The Upshot of Oakeshott

David Brooks at the New York Times is an Op-Ed Columnist: Arguing With Oakeshott.

Who was Oakeshott and why is he important?
Take a look at the article.

Thinking Americans - I need a Majority

New York Timies Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, with whom we almost always disagree - but not here - in "There They Go Again" writes about the Presidential election:

"If the Democrats are serious about governing, they should remember the words of one of their nominees, Adlai Stevenson. After one of his typically brilliant campaign speeches, someone shouted out to Stevenson from the crowd that he had the votes of all thinking Americans.

Stevenson shouted back, saying that wasn't enough: 'I need a majority!' "

Political Survey: Results

Another political survey - via Anthony Wells.

I have taken the survey now at

Political Survey

giving again the following very centrist results:

Axis Position
1 left/right +1.5729 (+0.0947)
2 pragmatism +1.1335 (+0.0682)

which puts me nearly at the center of the grid between left and right, though a bit to the right
and equally distanced on the point of pragmatic vs. idealistic, though a bit more toward pragmatic.

In other words, the results of this test confirm the other two political tests taken, both of which give almost identical results.

My scores on political tests - I am a centrist.

In order to assess my opinions on this blog, based on my scores on the following tests, I am a centrist.

I scored as a political centrist at the "World's Smallest Political Quiz"
http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

where a centrist is defined as:

"Centrists favor selective government intervention and emphasize practical solutions to current problems. They tend to keep an open mind on new issues. Many centrists feel that government serves as a check on excessive liberty."

This corresponds to my political views quite well. It is always difficult to know how I will vote. It depends on the issue.

On the Political Compass test I had a dot placed identical to the political position of Tony Blair
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
which was also close to centrist.

This also explains why I define my political party as "non-partisan".

Government and eGovernment

Official Pundit is a blog dealing with government and officials of government.

In modern nations, goverment is moving more and more toward eGovernment.

The first eGovernment site was
FirstGov.gov.

Similar eGovernment sites followed in the United Kingdom at
Gateway.gov.uk
and
UKonline.gov.uk
and in Ireland

Other countries have followed suit such as
Australia
New Zealand
Germany
Austria
Switzerland
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Greece
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
Sweden

A list of eGovernment sites from the European Union shows how widespread eGovernment has become worldwide.

The World Bank Group also has an eGovernment site.