• HoleInTheCosmos said on Jun 06, 2008....

  That's an interesting proposal, professor, however who would design such a test? Besides, think how obnoxious life would be if everyone were deep into poilitics? We'd have a very divided society on all levels. The conflict would never end.

• somethingunUSual said on Jun 06, 2008....

   
  everyone processes things differently. just bec some people make decisions based on gut feeling doesn't mean it's 'wrong'. - Phoeby
   
  Er - it doesn't mean that it's "right" either. So it could still be right OR wrong. Maybe it's wrong.
   
  - Mr. Logic
   

• celestialspace2001 said on Jun 06, 2008....

  Our brains aren't simple enough to be completely logical, that's why we have "intuition" - we can process info subconsciously. SO don't make me try to play your game by explaining it!!!!!!!!!

• TheNakedProfessor said on Jun 06, 2008....

  Yes, Hole, you bring up a good point, it would be politics night and day and it would even effect shopping. It's difficult to say what th econsequences of a politically savvy populous would be. Something to think about, I guess it could be worse than it is now - although how a worse choice than G W Bush could be achieved, I have trouble imagining....

• pickersplock said on Jun 06, 2008....

  I'm going to say that it would disenfranchise quite a few voters, and the ACLU would never allow it.

• hotaka said on Jun 07, 2008....

  It's true that most people vote for the one who charms them the most or speaks in their favour (like labour union lovers who get the labour union member votes simply because it means the unions can retain more power). My mom always said before voting you have to follow the party for years or see what they have actually done in the last many years. And the candidate needs to be checked out too. Not just for what he is promising at the moment.
  
  As I see it, the system is already in place so that it matters not who gets behind the wheel. Each driver may turn a little left or right but rarely does anyone choose another road to drive down. Basically it's which clown is the least likely to crash the car.
  
  Obama - Change we can believe in. I always found that slogan to be so obviously banal. Everyone preaches change. But little ever changes. Next comedian on stage please...
  

• dyingman said on Jun 07, 2008....

  Automatically equating time spent on the job with "corruption" is naive. Without alliances, nothing gets done (see Jimmy Carter).
  
  Longevity doesn't cause corruption.  It's a sign of it.  People stay elected by amassing a lot of money.  They do this by selling out various needy constituents who have no money to give them.  Even the best have SOMEONE paying the bills.
  

  Electing inexperience can either pay off (Abraham Lincoln) or backfire (JFK - Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, Viet Nam) depending on the times and events in play. That an idealist like Obama will be elected by cynical people who believe all politicians are corrupt is ironic in the least.

  You have a problem with how the Cuban Missile Crisis went?  Interesting.
  Bay of Pigs.  Yah.  Vietnam.  Same problem.  The adoration of JFK puzzles me as he followed a giant like Eisenhower.
  

  Carter?  You mean the guy who tried to persuade us to save fossil fuel?  You mean the guy who made the ONLY Middle East peace treaty ever?  You mean the guy who BEGAN nuclear arms reduction talks so successful that a Republican held more talks with the exact same NAME????  You mean the guy who lost all of EIGHT Marines yet saw the safe return of over 400 American hostages?  And did all this in four years?  THAT Carter?  Yeah, what an underachieving loser.

  
  

  Hillary. She's not too old, experienced, and plenty tough to stand up against adversity. But now the country is swinging emotionally to the "anti-Bush"

  Right.

  Hilary told teachers unions they coddle their poor performers too much and that teachers in needed specialties and who excel should get merit pay even though they have always opposed merit pay.

  She told Detroit that they were losing market share because they made crappy cars that offered nothing truly new and useful to the consumer.

  She told Cuban Americans that diplomacy with Raul Castro might work better than the 50 years of isolation we've tried to impose with no cooperation from other nations even though teh conventional wisdom says this will not go over well.

  
  

  
  

  Oops.  Sorry.  All of those thing were OBAMA using logic instead of emotion to fight adversity.

  He did however propose a gas tax that would make people feel good even though every economist explained that it's demand that causes the high price, not gouging.

  Oops again.  That was Hilary.  Selling EMOTION. 
  

  
  

  Could you pass that current events test you're proposing?

  Voting is hard work, thus Americans are bad at it.
  

  *DM
  

• TheNakedProfessor said on Jun 07, 2008....

