LA Times: What the What?

So for a couple of weeks now, I’ve been getting emails from the Los Angeles Times about how my email newsletter subscriptions are about to end. I’ve been ignoring them, because I don’t think I actually get any emails from the Los Angeles Times. I suppose I must have registered with a real email address on their site to read a story once, years ago, before BugMeNot and their Firefox extension made such things unnecessary. In any case, I don’t care, fine, whatever, stop sending me those newsletters you’re not actually sending me, I’ll find a way to survive, despite the longing I shall forever feel in my heart.

Just now, though, I got this brilliant piece of email from them:

“Why have we stopped sending you emails?” WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS THING IS? IT’S AN EMAIL! THAT YOU’RE SENDING ME! ABOUT HOW YOU’VE STOPPED SENDING ME EMAILS WHICH IN ACTUALITY YOU NEVER WERE SENDING ME IN THE FIRST PLACE!”

It boggles the mind.

“All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.”

Not directly research-related, but worth noting to both sky-is-falling Democrats and gleeful Republicans alike:

Much is being made of the fact that since Barack Obama was elected, Democrats have lost races for governor in both Virginia and New Jersey, and of course, have now lost the Massachusetts US Senate seat held by Democrats since JFK won it in 1952. This is, depending on your personal beliefs, either a harbinger of doom or a reason to rejoice, but it seems to me it’s really just a repeat of recent electoral history. Newly elected Presidents of the previously out-of-power party lose their first off-year contests.

Check it out:

• November 1992: Bill Clinton (D) elected President after 12 years of Republican rule.
• November 1993: Christie Todd Whitman (R) elected NJ Governor, replacing Jim Florio (D)
• November 1993: George Allen (R) elected VA Governor, replacing Doug Wilder (D).
• June 1994: Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) elected US Senator from Texas, replacing Lloyd Bentsen (D).

Clinton, as you may recall, went on to serve two terms as President. Then, of course:

• November 2000: George W. Bush (R) elected President after 8 years of Democratic rule.
• November 2001: Jim McGreevey (D) elected NJ Governor, replacing Christie Todd Whitman (R). (technically, McGreevey was immediately preceded by a series of acting governors after Whitman resigned to join the Bush administration)
• November 2001: Mark Warner (D) elected VA Governor, replacing Jim Gilmore (R).

Bush, so soundly thrashed here in his first elections as titular head of his party, served two terms as well.

November 2008: Barack Obama (D) elected President after 8 years of Republican rule.

• November 2009: Chris Christie (R) elected NJ governor, replacing Jon Corzine (D).
• November 2009: Bob McDonnell (R) elected VA governor, replacing Tim Kaine (D).
• January 2010: Scott Brown (R) elected US Senator from Massachusetts, replacing Ted Kennedy (D).

I’m not saying progressives shouldn’t be concerned and that conservatives shouldn’t be happy — I’m saying this is in no way indicative of a game-changing turn of events. That’s all.

McGreevey

How Not To Link

This has nothing to do with research, and I’ve probably complained about this before, but it really aggravates me every time I see it:

THAT IS NOT HOW THE INTERNET WORKS, NEW YORK TIMES. CUT IT OUT.

Possibly not obvious from the screengrab, especially because the arrow gets left out: if you click the URL in the story, you go to a New York Times page that uselessly lists all their articles about Facebook. Just in case anyone from the world of old media is reading this and wants to know what they should have done: LINK TO MS. SALAHI’S FACEBOOK PAGE.

God, how is this still so difficult?