Captain Janeway was the first woman Captain of a Starship. 1995-2001

Although Captain Sisko was in Command of Deep Space Nine in 1993 no African-American has ever captained a Starship in a series.

So Hillary will lead the Democratic election drive with…

in any case, i much prefer our realistic grappling with our troubled past than blind fervour

Indeedy.

Certainly Hillary is brilliant and inspiring but she is still a corporate slave the same way Bill was – and she is more cunning. There's a lot of information out there but this open letter summarises the…

some previously rock-ribbed Clintonites

= ribbed for her pleasure?

You should ice your cake with both names, one on each side, and see which one goes quickest :)

Ooh, how cunning. A culinary exit poll! Alas, I had to bail on the cupcakes as we had a germy boy in the house. Didn't want pass it on to all…

The primaries came up at lunch today, and many people who usually know exactly what they think were saying they had simply no idea what they would do tomorrow (well, those of my colleagues…

I've followed The Bag for some time which uses the visual images of Bush to probe his psyche (amongst many other interesting things). This extends that examination to his own visual enthusiasms. Fascinating.

the patriotism was amazing

patriotism is not always a good thing. too much patriotism is definitely not a good thing. a nice balance where being proud of who we are and what we've achieved without being arrogant towards others is probably best. in any case, i much prefer our realistic…

All of which made me wonder.…

I have to say, this awesome video (plus his great books) made me want to vote for Barack Obama.

It's a measure of the impact of that video that both you and David have noted it, and I was going to until I realised you had. Interesting.