OK so this is a robocall I just got:
Hello, press 1 for a message about capitalism.
Of course I press 1. It's been too long since my last political philosophy class.
The United States of America was founded on the principles of small government and allowing people to follow their dreams. Keep capitalism strong in the USA.
And that was it. Who paid for this? Why? What does it mean?
posted this | this entry's link | 5 comments
| Robocalls | Strange
The Media ask the important questions: "What kind of man orders a cheeseburger without ketchup but Dijon mustard?". Debbie sent this over...
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Condiments | Fox News | The Media
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. And check out this great customizable Mother's Day video -- which is, also, a very clever bit of political viral marketing.
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Mother's Day | Political Ads | Viral Advertising
See Fox News says "Let's get riled up!" and then the Right says "Let's get riled up!"
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Fox News | Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
Again, torture (and its efficacy) is in the news, which reminds me that I've been meaning to repost
Suggestions for Japanese Interpreters Based on Work in the Field by Major Sherwood Moran, a Japanese interpreter / interrogator during WWII. (The original link died, but Moran's grandson sent an updated PDF my way.) Previously linked to here.
| Military | Torture | WWII
Chuck Norris talks about secession and the Alamo. Calls for "thousands of cell groups" to watch Glenn Beck's show on Friday the 13th called "We Surround Them".
Via Fark.
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Fox News | Glenn Beck | Secession | Texas
Interesting..... Poverty in Our Cities.U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007
What do the top ten cities (over 250,000) with the highest poverty rate all have in common?
Detroit, MI (1st on the poverty rate list) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961;
Buffalo, NY (2nd) hasn't elected one since 1954;
Cincinnati , OH (3rd)...since 1984;
Cleveland , OH (4th)...since 1989;
Miami , FL (5th) has never had a Republican mayor;
St. Louis , MO (6th)....since 1949;
El Paso , TX (7th) has never had a Republican mayor;
Milwaukee , WI (8th)...since 1908;
Philadelphia , PA (9th)...since 1952;
Newark , NJ (10th)...since 1907.
Einstein once said, 'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.'
It is the poor who habitually elect Democrats---yet they are still ...................
POOR
The first thing I muttered was "correlation does not equal causation!" (Yes, I mutter with exclamation points.)
Then I got curious and ran some numbers myself. Looked at state poverty rates to remove the urban/rural political effect (news flash: cities tend to vote Democratic!), and then sorted those by political party of the current governor:
That doesn't tell you much -- we're averaging averages, which is never really a good idea statistically. So if you take the state-wide populations, and the state-wide poor populations, and aggregate them, it looks like this:
Statistically it's pretty crude, but at least it's not cherry-picking data. I wouldn't draw much of a conclusion from this, other than to mutter that "correlation does not equal causation" to myself. Again. With an exclamation point in there somewhere.
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Categorized: Business & Economy | National News
See also:
Democrats | Economy | GOP | Poverty | Statistics
The Obama logo also-rans. Sadly, although Jim Esch had the best political logo ever, he did not prevail in Nebraska.
posted this | this entry's link | 1 comment | Barack Obama | Design | Logos
Mr. Rogers pwns Congress. "Looks like you just earned the 20 million dollars." Via John Hodgman, a year ago or so.
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Children's Television | Congress | Mr. Rogers | Public Broadcasting
| Promises Promises
Zach's Kindergarten class watches the inauguration:
posted this | this entry's link | 1 comment | Zach
I'm going to have the best inauguration party -- Zach's entire kindergarten class (plus Ben) will be watching the swearing-in on our living room rug.
By the way -- congratulations and all, Obama, on becoming president. Now can you please stop asking me for more money? Thanks.
posted this | this entry's link | 2 comments | Spider-Man | Superheroes
Anh Cao, first Vietnamese-American in the House, and apparently our Philosopher-Congressman: "Life is absurd but one cannot succumb to the absurdity of it." and "I truly espouse Aristotle's definition of virtue: To walk in the middle line."
David Paterson, Governor of New York State and, apparently, our Gubernatorial Comedian: "I ask all of you to turn your plate over. There may be a gold seal on the bottom of your plate. If you have that seal, you will be the next senator of the State of New York."
posted this | this entry's link | 2 comments | David Paterson | New Orleans | New York | Philosophy
Analysts may look to bellwethers such as Vigo County, or Guam, but for my money, you can't do worse than picking the coolest Secret Service code name to predict an election. Just look at the following match-ups:
Timberwolf v. Peso
Cavalier v. Rawhide
Ramrod v. Eagle
Deacon v. Passkey
Minuteman v. Trailblazer
Renegade v. Phoenix
Searchlight v. Lancer
Tumbler v. Sundance
Without even knowing which name is assigned to which candidate, can you guess the winner of these elections? They're out of chronological order, so bonus IshPoints if you can ID who each one is. Answers in first comment. No peeking.
posted this | this entry's link | 3 comments | Presidential Elections | Secret Service
HOAX! See below.
