Today’s stuff:

  • DotJournalism has a decent feature on blogging.
  • Fellow proportional-representation fan Matthew Yglesias spots the problems of “first past the post” electoral systems in the the Quebec election. He also spots one important thing that Canadian politics has repeatedly demonstrated in the last few years: that third parties can benefit from First Past the Post systems if their electoral base is geographically concentrated, like the separatist parties in Quebec or the Reform Party in the western provinces. Incidentally, the same was true in Britain a century ago, when the Labour Party was able to emerge because its initial support was concentrated in densly-populated industrial cities of northern England. Kieran Healy has some thoughts on this, too.
  • Some thoughts on Security Council reform that will never happen, but are still interesting to consider.
  • It’s old and apparently well-known, but I only saw it today: Günter Grass on the betrayal of America’s core values.
  • Immanuel Wallerstein on “shock and awe.”