Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks buried in my research (some of which is getting published, but I’ll post about that when it actually comes out, which will be in a few months), so I haven’t had much to blog about on here.  But two news stories caught my eye today.

First is this NYTimes Editorial about everybody’s favorite administration – The Bush Administration.  I’m surprised there haven’t been more stories about this, but basically what the editorial details is the fact that the Bush Administration has filled posts in government departments with people inimical too to the very purpose of the department.  To run the Environmental Protection Agency the Bush Administration tapped a guy who wants to block reductions in greenhouse gases.  That makes sense in “Opposite Land.”  But the main point of the Editorial linked above is that, to run the Labor Department, the purpose of which is to be “responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and some economic statistics”, the Bush Administration tapped Elaine Chao, whose record in this position has been deplorable.  Now, before all of the conservative readers of my blog say, “Well, the government shouldn’t regulate labor anyway,” read the Editorial.  Under Ms. Chao, complaints of hard-working employees NOT GETTING PAID have simply been ignored.  I can understand people arguing over minimum wage standards, but is there anyone out there who is opposed to people getting paid for the work they do for someone who has agreed to pay them?  Yeah, didn’t think so.

Second, a science finding.  Turns out, people really can’t tell whether a meat burger tastes better than a vegetarian burger that tastes about the same.  According to this study, if you tell someone who “loves” meat that they are eating meat, even when they are eating something with no meat in it, they can’t tell the difference.  I’m wondering if they got the idea for the study from my experiment with my brother-in-law.  Here’s the original blog post about it (now removed):

2006, February 14th, Tuesday
So, we’re here in Utah and finding a little time to relax. Amidst our relaxation, I decided to cook for Debi’s family last night. As most readers are probably aware, Debi and I are vegetarians – the rest of her family members are not. So, when I offered to make sloppy joes, I raised a few eyebrows. Even so, we decided to turn the meal into a taste test so everyone could see that you can actually make vegetarian food that tastes just as good as meat-based foods. Of particular interest in this test was the opinion of one of Debi’s brothers who insisted he remain nameless (though anyone in the know will likely figure out to whom I am referring).

This nameless brother agreed to participate in a taste test – Rosemary, Debi’s mom, would make her sloppy joes and I would make mine. We would let everyone try both and decide which ones they liked best. The nameless brother agreed to this scenario, but when I mentioned it to Debi and her mom, they had a better idea. Rather than have Rosemary make sloppy joes to compete in the test, I’d just make two distinct batches of sloppy joe mix and let them decide between them. I normally make two batches anyway as Debi likes hers particularly bland and I like mine very spicy. So, before everyone arrived, I made up the sloppy joe mixes, both of which were vegetarian, and prepared samplers for everyone. I then handed them to Debi who delivered them to the table. I didn’t tell Debi which batch was which but assigned letters to them so she didn’t even know which batch was hers and which was mine (we were trying for a double-blind taste test).

They all tried them and people were divided as to which they liked (the real shocker was that most people liked mine better), but the best part was that the nameless brother insisted that Debi’s batch was real meat and mine was the tofu. It was hilarious to watch him insist that one was meat and one wasn’t when, in fact, both were tofu but just seasoned slightly differently. He was, let’s say, a little perturbed by our subterfuge once we revealed what we had done.

Oh we vegetarians… We’re shameless, aren’t we?

In case you missed it, Christopher Hitchens, the well-known author and Vanity Fair writer, was called out by the editor of Vanity Fair on his position on waterboarding.  Hitchens had described waterboarding as “extreme interrogation.” When asked by the editor of Vanity Fair if he would be willing to be waterboarded, he agreed.  Check out the video of him being waterboarded.

Hitchens then described his experience and, not surprisingly, changed his tune.  The title of his article: Believe Me, It’s Torture.

