Slave states, begone!

For all those who've been reading all about how the slave states voted for Bush and the free states for Kerry, and who've been subjected to wishful thinking about how the US should have let them "go" (actually they weren't going anywhere, they were staying right where they were, which is why Lincoln didn't go along with the idea: "We cannot physically separate," he pointed out) ...

Time for a little thought experiment.

What if the eleven slave states that declared for secession in 1860-61 had made good on their claim and had not been readmitted to the Union? And nothing else had changed? What effect would this have had on subsequent electoral votes for President?

( Read more. Lots more. )

depressing music

kip_w has been asking about depressing music by composers other than Shostakovich. I've been trying to think. There are composers of somber music, and of sad music, but I can't think of any other major composers of depressed music. Except Mahler, who was a manic-depressive.

And he wrote mostly symphonies, and K. doesn't listen to many symphonies while I do.

I know a symphony that's commonly taken (though the composer denied it) as an expression of thoughts at the prospect of nuclear war: that's a pretty damn depressing thing to face, and the music is absolutely harrowing. (Ralph Vaughan Williams's Sixth)

I also know a symphony that depicts the composer's near-fatal heart attack, and his feelings afterwards. Judging by the music, he was more dazed than anything else. (Carl Nielsen's Sixth)