So, you may have seen my original post where I complained that it appeared black people were voting for Obama simply because he is black. I’ve decided to take a second look at this, and this is the updated, more thought out version of that post.

If you look at the demographics below, you will see that 97% of black people who say they are going to vote, are saying they are going to vote for Obama. (post continued below)

Now, I found it impossible to believe that that many people of one race just happened to all agree with Obama over McCain on actual policy. I assumed that they were saying they were voting for him simply because he has the same color skin as him.

Colin Powell

After posting my observation, I decided to do a little more research. So apparently only 11% of black people voted for Bush in 2004. Which possibly means that 8% of those people are now voting Democrat, when they voted Republican last time. Could be because of race? Could be. Probably. I’m thinking that’s why Powell threw his weight behind Obama.

While I may have been a little hasty in my (unstated) assumption that anywhere between 30-50% of black people were voting for Obama because of race, it may actually be that 8% are. Then again, it is perfectly possible that 8% of white people aren’t voting for Obama for the same reason.

Let’s think about this for a minute though. Why is it that an entire group of people with the same skin color magically all vote the same way? That doesn’t make sense, does it? That would be like finding out that 90% of old white people who have white hair vote for McCain. If I found that out, I would suspect they were voting for him simply because they identified with him because he was old and had white hair like them. But doesn’t appear to be the case. If 90% of people over 65 were voting for McCain because he was old, then they are participating in ageism. They are behaving as a group. A crowd. Sheep.

Let’s move on. If it isn’t race, why is it that 97% of black people are voting for Obama? What percentage of black people are Democrat versus Republican? 65% as of 2004. So why are 97% of them voting for Barak?

Clarence Thomas

Which party has the most famous black people in positions of power? Republicans. Clarence Thomas (only black person on the supreme court, appointed by a Republican). Condoleezza Rice (Very prominent under Bush). Colin Powell (Again, prominent under three Republican presidents). So why is it that black people support Democrats, whom I can’t recall promoting a single African American in a position of power like these?

Now, of course, the previous paragraph goes against my very premise. If black people were voting for Barak simply because he is black, why wouldn’t they support republicans simply because of Condoleezza and Powell and Thomas? I’ve heard talk here and there about these three individuals being labelled as “sell-outs”. So maybe the fact that they are black Republicans negates their blackness (to the people to whom race matters, and who would vote based on race)?

You could sort of compare it to if a Muslim were pro-American, they would be worse to the Muslim “extremsits” than just a non-Muslim American, because not only are they pro-American, but they are “traitors” as well.

Don't be a sheep.

Again, this doesn’t answer my question. Honestly, I have no answer for my question. Do I think that African Americans are voting for Barak either soley or partly based on the fact that he is black? Yes. Absolutely. Do I think that many white people are voting for Barak simply because he is an African American? Yes. Absolutely. Do I think that some white people are NOT voting for Barak simply because they are racist? Not really. There are certainly a few, but they are no where near as many as ARE voting for him because of something as stupid and arbitrary as his ethnic feature-set.

I guess my point is, as I’ve already said, any one group acting in a uniform manner, is simply acting as a group instead of thinking for itself. People need to wake up, and start thinking for themselves. The fact that Obama is black means nothing. Doesn’t it? Isn’t that the whole point of everything we’ve worked for? Really, shouldn’t the fact that Obama is black mean just as little as what size shoe he wears?

Shelby Steele

If you’re at all interested in this topic, you should read “White Guilt” by Shelby Steele. It’s a great book, and gives wonderful insight into where we have come and where we are going as blacks and whites trying to live together in America with the weight of our ancestry, and that fact that just because some idiot white people enslaved some black people, everyone who is white assumes they had idiot ancestors who owned slaves, and feels they have to make up for it, and has this enormous amount of guilt and is afraid to say anything or do anything that would make them look even remotely racist (Even though many whites are decendants of Scottish/Irish ancestors, and had nothing to do with slavery, or, especially here in the north, many whites had ancestors who gave their lives to see the slaves freed).

O'e-B and B-Cizzle "shake" hands

Hey, I’ve got something in common with Bill Clinton! When someone inproperly shakes my hand, I have no clue what’s going on. Note the subject of Obama’s gaze, Clinton. The subject of Clinton’s gaze? His own hand. Clinton looks bemused, but honored, as most older people do, to have his hand mis-shook. Me? I hate it. I wish people would just stick their dang hand out and give me a good firm shake.

