Friday, June 15, 2012

Murder Insurance

Well, the title may be a bit strong, but NRA members are being encouraged to purchase exclusive 'self defense' insurance.  The insurance would cover civil and criminal legal fees for shooting someone in self defense.  Although it should be noted that you only get your criminal fees back if you are acquited or the charges are dropped.  So, y'know, it's only a little crazy, not totally crazy. 

I would like to take this opportunity to launch my far less expensive "don't shoot people"(tm) defense plan.  If you pay me just $50 a year I will send you a daily email which states:

Do not shoot anyone today.  Yes, even if they are trying to take your stuff.  If you think someone wants to hurt you, try going somewhere where they are not. 
As an added bonus to the plan, if you actively retreat from someone and they track you down with a deadly weapon and you are forced to shoot them, and you are still prosecuted with a crime, then I will personally fly to your location and take the bar exam in your state and defend you for free. 

This deal is too good to pass up.  Please send me my free money now. 

Monday, June 4, 2012

The Friend Zone is Bullshit



As someone who used to suffer from being 'friend zoned' and felt wronged by it as a 'nice guy' I'm appalled that I was unable to see that the entire idea behind the friend zone relies on the primary value a woman has to offer a man being her vagina, and that if she refuses to offer up that vagina in reward for patient friendship she is somehow wronging the male friend. 

Friday, June 1, 2012

Nearly half of Americans creationists

This poll from Gallup finds that 46% of Americans believe God created human beings in their current form. 

My first reaction to this poll is to think that there's something in the question itself skewing the results.  It has been shown time and time again that the phrasing of a poll question can dramatically change the results. 

Certainly most Americans believe that God guided human evolution . . . so that kind of belief is getting mixed into these results.  So let's look at the exact question asked by Gallup:

Trend: Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings? 1) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process, 2) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process, 3) God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so

So, lets look at the answer 46% of American respondents gave:

God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.
Again:
. . . within the last 10,000 years or so . . .
So, ok, this isn't some polling error.  This is the response people gave.  46% of people asked feel that people were created in their current form sometime after the oldest cave paintings, or petroglyphs. 

My second reaction to this poll is to wonder who these people are.  Where are these 46%?  It accents to me exactly how insulated I am from a huge portion of American culture.  I just don't regularly encounter nearly half of the people who live in this country.  At least I hope I don't, because I would not hesitate at a dinner party conversation about politics or science to openly state that creationism is a preposterous position.  Apparently I would be insulting 4-5 out of every 10 people. 

My final reaction is to tell myself that many of these respondents are just defying the position they are "supposed" to have.  So that this response is more about defying authority than it is about actual ignorance on the topic.

It's not a good choice.  Either a huge portion of the population is amazingly ignorant about basic human history, or a huge portion of the population feels a desire to express ignorance as a way to say 'you can't tell me what to think' to scientists and pointy headed intellectual liberals.

The Catholic Church embraced evolution as part of God's grand plan in 1996, the end of a road started in 1950.  It amazes me that the American populace can't seem to catch up.