Poll Results: 1 in 3 Americans is Completely Clueless
By Brian | August 10, 2006
Recently, John Scalzi expressed his disbelief about a poll showing that 36% of Americans believe our government was somehow involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Now, there’s this:
SOME 30 per cent of Americans cannot say in what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York’s World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in Washington took place, according to a poll published in the Washington Post newspaper.
All I can say is I hope these are roughly the same group of people.
The article goes on to point out that 95% could remember the month and date of the attacks. Thank God for small favors…
Is there any way we could potentially tag these people and prevent them from responding to polls in the future? After that, we can talk about voting rights…
Categories: News and/or Media | Comments Off on Poll Results: 1 in 3 Americans is Completely Clueless
So What’s Up with the Pizza?
By Brian | August 9, 2006
I know, I know – I got everybody excited with talk of pizza and Regis a couple of weeks ago and then SILENCE. What gives, right?
Well, here’s the update from Jason Bennion, our correspondent on the ground in Salt Lake City. Seems Dave (proprietor of Este pizza) is still working on transportation logistics, and Chenopup is still working on TV coverage. Also, Jason has sampled the competition and offers this promising review:
The pizza is indeed similar to what I remember eating in New York ten years ago: a thin, flexible but not-too-chewy crust, not too much sauce or cheese, and served in massive wedges that must be folded in half to be easily manipulated. As for the flavor, well… it’s good. It’s damn good, in fact.
As Glenn Reynolds would say, read the whole thing.
UPDATE: For the most recent update, click here.
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How Can 136,042 People be So Dumb?
By Brian | August 9, 2006
Ned Lamont beat Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary last night by a tally of 146,061 (52%) to 136,042 (48%), in what has repeatedly been called a referrendum on President Bush’s foreign policy and the war in Iraq. I find it fascinating, though, that polling on the war itself is much more polarized (60% / 36%, according to the latest CNN poll). It’s almost as if opinion on a generic issue doesn’t fully translate when people are voting for an individual candidate. Now, I wonder where I’ve heard that before?
Speaking of voting for an individual candidate, I’m also fascinated by those who endorsed Lieberman through yesterday, but are now coming out squarely in favor of Lamont. If you take it as a given that Lamont and Lieberman disagree on many issues (the war being chief among them), then I would think these “blind Democrats” would have some explaining to do. Do you support the war or not? If not, why did you back a pro-war candidate for senator? If so, why are you backing Lamont now?
If their only concern is putting a Democrat in the seat, regardless of what that Democrat believes, I would think that all but the died-in-the-wool party faithful (in Connecticut and elsewhere) could be swayed with a solid, issue-oriented campaign.
Categories: Political Rantings | 2 Comments »
The Democrats Prepare to Lose to the Least Popular Bush Yet…
By Brian | August 7, 2006
Jeff Porten is aghast at the concerns expressed by key Democratic leaders that the Democratic voters won’t turn up in sufficient numbers to defeat the Republican majorities in the House and Senate in the 2006 midterm elections. Specifically, he charges them with not properly communicating the obvious reasons why every Democrat in the country should turn out to vote. Summarized, and with Jeff’s original links (all from today’s Washington Post), they are as follows:
1) The Republicans are screwing up the reconstruction effort in Iraq.
2) The Republicans are hurting our troops’ mental health in Iraq.
3) The Republicans are soft on the environment.
4) The Republicans lied to the 9/11 commission on how the FAA & NORAD reacted to the terrorist attacks.
5) The Republicans are abusing power with regard to the use of special military courts.
6) The Republicans are (still) soft on the environment.
7) The Republicans have overused and underfunded the National Guard.
8) The Republicans are (still) soft on the environment.
9) The Republicans have failed to stabilize Iraq.
10) The Republicans have (still) failed to stabilize Iraq.
11) The Republicans have ineffectively run the FDA, as evidenced by their inability to review and approve the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B.
12) The Republicans have maintained a presence on the Kansas State Board of Education with someone who believes Intelligent Design should be taught in classrooms instead of (or along side of?) Darwinism.
