A polling firm polled several famous names to test their favorable/unfavorable ratings. Turns out the most popular man in America is Abraham Lincoln (at 91/2), which puts him well ahead of George Washington (86/3). Apparently old George (who owned slaves) didn't poll as well with African Americans as old Abe (who freed them).
Jesus came in second (90/3), but among Republicans he had a 0 unfavorable rating. And Santa Claus was way down the list (67/13). 13% unfavorable? Who hates Santa?
But among Republicans, Santa got a 75 favorable rating (among Dems it was only 61). Think about that for a second. An old bearded, white man with magical powers who gives away free presents to "good" people is more popular with Republicans. I can't even think of any other parallels. Really, I can't...
Nor does this unearned largesse comport with Libertarianism. You would expect the Tea Party to throw Santa's presents in the trash: how else to teach kids that success is something you earn through your own merits, not an entitlement from distant and powerful forces? It's almost like they aren't really into the whole "do-it-yourself" thing, but more into "suck up to the rich and powerful." Go figure.
In other polling news, here's another reason I like being in Australia: Only 50% of Australians are religious. And half of them admit to not practicing it. It's almost like Scandinavia! Except for the snow.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The dumbing of America
Another study has confirmed it: watching Fox news makes you dumber. People who watch Fox are less informed about world events than people who don't watch any news at all.
Watching Fox News makes you dumber
I really hate sounding so partisan, so let me point out nobody says this about The National Review or The Wall Street Journal. Those are partisan, right-wing hack jobs, but they're not actively making their readers dumber.
This isn't just a statistical study. I got an email today from someone who puts "Dr." in front of their name, and yet has not managed to get a single fact right in any of our correspondence. It is not that this person is naturally stupid; it is that the requirements of adhering to their chosen orthodoxy forces them to deny self-evident facts to the point that they lose their way.
In an important sense, the history of the human race is the story of people choosing make-believe over reality. Let us hope that is not its epitaph.
Watching Fox News makes you dumber
I really hate sounding so partisan, so let me point out nobody says this about The National Review or The Wall Street Journal. Those are partisan, right-wing hack jobs, but they're not actively making their readers dumber.
This isn't just a statistical study. I got an email today from someone who puts "Dr." in front of their name, and yet has not managed to get a single fact right in any of our correspondence. It is not that this person is naturally stupid; it is that the requirements of adhering to their chosen orthodoxy forces them to deny self-evident facts to the point that they lose their way.
In an important sense, the history of the human race is the story of people choosing make-believe over reality. Let us hope that is not its epitaph.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The gaffe heard round the world
Three Australians at work have asked me if I heard Perry's campaign-ending "Oops."
You gotta fumble pretty hard to have it heard on the other side of the planet.
You gotta fumble pretty hard to have it heard on the other side of the planet.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Batteries of the future
Here's an article on a new battery technology. It's as cheap as lead-acid, but completely non-toxic, made from common materials, and lasts at least 10 times longer. The chief application is giving power companies a way to store power produced at non-peak times, and then release that power during peak times.
Which means it's great for solar power. I have a vision of tanker trucks driving from the solar power plants of Arizona to New York City, where the ion-charged water is dumped into the power grid. Although I can't do the math to figure out if moving tons of weight would be more energy efficient than pumping it through high-voltage wires.
But then, why not just pump the ion-charged water? A cross-country pipeline that delivers power stored in water. I've read before that 100 square miles of Arizona desert would power the entire nation. All we need is a way to store and deliver the power. And, of course, the political will to give up the oil addiction. A carbon tax would be a good way to do that.
http://m.technologyreview.com/energy/38689/
Which means it's great for solar power. I have a vision of tanker trucks driving from the solar power plants of Arizona to New York City, where the ion-charged water is dumped into the power grid. Although I can't do the math to figure out if moving tons of weight would be more energy efficient than pumping it through high-voltage wires.
But then, why not just pump the ion-charged water? A cross-country pipeline that delivers power stored in water. I've read before that 100 square miles of Arizona desert would power the entire nation. All we need is a way to store and deliver the power. And, of course, the political will to give up the oil addiction. A carbon tax would be a good way to do that.
http://m.technologyreview.com/energy/38689/
Sunday, November 6, 2011
A ray of hope
Ireland closes its embassy to the Vatican
About time. Now if they can just see their way to throwing the bastards in jail.
Who knows? Once we start locking up priests, maybe banksters will lose their immunity!
About time. Now if they can just see their way to throwing the bastards in jail.
Who knows? Once we start locking up priests, maybe banksters will lose their immunity!
Monday, October 31, 2011
What Occupy Wall Street wants
Matt Taibbi says it better than I can:
The short version: The top 1% own 40% of everything. They didn't use to. WTF is going on, and how do we go back to the way it was?
All OWS is trying to do is get people to talk; to challenge the sacred assumption that wealth is metaphysically a result of hard work and genius, and poverty is metaphysically a result of laziness and stupidity. Because it manifestly isn't.
No one is suggesting that lazy people should live in luxury, but food and medical care are not luxuries. No one is suggesting that successful people should be robbed of the products of their labors, but going from 36% to 39% top marginal tax rate is not robbery. And as Elizabeth Warren recently said, nobody got rich on their own. Nobody.
This bullshit libertarian vibe has been spreading through our society ever since Reagan attacked the dire threat of welfare queens. Our entire economy has been restructured to reward financial speculation instead of production. Not merely reward, but enable: the banks are too big to fail. This means that when they make a profit, they keep it, but when they make a loss, we all bail them out.
And the worst part of it all: the average voter in America doesn't know. The average voter thinks we have the wealth distribution of Sweden, when in fact we look like Brazil.
OWS "wins" if all it does is make the public aware of the facts.
Wall Street isn't winning, they're cheating
When was the last time the government stepped into help you "avoid losses you might otherwise suffer?" But that's the reality we live in. When Joe Homeowner bought too much house, essentially betting that home prices would go up, and losing his bet when they dropped, he was an irresponsible putz who shouldn’t whine about being put on the street.
But when banks bet billions on a firm like AIG that was heavily invested in mortgages, they were making the same bet that Joe Homeowner made, leaving themselves hugely exposed to a sudden drop in home prices. But instead of being asked to "suck it in and cope" when that bet failed, the banks instead went straight to Washington for a bailout -- and got it.
The short version: The top 1% own 40% of everything. They didn't use to. WTF is going on, and how do we go back to the way it was?
All OWS is trying to do is get people to talk; to challenge the sacred assumption that wealth is metaphysically a result of hard work and genius, and poverty is metaphysically a result of laziness and stupidity. Because it manifestly isn't.
No one is suggesting that lazy people should live in luxury, but food and medical care are not luxuries. No one is suggesting that successful people should be robbed of the products of their labors, but going from 36% to 39% top marginal tax rate is not robbery. And as Elizabeth Warren recently said, nobody got rich on their own. Nobody.
This bullshit libertarian vibe has been spreading through our society ever since Reagan attacked the dire threat of welfare queens. Our entire economy has been restructured to reward financial speculation instead of production. Not merely reward, but enable: the banks are too big to fail. This means that when they make a profit, they keep it, but when they make a loss, we all bail them out.
And the worst part of it all: the average voter in America doesn't know. The average voter thinks we have the wealth distribution of Sweden, when in fact we look like Brazil.
OWS "wins" if all it does is make the public aware of the facts.
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