Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold?

It is official -- four more years of the Obama administration. And he's done what his fellow Democrat, Bill Clinton, had done, ie secure a second term.

It may be too early to say so but perhaps what may be emerging is a political culture of letting a first-term President "finish his job" by way of a second term (For the Republicans, in recent times, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush had that opportunity). Come to think of it, one can argue it shows a certain robustness of the American political system and the savvy of the country's Digital Age electorate who are less politically party-centric than their elders.

The 50-50 left-right political divide and the repeat of a GOP-dominated House and a Democratic-dominated Senate? That's checks and balances for you, as the founding fathers had wanted! The hard work ahead then is to avert policy gridlock.

Meanwhile, the world's attention is moving on to China's once-in-a-decade political transition. One recent commentary that I found though-provoking is Minxin Pei's "China's Troubled Bourbons":

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rising-political-uncertainty-in-china-by-minxin-pei

ST (Nov 6) reproduced this Project Syndicate story; I felt its headline was better:

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The rest of the world continues to be besotted with Psy and his Gangnam Style!...

http://www.examiner.com/article/psy-rocks-the-streets-of-paris-with-gangnam-style-performance

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Finally, here are two more "blasts from the past"...

Frankly, I don't know what this first one is! I know I found it in my school report book, which I had retrieved when I wanted to blog about my school results. All I remember is that it was a thin, flimsy feather when I left it between the pages decades ago. But it's fluffier now.

As for this other picture...

...I'll discuss it tomorrow.