Wordless Wednesdays: Sherlock Holmes Trailer!

I dunno. Kinda on the fence about this one. Looks a little too much like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to me (read: Excellent source material, poorly translated action flick)

The New Doctor Who?…

I know Wednesdays are the days I usually post videos, but I came across this and wanted to pass it along. I don’t know if the followers of the Whoniverse on this side of the pond already know this, but I just saw it. I’m sure it’s a red herring, but now I’m excited for the Christmas Special…

Wordless Wednesdays: The Dark Knight/Toy Story Mash Up…

Sent to me by my friend Lindsay, this is one of the better mash up movie trailers I’ve seen. Rex and Potato Head once again steal the show in my opinion…

E-Mail Forwards: Hard To Believe…Except When You Think About It

I was sent this map in an e-mail forward titled “Hard To Believe”. The map shows the results, by county, of the 2008 Presidential Election. In glancing at the map, you may say to yourself, “Wow, it seems like McCain won most of the country!”

…That is, until you think about it for, like, two seconds. Compare the map that was forwarded to me with the map below it–a map showing population density in the United States. Then it’s pretty easy to see what actually happened: McCain won counties with about three people while Obama won the large population centers of the country. Therefore, Obama received the most votes and won the election.

Which means it isn’t that hard to believe…when you think about it.

Some Funny And Kind Of Disturbing Videos For You: Say No To Prop 8, No To Sarah Palin

Finally, after 732 years of campaigning, today’s the day.  If you live in California, take a stand against bigotry and say no to Prop 8…

 

and nation-wide, say no to Sarah Palin and the man who chose her as his running mate, John McCain.

The New Bradley Effect

There has been a malot of talk this election about the so-called “Bradley Effect”.  The Bradley effect refers to the 1982 California gubernatorial race in which Tom Bradley, the African-American mayor of Los Angeles, lost to his opponent on election day, despite leading in both pre-election day polling and exit polling as well by as much as 10 points.  In 1983, a researcher named Charles Henry published a study that came to the conclusion that Bradley’s race was ultimately the deciding factor for many voters and the cause of the discrepancy between the exit polling and the actual results.

Basically what he’s saying is that when people were polled, no one admitted to having a problem voting for black candidate, but when it actually came time for the election, their racism was the deciding factor and they voted for the white guy.

Because of this, many pundits have been raising the question as to whether this could happen to Obama as well–some going so far as to say Obama needs to be up by at least 10 points before he can actually feel safe about his lead.

But I honestly don’t believe that to be true.  Call me naive, but I just don’t think racism is as big of a factor as it was 26 years ago.  That’s not to say there aren’t voters out there who are only voting for McCain because he’s the white guy in the election.  But what I think has happened is that people who are using race as their deciding factor in voting for President aren’t running up the polling numbers as Obama supporters or even as undecideds.  If the fact that Obama is black is a reason a voter wouldn’t vote for him, that voter has long ago rationalized their support for McCain anyway.  Instead of seeing people saying they’re voting for Obama when polled, but on election day actually voting for McCain, what actually is happening is that voters who don’t want to vote for an African-American candidate have instead rationalized and found many other reasons to vote for McCain.  So people who use race as a factor in voting are already being counted in the polls as McCain supporters. 

But that isn’t to say there won’t be a “Bradley Effect” of sorts come election day.

While I don’t believe that Obama really has to worry about his race causing a discrepancy between the current polling numbers and actual election day results, what he does have to worry about is his party’s stance on abortion.

While it’s an issue that hasn’t really been talked about much in this campaign, abortion will a main reason why a voter chooses either Obama or McCain tomorrow.  Despite all the talk about the economy, the wars, or tax plans, Roe v. Wade still holds heavy sway over a voter’s decision while in the booth.  I’ve personally found this to be the case just in leaving comments on various blogs here on wordpress.com.  I’ll often stop by a McCain supporter’s blog and ask why they’re voting Republican after eight years of failed policies.  In the ensuing discussion, they’ll cite Obama’s “socialist” policies, how McCain is a war hero, Obama’s perceived lack of experience, and at the end they’ll usually throw in a line like this:

“Plus, he’s for abortion.”