Caleb Wilson has this one down pat and then some. You shake his hand, you’re in for a treat. There’s some other people I know who make a hand shake into some sort of mission impossible code exchange that ends with the message self descructing behind your head. Yeah, it’s funny, the first time, kind of. But when you’re trying to become president, and shaking hands with a former president, it seems you wouldn’t initiate some sort of exchange that could end up with you both going “bwoughghghghg” and shaking an open hand in the air behind your head.

Which makes me recall this photo:

Obama. Caring just enough to put on pants. But not good ones.

That’s right. Obama’s in some blue jeans. There’s nothing wrong with blue jeans, but what blue jeans say to me is, “I don’t really care about what I’m doing right now.” They are just one small step above sweat pants.

Did you know that Reagan refused to remove his suit coat while sitting behind the president’s desk? And I’m not even sure if they had air conditioning back then…

Reagan, working for the common man

I seriously doubt Reagan campained in anything less than a full suit. That’s just how much respect he had for the highest seat of office in the greatest country ever to grace this earth.

Obama? Well, I’m betting he’ll plop down in his Harvard law hoodie set behind that desk, while he tries to decide how much taxes I have to “pay to underpriveleged inner-city children”, and determines what in the constitution needs to be changed in order for it to be able “to do on my behalf” things it has no business doing.

Note: I know I sound like I’m 74 years old. I’m not. I’m 24. I just respect myself and my country in an old fashioned way I guess… And yes, I’m a conservative. Obviously.

I just found a Conservative Republican candidate I can get behind. If you heard Fred Thompson in the debates last Thursday, and you’re a conservative, you know what I’m talking about. If you didn’t, check this out:

We would be a nation of high fences and wide gates, and we get to decide when to open the gate and when to close it. It’s not just 12 million people. We have to be concerned about another 12 million people.

you can tell that the news is good news coming out of Iraq because you read so little about it in the New York Times.

This is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party and its future. On the one hand, you have a Reagan revolution; you have the Reagan coalition of limited government, and strong national security. On the other hand, you have the direction that Governor Huckabee would take us in. He would be a Christian leader, but he would also bring about liberal economic policies, liberal foreign policies.

He believes we have an arrogant foreign policy in the tradition of blame-America first. He believes that Guantanamo should be closed down and those enemy combatants brought here to the United States to find their way into the court system eventually. He believes in taxpayer funded programs for illegals, as he did in Arkansas. He has the endorsement of the National Education Association, and the NEA said it was because of his opposition to vouchers. He said he would sign a bill that banned smoking nationwide. So much for federalism, so much for state’s rights, so much for individual rights. That’s not the model of the Reagan coalition. That’s the model of the Democratic Party.

Awesomeness. This guy is actually conservative. I know, you’re saying he doesn’t have a chance because he hasn’t won anything yet, but there have only been two primaries so far, and in the NH primary more democrats and independents voted in the republican primaries than republicans. So we haven’t even begun to see how true Republicans (especially conservative republicans) will vote. I’m voting for Fred. He’s the candidate any true conservative can get behind.

Check out his website. Read the issues section (it will take you like five minutes tops):

This, my friends, is what will happen if we get a Democrat in the White House. This is the “wonderful” health-care Hillary would have us emulate (this guy has had an infected impacted wisdom tooth he’s been waiting over a month to have taken out because he has to get a “hospital referral”, and even once he gets that he has to wait even longer for his surgery. The referral just sets up the appointment).

Even without insurance, I would easily, and with only a few weeks notice, be able to have not one, but all FOUR of my wisdom teeth popped out, even if I didn’t need it. And in fact, I did. It was rather painless. Actually, I was asleep the whole time. Then after a few weeks recovery (which were not fun, because I got dry socket) I was perfectly fine and dandy.

I can not imagine the horror of living in a country where you can’t go to the doctor/hospital/whatever and have whatever you want done whenever you want it done (within reason). What the heck is a “hospital referral”??? This was like reading a horror story. I can’t believe any civilized country actually functions this way.

And, for the record, having all four wisdom teeth taken out (which are all impacted, which means they all require surgery) costs a measly $3k without insurance. Yeah, I know, that’s “A lot”, but really, it isn’t. You can spread that out over two credit cards, and the doctors can work out a payment plan. Plus, that’s with the optional “putting out” while it’s done (which, yes, is extra).

I got an e-mail today about “Flex Spending Accounts”.

“Cool, I can keep more of my money” I thought.

The person in charge of them, whether sub-consciously or not, thought differently:

“For Flex Spending Accounts – money is taken out of your paycheck tax free and held for reimbursement of your health care or childcare expenses. The money is direct deposited into your bank account. I won’t get into specifics but basically you save money (approx 25% depending on your tax situation) because the government does not take their cut of it.”