As I see it, Jeff is right to criticize the Democratic leaders, but then proceeds to commit the same exact sin he’s accusing them of committing. Instead, they should take the advice of their target market: a socially moderate, registered Republican in a democratic-leaning state with a significant number of electoral votes (read: me). OK, everyone listening? Here goes:
1) Your message has not been communicated well, and that’s something you need to get better at doing.
2) Your message has got to be something more than “The Republicans <insert bad thing here>.” As long as that’s all you’re doing, whatever debate occurs will focus on the Republicans’ agenda, and I promise you they have arguments prepared to defend their positions on each of these issues.
3) The only people you’re going to convince with these arguments are the people that would vote for a Democratic doorknob before any Republican. Even the best GOTV campaign is not going to win an election with only these people. As incredible as it may seem to people within that group, the group isn’t large enough to elect a significant number of people (and certainly not the President of the United States).
4) The reason for #3 is that all of the hypothetical Republican bashing melts away as soon as people are faced with a choice between an actual Democrat and an actual Republican. It’s far easier to paint the opposition party as evil monsters than a particular individual. Why? Because that individual will stand up and explain his position. And if he’s a halfway decent politician (and, let’s face it, all of them are), he’s going to come off sounding dramatically less evil than your GOTV campaign implies. Lots of people will hate the Republicans in general, but vote for their own, incumbent Congressman because “he’s a good guy who gets it.”
5) The way to escape this vicious cycle is to find candidates with their own ideas on how to lead. Bill Clinton was such a candidate, and it’s the reason he’s the only Democrat to serve two terms as President since FDR. JFK was that kind of candidate too, but we’ll never know how his second election would have turned out. Even Al Gore had a lot of independent ideas (the environment, the social security lockbox, and others), and he probably would have won if he stuck to his message during the campaign, rather than saying absolutely anything that he thought would help secure him a victory.
6) The focus on a “Democratic position” on key issues masks this kind of independent thought. Example: the recent kerfuffle amongst Democrats about when/how many troops we should pull out of Iraq (40,000 right now! Half by the end of the year! All of them by next Fourth of July!) not only makes the party look disorganized, but if a particular candidate actually has a well-reasoned plan for troop withdrawal, including an understanding of what the troops are doing now, who will take over those responsibilities, how long it will take, and what that means for troop levels, it’s instantly going to get compared with the various proposals on the table, and fall into a “me too!” category in the next News Cataloging story. He/She will not get the credit he/she deserves for actually thinking it through.
So, take my advice for what it’s worth: stop trying to get the whole party elected. Put together the best & brightest minds in the party, sit down with the candidates, and help each one of them shape their message so that their respective constituents know where they stand.
Make the messages start with “The Democrats <insert good thing here>, instead of waiting for Bush to “boil puppies,” as Jeff so eloquently puts it. Debate those issues in your local races. Convince the disgruntled Republicans that their Democratic candidate is a “good guy who gets it,” and give them a reason to vote for him/her.
It’s not as sexy as some grand, national strategy, but it’s what your opponents are doing every day, and it’s why they keep winning, despite how much you’ve convinced everyone to hate them.
Categories: Political Rantings | 2 Comments »
Daily Kos – Where do they find these people?
By Brian | August 7, 2006
Recently, I’ve been visiting Daily Kos on a regular basis, just to see what all the hype is about. My conclusion after just a few weeks? Wow, these folks are nuts. I mean certifiably looney. Just about every post is a hard slam against some Republican official (at least one in three is against President Bush), and the rest are slamming Joe Lieberman, persona non grata in the Democratic party these days. I honestly don’t care who wins the Connecticut Democratic Primary, but I kind of hope Lieberman pulls it out just to see what these folks do in the subsequent days. And then ultimately, will they support Lieberman in the general election, or endorse the Republican? It will be interesting times in Kosland, that’s for sure.
Oh, and every post gets 200+ commenters, all of whom agree with the poster. There is no semblance of debate or discussion, just a lot of “well put, Bob!” and “Here, here!” I can only assume that those with differing opinions (like myself) stay away because it’s just not worth screaming into that much wind.
