Search results

The year was '02. Old Georgie Bush was in the White House, nickels have pictures of bumblebees on them, the cable networks were speculating as to the prospect of war with Iraq, I was in shorter pants than now... ...and John McCain was the Republican you could take home to your lesbian vegan...

This will be very important for a story I'm thinking of writing. Prior to the election, there was substantial speculation that Obama might pick Hagel: see, for example, here, here, here, and here. Unlike a speculative McCain-Lieberman ticket, base enthusiasm wouldn't have been a problem; if...

This is probably beyond my ability to achieve. So I'm calling for all tenders. I want to write, in real time as it progresses, a TL of McCain's first term, over the next four years. At the moment, we'd be discussing cabinet appointments. The POD would have to be small -- as in, the US would...

How could Frances Perkins, first female cabinet secretary and one of the key figures behind the New Deal, have become President? And no, you can't say 'kill the rest of the Cabinet.'

How, with a POD after the slicing of Albania from the Ottomon Empire in 1912, could Albania have become a state governed along Islamic religious lines? It doesn't have to be the Taliban, by any means, but I mean a much more religious government with clerics playing a role in government, a...

Standard disclaimer: fictional characters herein bear no resemblance to anyone, living or dead. The TL will be constructed out of 'omniscient narration' and character vignettes, with vignettes playing a much more prominent part once we get past the introduction (which requires backstory and...

DeWitt Clinton, a former Democrat-Republican adopted by the Federalists as a vote-winner, did better than any Federalist since John Adams in 1812, although the electoral vote wasn't particularly tight. His defeat was pretty much the moment where the Federalists jumped the shark; from there, it...

Straight outta law school... D v S is perhaps the most famous case in legal history, establishing modern principles of the 'duty of care' owed by manufacturers to avoid harm to their customers. The 'neighbour principle', whereby you must avoid harm towards your neighbours (those who could be...

Title says it all, pretty much. We tend to forget how well he did -- but winning New Hampshire, 20% of the popular primary vote and outlasting the rest of the contenders indicates a campaign that could have been competitive, if things had fallen the right way. If Dole had decided not to run...

Scenario No. 1: In 1991, just after the Gulf War when H W Bush was at his height, there was speculation that he would drop Dan Quayle from the ticket and replace him with Dick Cheney, or another prominent figure, instead. See here. (Particularly ironic in light of future developments is the...

During Bush's administration, the Republican Party has, as a whole, stayed relatively united behind him, with only occasional mavericks (like Paul or Hagel) criticising his administration. However, how could dissent within the party towards the Bush administration have gained such strength...

Simple scenario. How could the Spanish peninsula remain, more or less, under Muslim control to the present day? And, keeping in mind butterflies (preventing any real parallels after, say, a century or two), how would a surviving Al-Andalus, either unified under a single state (an heir to the...

In 1977, scientists announce that the Gas Chromatograph - Mass Spectometer on Viking 1 has picked up evidence of microbial life on Mars. This evidence is reasonably incontrovertable; evidence of methane and organic chemicals. The Labeled Release container has proven evidence of microorganisms...

Having spent some time trawling through the archives of Time Magazine, as you do, it's remarkable how close Jesse Jackson actually came to winning the Democratic nomination in 1988. Indeed, as late as April, after the Michigan primary (article here for verification), he was regarded as the...

I know almost nothing on this subject, but I've learnt that between 1031 and 1070 (the early taifa period), Islamic Cordoba was governed as a republic before its conquest by another of the taifa states. So, what if this republic had survived for a significant period of time? Does anyone have...

One of the things I love about Russian space technology is how uniform and yet versatile it is. You've got the Soyuz and Salyut module designs, each dating back 45 and 35 years respectively, and yet both are still in use today (Salyut in the ISS, and Soyuz to get there). With an infinitely...

The House of Representatives has been been very slim pickings for presidential fodder. Of the 43 presidents, only one--James Garfield--has become president directly from the House of Reps, without having held a more senior office, and even then he was a war hero. So how could more members of...

With a POD of no later than September 11, 2001, make the multinational liberation/invasion/conquest/salvation (I'm very big on balance) of Iraq result in: A non-sectarian multiparty democracy; A safe, relatively harmonious Iraq; A defeated or non-existent insurgency; A degree of economic...

What if Umar, the second Caliph, had survived the assassination attempt on him, or if the attempt had not been made at all? He was 60 when he died, which might mean that he could have survived for years yet (keeping in mind the fact that being a tribal leader in seventh century Arabia does not...

I'm just throwing around a few ideas here for what could be my next TL. In 1992, Ross Perot was ahead in the polls for almost two months around June. Unfortunately, he rapidly declined due to his withdrawal from the race and subsequent perceptions of, well, eccentricity. Even if he had gained...