page is that Halperin hits the highlights of the political news day without providing any commentary. He leaves it up to the reader to pick out the juicy tidbits.

Feasting on Waves

I love Alton Brown. I also love his job, traveling around the Caribbean, searching for all things local and delicious.

Watch his four-part series, Feasting on Waves on The Food Network, Sunday nights.

Bring Tina Fey back to SNL!