The LA Times reports:
Cameron, the Fox beat reporter for the Republican presidential ticket, said he had been told by unnamed sources -- and on the condition he not report the details during the campaign -- that Palin could not name all of the countries that are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.He did not mention which one (or ones) she whiffed on, but there are only three: Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Nor, according to Cameron, was Palin aware that Africa is a continent. (Perhaps she was hamstrung by the fact that no part of that land mass can be viewed from her homestate.)
(Emphasis added. Via Cynical-C.)
Update: Apparently, she doesn't even know what a real moose looks like either:
Update Update: Egg, meet face. The whole thing was a hoax perpetrated by Martin Eisenstadt, a fake advisor to the McCain campaign. I done got taken in. At least I wasn't the only one. Curse you, MSM, and your bad-fact-checkers!
posted this | this entry's link | 7 comments | Geography | Hoaxes | Sarah Palin
And there was much rejoicing.
When I was dropping the kids off at school today, there was an elderly black lady standing in the lobby. A stream of children, some gleefully shouting "Obama is President!", parted around her and ran off to class. She was silently holding two photographs: one of Frederick Douglass and one of Booker T. Washington.
I got the feeling that she wasn't showing the photographs to the children. She was showing Washington and Douglass what this day, this morning, finally looks like.
| Barack Obama
I just saw in Slate that Barack Obama has been sending a messenger to Canada to tell them (who he has to tell, Slate doesn't specify) that his whole Anti-NAFTA thing is just a show to impress the yokels in Ohio. Don't worry, he's really a free trader just like us. He just needs to say these things to get elected so that he can protect NAFTA.
It reminds me of LBJ sending messengers back to Houston to tell his financial backers that he didn't really believe in Civil Rights, that he only said these pro-civil rights things so that he could keep control of the Senate from the Northern Liberals and Republicans. Really he was a segregationist just like them. Really.
He has taken a page from the Master, while Clinton is sampling Walter Mondale.
An American politician who speaks intelligently about religion? Really?
Colin sent over a link to this video inspired by a Barack Obama speech:
Here's the backstory. Compare and contrast with Mosh.
I've been mostly avoiding writing about politics, but I'll put it out here now: I'm pulling for Obama. (And not just because Scarlett Johansson tells me to -- or Caroline Kennedy.)
I'm pulling for him because he's inspirational. And I think in electoral politics today, it's all about turnout. Inspiring voters will increase turnout. You win the turnout game (in the right places), you win the election.
Now, I know that Hillary can be inspirational too. The problem is that she also inspires hatred, among many. I think (and this is of course without evidence) that she'll inspire as many people to turn out against her as she will for her. People love to hate Hillary. I'm sure the GOP would love to have her as the Democratic nominee.
Many people to whom I've advanced this argument have asked, "Isn't the country too racist to elect a black man?" Maybe yes. Maybe there's a reason there are so many lies being spread about Obama and so many people willing to believe them.
But then again, maybe not. (I mean, as Thudfactor points out, wouldn't John Edwards be the front-runner if this were the case?)
Or maybe this will be the year that Reverend King's prediction -- "I can foresee the Negro vote becoming consistently the decisive vote in national elections" -- will come to pass. Maybe turnout from all those inspired by Obama will wash away those who could not pull the lever for someone who looks different from them.
I guess we'll find out tomorrow. See you at the polls.
In an April 1995 memo, Bush invited his staff to come to his office to look at a painting. … The picture is a Western scene of a cowboy riding up a craggy hill, with two other riders following behind him. Bush told visitors—who often noted his resemblance to the rider in front—that it was called A Charge To Keep and that it was based on his favorite Methodist hymn of that title, written in the eighteenth century by Charles Wesley. As Bush noted in the memo, which he quoted in his autobiography of the same title: “I thought I would share with you a recent bit of Texas history which epitomizes our mission. When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us. What adds complete life to the painting for me is the message of Charles Wesley that we serve One greater than ourselves.” Bush identified with the lead rider, whom he took to be a kind of Christian cowboy, an embodiment of indomitable vigor, courage, and moral clarity.Only that is not the title, message, or meaning of the painting. The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled “The Slipper Tongue,” published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916. The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors. In the magazine, the illustration bears the caption: “Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught.”
