Can I heat up the branding irons for you, msbelle?
(I wish I could say the NPR story surprised me, but I hear so much of it that it hit my, "wait, this is supposed to be news?" button instead.)
'Smile Time'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Can I heat up the branding irons for you, msbelle?
(I wish I could say the NPR story surprised me, but I hear so much of it that it hit my, "wait, this is supposed to be news?" button instead.)
tommy - turnout was up in 04, you are right.
Huh. It seemed to me there were a lot fewer of these people in '04 than there were in '00....
Yeah, but while the 00s drove me crazy with the stupid and naive the 04s make me want to rip out their lungs.
The NYT had a depressing article yesterday with quotes from white men in TN who brought up Obama-Osama and thought he was a Muslim. (To make it clear, I personally would be happy with a moderate Muslim as president; these people were clearly in the "Muslims eat babies" demographic. Also Obama is not and has never been a Muslim, as I know you all know; he is an active churchgoer.)
I can't decide which I hate more, bigotry or ignorance.
It seemed to me there were a lot fewer of these people in '04 than there were in '00....
Um, I think I might have been one of those people, were I Americanly inclined - If I don't like the options, I'll turn up and spoil my ballot, assuming there's no 'abstention' box.
flea - I heard some of the Muslim stuff IN MY OFFICE this week. I have a pretty strict no politics at work policy and I still had to say into the air - "He's not a muslim, he was NOT sworn in on the Qur'an.'
Just a reminder, there are people I respect among us (Buffistas) who have voted for 3rd party candidates. I hope you respect them too.
I voted for Nader in '00, though I wouldn't have if I hadn't lived in CT at the time (safe Gore state). I voted for Gore in '04, even though as a NC resident (safe Bush state) there was little point to my doing so.
I think Brenda summed it up very precisely.
Yes, but those reasons are all (a) vague and (b) not based in reality.
When she ran her last campaign for Senator, she picked up huge numbers in the more conservative areas upstate simply by showing up and being demonstrably non-Satanic. Once she was standing in front of people, they had a much harder time remembering what specifically she'd done to piss them off in the first place.
I voted for Nader in '00 as well, again because I was in a safe Gore state. I wanted a third party to be able to get funding. I would have voted for Gore in a state that was more on the line.
I can't decide which I hate more, bigotry or ignorance.
They go together like heat and humidity--one makes the other feel worse.
Just a reminder, there are people I respect among us (Buffistas) who have voted for 3rd party candidates. I hope you respect them too.
I have to respect the desire for a more representative system than the two parties we have currently. I wish that we could do something more than symbolically casting a vote to push for actual change.