Giving Xenophobia a Bad Name...

... or, vaznetti breaks that self-imposed rule about talking about politics.

It's ironic to be teaching the Athenian democracy at election time, as the Athenians considered election an undemocratic way of choosing leaders. They preferred that their council be large and chosen by lot; voting was good for making decisions, not for choosing other people to make decisions for you.

The Canadians voted on Monday and got a Conservative minority government; many of my friends and colleagues are a little distressed about this, and I sympathize, since I know what it is to be concerned about the direction your country is going. I do have trouble accepting the most doom-and-gloom predictions since

A. even if Stephen Harper does have a right-wing agenda, he doesn't have the votes in Parliament to push it through. He has fewer seats than the Liberals did in 2004, and look how well that turned out for them,

B. there's bound to be another election within the next two years, as soon as the Liberals figure that people have forgotten about the whole corruption thing, at which point the Liberals will probably win a majority again, and

C. as a U.S. citizen, I'm pretty sure the Constitution does not permit me to take Canadian politics seriously.

In other news, the Palestinians are voting today, in an election which looks like it boils down to Fatah vs. Hamas. Interesting times, indeed.