Language Liberalism Freethought Birds
Verbing Weirds Language only if you're expecting it to work in a simple way. This is a special case of the more general truth that Language Weirds.
Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time.
The church says Earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence in a shadow than the church.
If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.
I used to teach Russian and Ukrainian, and some basic English, to civil servants. Now I teach Russian at a local continued-learning institute. I dabble in Gaelic and Welsh. I'm am amateur photographer and I love birding (in a small way). I'm a Progressive, and a Freethinker, and I know Evolution is a fact - that's FCD, Friend of Charles Darwin (look down the sidebar). I read a lot, and follow women's college basketball. Also I love astronomy, though I'm a rank amateur at it. Most of all, I like living in the reality-based community...
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4 Comments:
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At 9:28 AM, November 18, 2007
The Exterminator had this to say...
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At 2:21 PM, November 18, 2007
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 4:26 PM, November 18, 2007
John Evo had this to say...
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At 5:05 PM, November 18, 2007
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Gallup said: When a president or any other leader pays attention to poll results, he is, in effect, paying attention to the views of the people.
He should have added ... as skewed by the questions of the pollster.
I think polls are debasing democratic dialogue in this country. Politicians look at polls as a substitute for trying to learn what's really "brewing" out there. Voters look at polls to determine ridiculous, vague factors like "electability," rather than thinking about whom they'd really like to see in office.
I'd like to see the news media depend far less on amorphous polls and far more on content-driven news. But, of course, we'd have to take a poll on that.
Well, polls aren't news. Of course they aren't - except when the polls show that the people don't actually think what politicians are saying they think. Polls aren't even dialog. They are a tool to tell us one thing: what people think. But polls aren't therefore unimportant or a waste of time - not if they're written and conducted well.
And - a sad prerequisite - polls telling us what people think about what they've been told is the Truth aren't quite so valuable if the media isn't reporting the Truth. The media's responsibility is to make sure that the people know what's going on; without that in place, it doesn't much matter what they think. For instance, a poll showing that 85% of Americans think space travel is a waste of time because the stars are jewels set in a glass bowl resting on the edges of the flat earth would not be a reason to do away with NASA... In such a case, the action required would be ramping up science education, no?
But as for your belief that politicians look at them - since when? The White House sneers at the notion of doing what "polls" want instead of what they have already determined to the Right®, and just jmagine if the Dems actually believed the polls that show people want them to stop caving..
Ridger said: "But as for your belief that politicians look at them - since when? The White House sneers at the notion of doing what "polls" want instead of what they have already determined to the Right®, and just jmagine if the Dems actually believed the polls that show people want them to stop caving.."
Here's the problem, as I see it. If you go back to the Clinton administration, you see a group that was constantly analyzing polls to see how to move or talk. Hillary can see the polls you are referring to.
But I think her use of those polls is much more sophisticated than you give her credit (or blame) for. Sure, the polls show the American people clearly in favor of a strong Democratic party, standing up to the GOP. But all she has to do at this point is convince Dems to give her the nomination. Once she's in a general election, she will be seen as the answer to the peoples' concerns vs. any Rep candidate.
So she looks at many other polls that show her how she needs to project herself in order to corral as many independent votes as possible in the general election. It is all sickeningly cynical.
I said "the Dems" not those Dems who are running for president. The ones who got voted in last year, and who are apparently too scared of being called "traitors" to do the right thing.
But that's a different argument.
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