   
  Would there have BEEN a Cuban Missile Crisis if Eisenhower were President?
   
  Carter was a lot of talk and a big depressing influence on the whole country. No one had ever heard of the word "malaise" until he called us on it. Shame. The reason there was nothing accomplished when he proposed something was because he stood apart from "easily-labeled-corrupt" alliances, aka the folks that get things done. Reagan gotthe hostages home. Carter sacrificed the marines without back up. A military genius, indeed. But the best damned ex-president I've ever seen.
   
  The ACLU now runs America? Then we're obviously voting in the wrong election. Let's see who's running for head of the ACLU.
   
  A simple voter literacy test would disenfranchise everyone who's voting for Barfo because their husband-father-mother-girlfriend-buddies-at-the-office told them to.
   
  It would disenfranchise idiots.
   
  Or people who had no idea what they were doing.
   
  Hmmm. That would be quite a few, wouldn't it?
   
   
   

• pickersplock said on Jun 07, 2008....

  LOL, I agree!
  What do you think the percentage would be?

• TheNakedProfessor said on Jun 07, 2008....

  VOTER LITERACY TEST / U.S. Presidential Election 2008

  Choose the most recent three Presidents (not including the current one) of the United States from among the following:

   Jimmy Carter

   George H.W. Bush

  Harry Truman

   Zachary Taylor

   Johnny Cash

   Robert Taylor

   Ronald Reagan

   Billy Joel

   Bill Clinton

   George Clinton

   Hillary Swank

   John Fitzgerald Roosevelt

   TRUE or FALSE? 1) The USA has 40 real states and two honorary states. 2) The President can declare war on anyone at any time. 3) The Supreme Court must have members of all races and religions. 4) U.S. Congress representatives are elected for two year terms only.

  NAME ONE OF THE TWO U.S. SENATORS FROM YOUR HOME STATE:

   

  ---- Would this be too restrictive? Somebody take the test....

   

   

• mobil said on Jun 07, 2008....

  There used to be a damn good Voter Literacy Test....White male property owners only. Lets run that up the flag pole and see who salutes it.........ha

• TheNakedProfessor said on Jun 07, 2008....

  Yes, well, that's a horse of a different color. ;)

• mobil said on Jun 07, 2008....

  VOTER LITERACY TEST
  Bill Clinton
  Old Bush
  Ron Regan
   
  TRUE OR FALSE
  This is a tough set of questions, because you can't really say California and Massachusetts are real states right? Oregon neither, most of the East coast neither. So, number one is really a trick question, but I'm gonna say;
  1. true with the honorary states being British Columbia and Alberta Canada.
  2. Is this a racist question? I need to know cause while not an actual racist, I have racist tendencies. Do we have a chink on the court now? I can't remember, I know we have Clarence and that stupid white woman Ginsberg. I'm going to go with False on this one Dave.
  3. true, BUT, they can run again and again and again, terms being the key to this trick question right?
   
  NAME ONE OF THE TWO U.S. SENATORS FROM YOUR HOME STATE.
  Max Baucus
  John Tester
  I named them both, do I get extra credit? It's a little restrictive Dave, lets go with that White male property owner idea you had a while back?

• ALIENated said on Jun 07, 2008....

  
  Can anyone actually picture Borax as the president instead of McCain? Not
  to mention his lack of knowledge and lack of experience. However, very
  little works the way we think it works. If the powers that be want Borax
  to be president, then he will be. If not, McCain will be. It is cute how we
  the people think we elect presidents and have anything to do with our own
  destiny. And I only take open-book tests.
  
  

• phoeby said on Jun 08, 2008....

  Naked professor, i actually think it's quite rude that you used my conversation with you and made it into a new post more or less to slam my opinion and try to belittle it. it's quite violating in a way? i think you should have at least asked my permission or told me you were about to do that.
  
  
  
  
  phoeby
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

• phoeby said on Jun 08, 2008....

  and strangely enough, you are choosing to use an australian as an example of you're own population.
  
  
  did you realise that? 

• ALIENated said on Jun 08, 2008....

  
  phoey, grow a pair. Blogging is a tough sport. I take one post and create 
  another all the time. What is wrong with that. And get used to having
  you opinion slammed. That is what bloggers do.
  
  

• mobil said on Jun 08, 2008....

