Brian Gongol
Romney aims for the business conservatives in Iowa
Despite what people might perceive of the outsized influence of cultural conservative voters in Iowa, there are still many people for whom the economy comes first and always has. They will be showing up to the caucuses on Tuesday night, too, and they're probably going to be attracted to the idea of putting "a turnaround guy" in the White House. The United States tends to be a slightly center-right nation, and it's probably fair to characterize most of the conservatism as a pro-market orientation rather than a demand that things never change socially. The echo chamber of the national and international media tends to assume that thousands of mindless drones here follow the pronouncements of a few noisy conservative leaders, but the truth is that there are plenty of sensible people in Iowa who want free trade and smaller government more than anything else.
The Department of Homeland Security is watching Twitter
It doesn't take more than a minute or two of watching the streams of comments flowing on Twitter to realize that there are a lot of people who type without thinking through the consequences. One can't really blame the government for creating false accounts to track the loose-lipped who might be planning to do violence. But it's also a little ominous that we've had to come to this stage.
Women are substituting education for low-wage jobs
Which can be a very sensible thing to do -- as long as it doesn't require undertaking a whole lot of debt. In the long term, if it turns out that women are doing so in significantly larger proportion than men, it could forecast an important trend in the workplace of the future.
A dozen things that the "Occupy Des Moines" protesters should be doing instead of getting arrested
Tech Tip: How often should I back up my files?
Short answer: Preferably daily. Highly recommended weekly. Absolutely no less than monthly.
Tech Tip: Is it safe to pay bills online?
Short answer: Yes, but you need to know what precautions to take first
Rush to fix Missouri River levees gets underway