Which, while it seems like a throw away line, is probably the real reason why that blogger is voting against Obama.  But again, people like that aren’t skewing the polling data for Obama, just to rip the rug out from underneath him by tomorrow night.  They’re already voting and polling for McCain.  But what we’ll have to watch for are the independent voters and the “undecideds”.  There could be a large enough percentage of those two groups–groups who after 20+ months of campaigning still see both candidates as being equal–who will use their personal stance on abortion to decide who to vote for when it’s time to cast their ballot.  And come Wednesday morning, if it’s President-Elect McCain and *shudder* Vice-President-Elect Palin, the pundits, instead of the “Bradley Effect”, could be talking about the “Roe Effect”.

Wordless Wednesdays: Mayberry 2008…

You’ll see Part II of my post “The Religion of Politics” tomorrow (hopefully).  But we pause now for Wordless Wednesday with a return to Mayberry…

The Religion Of Politics Part I…

Once upon a time, back when I was just starting out at my first job, I was given this advice:  

“There are two things you should never discuss at your workplace:  religion and politics.”

At first I wondered why, but soon realized that in the case of religion, any discussion you have must deal with a person’s faith, whether it be faith in God, faith in a particular religion, or faith in what’s to come.

But more importantly, when you discuss or argue about a topic like religion, you’re essentially telling the other person their belief is wrong.  And faith is a tricky thing to argue about because in the end, there are no facts to base any opinions on.  All you can go off of is what you believe to be the truth–not what the truth actually is.  Anyone who tells you that they know what happens when you die, or that their religion is the “correct” one, or that God even exists is a liar.  No one really knows for sure and in the case of religion, that’s kind of the point.  

Another problem in discussing religion is that often the person you’re arguing with has been indoctrinated in the tennents of the religion for their entire life (this could obviously apply to you as well.)  Their faith and belief in a particular religion is something they were taught as a child and have grown up believing ever since.  But along the way, they never thought to question as to WHY they believe what they believe.  The problem is that this often breeds blind faith, which can become dangerous.  It is our job as believers to question not only the religious principles we believe but WHY we believe them.  This also leads to religious beliefs becoming based only on emotion, instead of emotion and thought.  Blind faith leads you to use only your heart instead of both your heart AND your head.

The final problem is a combination of the first two:  Because there are no facts on which to base an argument on, and often people go through their lives without questioning their beliefs (leading to blind faith), logic is useless in a debate over religion.  To believe in God or any religion is to defy logic-which again, is kind of the point.  The idea is that if you believe DESPITE overwhelming evidence to the contrary, or at least a lack of evidence to support your belief, your faith is considered STRONGER.  So what happens often during a discussion over religion, one party eventually says something along the lines of:

“Because He’s God.”

“Because we’re not meant to understand the ways of God.”

“I just know.”

Which, ultimately, is a discussion stopper simply because those statements can neither be proven or disproven.  They also come from a place of emotion rather than thought and defy any logic that can be applied to them.

What’s more, the person saying one of these statements knows all of this!  They know what they’re saying can’t be proven, doesn’t make any real sense and defies logic.  And because of this, tempers start to flare and emotions can run high during a religious argument.  But the person who is defending his beliefs isn’t upset at being questioned about them (even though that’s how it may seem), the person is often frustrated at the fact they know they have no real facts on which to base their argument and sometimes don’t even have answers to the questions for themselves, let alone their argumentative partner.  Because of this, they tend to dig their heels in more and more, even to the point of shutting out the other person’s arguments, and falling back on statements like those above that in their mind explain everything.

It’s frustrating to have to defend a position that seems illogical.  I know, I’ve done it many, many times.

But if this explains why we shouldn’t discuss religion at the workplace, why can’t we talk politics?