  I believe she has a pair Alien, or were you refering to balls? haha

• Lucytorial said on Jun 08, 2008....

  You two are incorrigible, from an Australians point of view, its a win win for McCain which is disappointing really, I'd prefer Obama Borax as Alienated says his name te he he.
  
  
  

• mobil said on Jun 08, 2008....

  Well Lucy, that's why Dave wants to eliminate women from voting all together, you ladies are perfectly nice, but you make silly choices; Dave's words not mine !

  He thinks it best if we went back to the old method of having only white, male, property owners vote. I am inclined to agree with him on that one.

  Now Alien, he wants women to grow balls, and I am against that on so many levels ya know? haha

• Lucytorial said on Jun 08, 2008....

  You have enough for everyone Mobil... balls that is.  Dave (gotta love the name) has a complex, a serious complex, such a shame Hillary lost, I'd have liked to have seen Dave gasp and mumble at a female president!
  
  You see the problem with going back to white, male property owner voters is that us silly women! have the choice to NOT be with THAT kind of man, silly? I say we women are at the core of voting power, that frightens Dave more than Obama getting in.
  

• mobil said on Jun 08, 2008....

  Dave's a pig Lucy, what more can be said?

• Lucytorial said on Jun 08, 2008....

  oink oink!

• TheNakedProfessor said on Jun 08, 2008....

   
  Phoeb, I wasn't trying to slam or belittle your opinion so much as I was trying to slam and belittle your method of arriving at an opinion.
   
  Besides, do I chime in telling you who I think should be King of Australia - or whatever method of government you guys came up with?
   
  Who the hell is Dave?
   
  ALIEN - these days, I cannot be surprised by who ends up in the presidency. In fact, I haven't been truly shockable since Nixon was re-elected in a landslide against McGovern.
   
  Isn't it kind of amazing to think that no woman could vote for President until 1920? What was wrong with those guys - giving it up like that??? We had it all - (sings)..Memories.....
   
  Kidding ladies!!!
   
  Seriously though (huh) if Jerry Ford can be President, if Dan Quayle can be Vice President, and if Condie Rice can be Secretary of State, I'd say the system can survive just about any office holder.
   
   

• Lucytorial said on Jun 08, 2008....

  The system might TNP but will the average joe??? thats the problem, you can get caught up in the system and who might be great in its smaller parts but unless each person is doing it for the people the people in the end do not benefit!

• Abeni[Dr] said on Jun 18, 2008....

  Q.  What is the one thing Politics, Religion and Insurance have in common?
   
  A.  Everyone believes they have the best policy.
   
  These are issues that there just are no clear cut right and wrong answers. You can find a thousand faults to Bush and a thousand praises for Clinton. Someone else with the same ease can flip that equation. I do try to stay informed, yet still, even though I never miss a chance to vote, I feel like my voice isn't completely heard. If you register Democratic or Republican you can only vote in those primaries, you have no choice of who the opposing candidate should be. I am sure that some Republicans have thoughts on who the better Democratic representative is and if their party should not win, which in the opposing party would be better then the other candidates running to represent that party. And the same in reverse. But you have no say. I don't vote party lines. that is deadly and dangerous, if I had to declare a party it would be Republican, but between Obama and Clinton and Edwards, I would have voted Clinton, which quite possibly could have changed who would have won my state. Am I completely sold on McCain, no, not really. But sometimes it isn't a question of who the best candidate is, Clinton would not win my vote for that. But rather who the worst candidate isn't. Your main idea that ppl are voting without being informed, is very true. But what gets my goat worst is those who never vote, sitting on their high horse yelling about everything wrong with the country, yet not doing a damn thing to make it better.
   
  Oh and if I had to be completely honest. I would have passed the other test you posted, but I might not pass a current events one.

• TheNakedProfessor said on Jun 21, 2008....

  Thanks for your input.

• ALIENated said on Jun 21, 2008....

  
  Sorry Phoeby, I was being metaphorical. Did not even stop to think whether
  you were male or phemale. I cannot understand why so many wanted Hillary
  or Oblahma. They are both screwy. At least McCain is a little more sane 
  about most issues. The Democrats cannot wait to repeal the tax cuts and
  start taking our money again. Why do people vote for that. It is just insane,
  and it drives me insane that people are so stupid.
  
  

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