Civic Literacy

The election is over and a bunch of new people are in "control". Who are these people? Are they any better than me? I used to think so. A new study by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute showed that most Americans are completely illiterate when it comes to our government and our history. The average score was a failing grade of 49%. But that is not the scary part. Elected officials scored 44% on average. Not only are they not better, they are worse!
I know. I know. You are right. I should not be surprised. Most people still think that a progressive tax plan is socialism. Even though the king of all capitalism, Reagan, had one as well. Not only did Mr. Supply-Side-Economics have a progressive tax plan, but so did Bush Sr., Clinton, and Bush Jr. Also many people think that the Bill of Rights gives them the authority to establish a state religion(the exact opposite actually). So I am not surprised. Just disappointed.

I am not saying that I am much better. I only scored 85%. Wait. Yes I am. I had twice as many correct answers as the elected officials. Feel free to take the test yourself.

http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx

Election Countdown: One more day

These cartoons do have a liberal slant to them. If you are conservative, sorry. I could not find many negative cartoons on Obama. The Republicans are just way to funny this election. This sentiment is echoed by the creators of these cartoons: Mike Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Mike Peters of The Dayton Daily News. They say that creating these cartoons are going to get allot more difficult. "He's (Obama) just going to be very difficult to mock".

3 Days till the Election

Editorial Cartoon Countdown to the Election - 5 DAYS TO GO

Stupid and worthless product of the year

The Palm Pistol

This is a self defense weapon marketed toward the elderly. It is supposed to be easier to fire than a normal pistol. Although who would know what this thing is if it is pointed at them. A mugger would not. If a possible mugger could not recognized it as a gun then the threat of a gun is worthless. It would have to be fired in order to "protect" yourself. And with one 9mm bullet that is it's capacity, someone would have very little chance of getting a kill shot. And what if someone is defending themselves from two people? Stupid. Someone would have better luck with pepper spray. If you are really worried about defending yourself get some bear spray. It has a 30 foot range and can take down a grizzly. Just in case watch out for those roving packs of old folks packing palm pistols.

Good at video games = Bad in the sack

A new study of 200 Dutch men found that the problem of premature ejaculation is caused by a version of a gene that controls the release of serotonin. This is also the cause of "fast reactors". The scientists found that people afflicted with this vile and embarrassing problem seem to have "very quick reflexes" and "may be excellent at playing tennis or computer games."

Hopefully I am an outlier.

BBC

Polls

It is no surprise that young people favor Obama. But this is a fairly large difference. According to Gallup:

"A majority of 18- to 29-year-olds are registered to vote in this election and have given it a lot of thought. They prefer Barack Obama, both as an alternative to John McCain, but also as the candidate who is the most likely to understand their problems and to bring positive change to their own lives. Casting a ballot for Obama also carries the excitement of making history. Nearly 8 in 10 consider this election to be more important than other elections, if not the most important in the past 50 years. What remains to be seen is how many of this highly sought-after demographic will in fact turn out and vote on Election Day, and thus help to determine the winner."

Another interesting results was that 52% would like to have a beer with Obama rather than 27% with McCain. This is not very relevant however, especially considering that almost half of the people polled are not of legal drinking age.