If you didn’t catch what I mean, the key is right here in this line:

“the government does not take their cut of it”

Looking at your money as if somehow the government is entitled to the egregious chunk they take out of it is part of what is wrong with this country. The line should have read:

“the government does not take a cut of it”

or more accurately:

“the government does not steal an outrageous portion of it”

or maybe more nicely put:

“the government let’s you keep more of your money”

Ok, I know exactly where this is going.

If we don’t bow down and worship at the inconvenient alter of al gore’s “truth” we will end up exactly like Venus.

Sure it’s interesting that maybe Venus was habitable. I do find it quite intruiging, but I think that the motivation behind this story is the same motivation that drives all environmentalist wackos:

If we don’t get rid of our evil technology, stop driving cars, stop using lights, stop being prosperous Americans, we will end up like Venus. 500 degrees burning hot and dead. Us puny humans are so powerful that we can kill mother earth…

ridiculous kookery.

It’s like waking up from a bad dream. I never thought I would see this day. Bart Peterson. GONE.

Awesome.

I don’t know anything about the new guy except that there is no way he could be worse than Bart.

This game is really interesting. It shows how easily our votes are manipulated, and how it could be fixed. The only problem with their solution is that it requires an “un-biased” party. There is not such thing. Even if an alien were to come to earth to help out, unless that alien were completely insulated from everyone, he would become biased sooner or later…

http://redistrictinggame.org/

So I was enjoying my peaches today, and I looked at the “enjoy by” date and saw that they would safely last until March 1… 2008. Wow, but before I could be amazed that something grown on a tree could stay good for over a year, I read the line above it “Peaches from china”. WHAT??????

How can a country so overpopulated that they kill their unborn en-mass be able to grow enough peaches for the good people at Dole?

Kind of a weird decision. Where is the logic in it? Hrm… what should I do today… build a second bedroom for another baby, or save the room for a peach tree… Hard decision… hrm…

Now, I know that this isn’t exactly the process, but when you think about it that’s kind of what it comes down to.

I guess I am a firm believer that there is no such thing as “overpopulation”. There may be “more crowded than our current crowdedness”.

But seriously, we are humans. We solve problems. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Let’s say that the earth were somehow in danger of being SO crowded on our available land masses that we just didn’t have room to grow our food and live. What about the ocean? It’s not like there isn’t over half the earth that is somewhat easily traversable teaming with life(food). I’m sure we could come up with some sort of stable bubble island system that floats like icebergs (the big parts below). Or perhaps we dig down two miles, build a massive tunnel system, and just reserve the surface for growing food, and use a massive mirror system to bring daylight below (or even just capture the daylight and transport it below where we release it from orbs on demand or something.

So yeah, what’s up china? Why can you grow peaches but not people? You really think that killing tons of babies every year is a good alternative to having to find them a place to live instead? I’ll never understand how a “successful” country can mandate the killing of it’s unborn. Then again, America does it too. At least it isn’t forced on us by the govt.

Oh, and if the earth ever got that crowded, it would just wipe a few million of us out through some sort of plague and “start fresh”. IMO this is a much better alternative to killing our own babies. People who think this place is too crowded can go get sterilized and shut up. In fact, I think this is a viable alternative to killing babies. Chinese people, rather than being forced to kill their young, should just be forced to be sterilized. Be proactive about this sort of thing rather than reactive. Sure, maybe you don’t want to be sterilized, but I bet the baby doesn’t want some scissors shoved into it’s head, it’s body blended up, and the pieces sucked out by a vacuum while it struggles for it’s life. What abortion isn’t piece-full and painless??? No.

I just watched the movie “blood diamond” where the viewer was meant to be shamed into never buying a “conflict” diamond because of the horrible murderers that enslave their own people to get them. I guess when I think about it, wouldn’t these be “conflict peaches” since by eating them I’m supporting a communistic infanticidic regime? Eh… whatchagonnado? Nothing to be done really… Except stop using technology, driving cars, eating food, or basically doing anything that’s not living outside of a hole in the ground eating worms/bugs/berries in a wildlife preserve (would you be considered wildlife then? Aren’t we just complicated monkeys?).

On the positive side, these “blood peaches” are pretty good…

I think this video mostly speaks for itself. What got me is the part about the Russian media being required to portray America as “bad”.

As much as I disagree with/hate our media, I have to stop and appreciate that it is free (albeit mostly controlled by absolutely crazy liberal idiots).

I am also somewhat heartened by the protesters, although I guess I really don’t have any clue what they are protesting. They could be protesting Russia not being communist enough for all I know…