ME and Ophelia

THERE IS ONLY ONE AMERICA
Not a divided nation

Here below is a map by county. It's not just red states and blue states. It's a red country with some blue spots. Not much change from 2000. [Source: courtesy of Irish Eagle]




IS AMERICA A DIVIDED NATION?
Not really. As this map illustrates

Here below is a different map which shades each county according to the % of the vote for Bush or Kerry. This really puts paid to all the "nation divided" talk. Americans had a vote. Some voted for Bush and some for Kerry, but they are not as "polarised" by region as many would have it. [Source courtesy Internet Commentator]



Blue = 100% democrat
Purple = 50% democrat, 50% republican
Red = 100% republican

Further reading:

Secession in New York: "I'm John Kerry and I Confused This Message."
Normblog in England: Four more years
Belgravia Dispatch in England: They Don't Get It
Belgravia Dispatch: They Don't Get It Either (Part Deux)
Jim Moore in Boston: 5 most important things the Democrats did wrong
Don Park in California: Urgh
Joi Ito in Tokyo: The people of America have failed us today
Burningbird in Missouri: Moving Foward, Not Pulling Back
Burningbird: Through the Rubble Gently
BarlowFriendz in Wyoming, NY, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, On the Road, and in Cyberspace: Magnanimous Defeat
Normblog: Gone wrong
- - -

THE NORMBLOG BLOGGER PROFILES
Features a new profile every Friday morning

On September 17, I received a great surprise email from Norman Geras inviting me to participate in an interview by email.

Every Friday morning Norman posts a "profile" of a blogger, based on a standard questionnaire which he sends to each person who is to be the subject of the profile.
 
Bloggers profiled so far include: Glenn Reynolds, Matt Welch, Natalie Solent, Andrew Sullivan, Michele Catalano, Tim Blair, Jackie D and Jeff Jarvis, among many others.

Not long after receiving the email, I did agree but on condition that there was no deadline. Norman kindly confirmed there was no pressure and sent me the questionnaire.

See the full list of profile links and the latest profile number 59, featuring Marc Mulholland at Daily Moiders.

The profiles make a fun read but after I'd read two, I decided to keep the rest until after I'd completed mine incase they influenced any of my answers.

Here's a note to Norman to say a warm hello and sorry for the delay. I promise to start reading the questionnaire tomorrow and will try to complete the 30 answers as soon as possible.
- - -

ON THIS DAY NOVEMBER 6
Courtesy Scotsman.com

One of the bloodiest offensives of WWI draws to some sort of conclusion today in 1917 as Canadian troops secure the village of Passchendaele, in Belgium. The battle, which has been raging since the summer of that year, costs the lives of some 300,000 British and Commonwealth troops.