Recent content by Reylance

The premise is completely wrong. The economy was already out of recession for more than a year at the time of the 1992 presidential election, although the recovery takes a lot longer to be noticeable by the general population. The underlying technological trends are bound to have the economy...

You'll need to found Anchorage before it can be a major city. That didn't happen until the 1910s, and the city grew because it became a transportation hub and military base. The city wasn't built around any particular natural resources (oil was discovered later). As for why the state capital...

Here's an interesting take on the consequences of Turtledove's TL-191. The writer suggests that economics would eventually demand that the UK flip-flop and seek an alliance with the US. From here.

I've often wondered just how big an issue this was, given there was so little concern about putting tyro Barack Obama in the White House.

Obviously, the article is a joke. But the Yankees have pursued spending whatever is necessary to acquire what they think are the best players, with the hopes that these players will lead them to championships. That's kind of like pointing to a rags to riches success story and saying that...

And that's why I want a hard cap. The Yankees' willingness to sign the best players to win makes for a less competitive league, which is less interesting for fans. This is perhaps best described in this Onion article...

No one claimed Bush fatigue in OTL 2000. Jeb Bush would have two years to campaign, with the political resources of the Bush family, and would be the highly rated governor of an important swing state. I say he runs.

My main point is that in OTL, almost no one had heard the song Dirty Laundry before buying the album in the first week, and probably within the first two months. The only way the song's absence from the album would have an impact on the first week's sales is if reviewers, having advance copies...

Was Dirty Laundry in fact the last song written for I Can't Stand Still? And why was Johnny Can't Read the first single? Was that the label's decision, or the desire of Don Henley? In any case, you might want to change the dates in your first post. In OTL, Dirty Laundry, the second single...

The books wouldn't be as good. The school, Hogwarts or whatever it's called, would lose its history. Assuming it stays true to its medieval Europe-style wizardry, the school wouldn't be founded until the 1700s or so, which just isn't the same as the ancient Hogwarts. And wizardry just...

Sorry, he does. He ran in the Democratic primary for various statewide political offices, with his best showing at 30.8% of the vote in the primary for the Senate nomination in 1992.

Are the individual accounts assets that can be passed on to one's heirs? One of the benefits of any defined benefit pension plan is that because people who die before receiving benefits receive nothing*, the survivors get more. The tontine-like nature sucks if you're the movie cop who dies two...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxpayer_Relief_Act_of_1997 Will something similar to the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 be passed? The primary effects of the law were lowering the capital gains tax rate to 20%/10%, which would certainly contribute to the stock market boom seen in OTL. The bill...

Thing is, "Axis of Evil" is a lot more reasonable an explanation than "a conspiracy within the government". (Unless you're a conspiracy theorist.)

I read the forums on the show's website, and there were a lot of criticisms there. One main one I agree with is the total lack of governmental authority shown. Where was the county sheriff? The state government? It's like the shows writers were so focused on "Oooh, look at us, Dick Cheney is...