Anyway, here’s the latest example of the craziness I’ve found over there:
Alaska oil production will be severely curtailed as BP investigates pipeline problems.
In the world of Big Oil, this is cause for celebration. While supplies shouldn’t be affected (the outage is 2.6 percent of American daily consumption and reserves are high), it’ll give oil companies another excuse to jack up prices and continue on its record gouging of American consumers.
Kos is apparently unaware (or assumes that we are unaware) that the oil companies don’t set the price of oil, the commodity markets do. In fact, he goes on to quote an article that calls the U.S. market well-supplied, but in “very high anxiety.” He translates “high anxiety” to “high opportunity” for … what else?
Oil giant Exxon Mobil has posted the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly-traded US firm.
Helped by high oil prices, the company earned $10.4bn (
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Proof that there’s Karma in the World
By Brian | August 1, 2006
This is among the most bizarre stories I’ve ever heard:
A waitress in Westlake, OH loses her wallet in a bar in nearby Lakewood, OH on July 9th. The person who stole it sells her drivers license to another woman, Maria Bergan, who is 23 years old. Two weeks later, Ms. Bergan walks into a bar in Westlake and is asked for ID to prove she is 21. She hands the waitress the stolen license she just purchased and (wait for it…) the waitress recognizes it as HER OWN LICENSE!!! Ms. Bergan is arrested and charged with identity theft and receiving stolen property. Says police captain Guy Turner:
“The odds of this waitress recovering her own license defy calculation.”
Indeed. Almost as high, in fact, as the odds of someone who is over 21 using a stolen license to prove she’s over 21.
As Brannon Denning (guest Instapundit blogger) says, Doh!
Categories: The World Wide Weird | Comments Off on Proof that there’s Karma in the World
More amazing technology on its way…
By Brian | August 1, 2006
Dr. Ulf Leonhardt of St. Andrews University in Scotland has described a theoretical device that can make people invisible.
Categories: The Future is Now | Comments Off on More amazing technology on its way…
How People Find Me – July Edition
By Brian | August 1, 2006
Fascinating Google searches that led people to my site in the month of July:
- condi headache (4 / 232,000)
- internet is not a truck it is a njtransit (>100 / 33,900)
- net neutraliity (2 / 10)*
- how to wire a dsl jack (33 / 1,230,000)**
- economics of nintendo in the 1980’s (>100 / 11,200)
- clonk scenarios (>100 / 565)***
- christie brinkley now (>100 / 504,000)
- finding naked pictures (>100 / 20,100,000)
- argument on demand (>100 / 45,600,000)
- no whammies no whammiesstop (1 / 3)****
- couple sleeping positions meaning (>100 / 13,500,000)
*: That’s right, I’m one of the prime resources for people who are interested in net neutrality but can’t spell “neutrality.”**: Somewhere, Steve Walsh is laughing his ass off…
***: I have no idea what a “clonk” is, nor does that word appear on my website. Google bug?
****: If you put the space before the word “stop,” I drop to 7 / 777,000. Still, a fitting tribute to, er…what’s his name. You know – the Whammy guy.
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Microsoft Takes a Cue from Spielberg
By Brian | July 31, 2006
Check out TouchLight technology from Microsoft – 3D images that you can manipulate with your hands (like Tom Cruise did in Minority Report).
Very, very cool.
Categories: Tech Talk, The Future is Now | Comments Off on Microsoft Takes a Cue from Spielberg
Good News – Things are Getting Worse!
By Brian | July 28, 2006
When Wall Street analysts start focusing on inflation, you wind up with headlines like this:
STOCK PRICES RALLY ON SLOWDOWN IN GDP
The article explains itself nicely: Basically, when the economy grows at a slower rate, there’s less inflation, which means the Federal Reserve doesn’t have to raise interest rates. This keeps corporations’ costs for borrowing money from going up, which suggests higher profits in the future, so the stock market goes up.
Still reads funny, though…
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