I’ll get to that answer in part II…

FLABS: The Top Links Of The Week

It’s Friday, so that means it’s time for my weekly installment of Friday’s Lazy Ass Bloglinks.  Here are the top five sites I’ve been hitting this week:

5.)  Equal Exchange Chocolate

–Halloween is next Friday, and despite receiving zero kids trick or treating for the past 4 years, my eternal optimism never is extinguished that one day, a child dressed up as Batman will knock on my door begging for candy.  So every year I buy chocolate bars (the full sized ones, mind you) so I’ll be ready when it happens.  

Of course, that just means that every year I take a bunch of candy into work.  It’s getting so my co-workers look forward to November 1st like bagel Friday.

Usually I try to support certain companies with my chocolate purchases.  I buy Hershey’s to support a Pennsylvania business and I buy Nestle’s, whose headquartered in my current home city.  But this year, I’m going a step farther and supporting a company that truly deserves it:  Equal Exchange.

Equal Exchange is a company that deals mainly in coffee and chocolate and everything they sell is fairly traded–meaning that farmers in Nicaragua are paid an honest wage for the product they harvest.  By supporting Equal Exchange you’re empowering farmers in some of the poorest regions of the world to make a decent living for their families.

I figure as long as I’m buying candy for kids that never show up, at least someone should benefit from the money I spend on my delusions.

But if someone actually does show up, not to worry, because the chocolate is good.  My personal favorite is the Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut.  And each wrapper contains information on Equal Exchange as well.  So maybe a kid (or parent) will learn something from it.

4.)  McCain’s Socialist Delusion

–Joe Conason over at Rasmussen Reports is quickly becoming one of my favorite political commentators and writers during this election season (don’t worry, Fareed Zakaria.  You’ll always have a special place in my heart.)  In this article, Joe breaks down the truth behind McCain’s accusations that Obama’s plan is a “socialist agenda”.  In truth, Obama is simply allowing the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy to expire because they are irresponsible–an argument McCain himself tried to make back when they were first enacted.  McCain’s gaining some ground and making a lot of hay off this “Joe the Plumber” angle.  But we need to step back and take a look at what McCain’s accusing Obama of, and how true those accusations really are (Hint:  Not very.)

3.)  An October surprise?  Surprise #1 and surprise #2

–There seems to be a trend that started out small and is now gaining ground in just about every state in the nation.  It looks like there might be a third candidate that could surprise both Obama and McCain come November 4th!

2.)  Maps Of The NFL’s Television Distribution

–If you’re a football fan and refuse to pay hundreds of dollars for DirecTV’s NFL football package, this might be the most important website you’ll visit all season.  Each week, it shows what games will be carried by your local FOX and CBS affiliates.  It’s very important if you’re a fan like me, who lives across the country from his beloved Steelers.  This week, two of the best teams in the NFL, the Giants and Steelers are set to go during the four o’clock game, but because I live in Los Angeles, I was afraid that instead I would have to endure two of the worst teams in the country, San Francisco and Seattle, stinking up the field.  But I headed over to this website and found that I don’t need to head to a sports bar to see my Steelers–I can do it pantsless from the comfort of my own living room.

I just thank God I don’t live in Oregon.  Those poor, poor souls…

1.)  The Bloggerator 3000

–Livin’ the dream, one word at a time…

LATER…

Wordless Wednesdays: The Roast of John McCain and Barack Obama

I get a lot of video and pictures that I like to post on my blog, but I usually try to save it for my Friday Lazy Ass Bloglinks (FLABs) posts. But because I’m getting so much material, I’m starting a new segment here on the Bloggerator 3000: Wordless Wednesdays. On Wednesdays, I’ll take a break from offering my thoughts and post some video or pictures for you to enjoy.

This week I’m posting the video from the Alfred E. Smith dinner held last week in New York. Traditionally, it’s the last time the two major candidates are together in the same room before the final push to election day.

It’s also traditionally a time to roast each other in good-natured fun. These speeches offer a different side to both candidates and give them a chance to make fun of themselves and each other. It’s actually pretty enjoyable stuff.

This video is of the entire event. If you just want to watch the McCain speech and/or the Obama speech, McCain begins at seven minutes into the video and Obama begins around minute twenty-three.

Boy, that’s a lot of words for a Wordless Wednesday post. Enjoy!