Politics, ah, politics! If human insanities could physically manifest as lumps of putrefaction, and the dripping slimes collected into a giant festering pit, and the mound of corruption formed itself into a monster and shambled forth to eat brains...

Ordinarily I prefer to discuss politics indirectly, rather than directly. Politics varies from government to government. Better to talk about human universals - cognitive biases that can be nailed down and examined in the laboratory - malfunctions of sanity that appear wherever humans go. Then it's up to you to apply the knowledge to your own political situation.

This policy also avoids offending people, so I tend to suspect my clever-sounding rationale for following it.

Over the next two weeks, Iowa and New Hampshire will exercise their Constitutional right to appoint the next President of the United States. I hope you will forgive me if I am, briefly, relevant.

I intend to do a series of three posts directly applying to politics. Don't worry, after that it's back to the safe refuge of cognitive science.

Rest assured that I don't plan on endorsing a party, let alone a candidate.

If I say something that you disagree with, remember that my attempts at rationality are not sourced from a divine scripture, and hence are not a package deal. You read plenty of other blogs, I hope, where an author occasionally says something you dislike, from time to time?