I have an aunt and uncle who are super nice and really great people.  But they also happen to forward to me (or Debi) every political email they receive.  They are pretty conservative, so the emails tend to be on things that I disagree with (as a liberal independent).  I’ve probably received close to 10 emails from them, at least half of which have been completely untrue or so filled with misconstruals of reality that I had to respond to them and clear up the errors.  But I can’t just respond to the sender; I feel obligated to respond to everyone on the email list.  I probably shouldn’t, but I figure most of these people won’t find out how the email is inaccurate unless I say something.

So, Debi received this email from my Aunt and Uncle a couple of days ago:

Subject: Fw: Obama Explains why he doesn’t salute the U.S. Flag

His explanation is so weak,what is wrong with people supporting this person.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH BEING ON OUR SIDE??????

Obama Explains why he doesn’t salute the U.S. Fla[g]

Obama ‘explains’

I sure hope this gets around before Nov.!!!

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:48:04 -0400, ‘LTG Bill Ginn’ USAF ret. forwarded the following:

Hot on the heels of his explanation for why he no longer wears a flag pin, presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama was forced to explain why he doesn’t follow protocol when the National Anthem is played.

According to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171, During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform are expected to stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.

‘As I’ve said about the flag pin, I don’t want to be perceived as taking sides,’ Obama said. ‘There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression. And the anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all. It should be swapped for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.’ If that were our anthem, then I might salute it.’

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this could possibly be our next president!! I, for once, am speechless. He has absolutely NO pride in this country!!!!! This is outrageous!!!! He doesn’t deserve to be dogcatcher!!! (Oh, sorry dogcatchers, I mean you no disrespect.)

LET’S SEND THIS CLOWN DOWN THE ROAD KICKING ROCKS!!!! Forward this to EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!

Now, if you’re like me, and you actually pay attention to the news, you’re probably thinking, “I would have heard it in the real media if Obama had said something like this.  Oh, and that quote sounds more like something George Bush would say in his eloquent two-year-old grammar, not what Obama would say.”  If that’s what you thought, kudos to you.  I thought the same thing, so I spent 2 minutes looking this up online.  Here’s the email I sent back to everyone on the email list:

Hi Everyone,

You may or may not know me, but I feel obligated to do something to stop the spread of this email chain and rumor-mongering. The email below is based on a satirical news column, meaning it IS NOT TRUE! Barack Obama NEVER SAID what is alleged in the email below. You can verify this yourself here:
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_obama_say_the_national_anthem_conveys.html

If you want the real scoop on Barack Obama respecting the flag and the national anthem, check this website:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/anthem.asp

I don’t really care whether you are for or against Barack Obama, either way you should at least have your facts straight. If you passed this email on, please pass on the corrected information I’m sending. If you don’t, you should feel guilty for misleading people.

Yes, I always feel a little awkward sending this kind of stuff, but considering my career as an educator, I feel like it is the right thing to do.  Also, having sent similar emails in the past, I didn’t think much of it.  Then I got this response:

Ryan,

I appreciate your concern for making sure the truth is being represented with regards to Barack Obama. You may be right, but then again I have a photograph on my computer showing Barack standing in a group during the playing of the National anthem, which clearly shows him not showing the same respect to the flag as all of the others in the photo. He definitely has some issues with the flag and the national anthem. I personally do not think he is ready for prime time as the commander in chief of our great nation.

It is obvious to me that your defense of Barack Obama and an earlier defense of the ACLU (a prior intrusion into our mail boxes) has put on display a very liberal bias on your part which fails to impress me, even with your previously stated resume. I suspect you may be a little like the ACLU (Anti Christ Litigation Union) claiming to be the protector of our civil rights, but having an obvious agenda that will only see the light of day when exposed by others.

Thanks for setting us straight with regards to Barack. I’m not excited about McCain, but he is light years ahead of Obama in Patriotism and preparation to lead the nation.

Sincerely,

David XXXXXXXX

Blue Collar Worker with no particular credentials

This response was sent to everyone on the email list as well.  As my goal is clarification of the main point, not convincing people they are wrong, I didn’t respond to David.  But I did lose hope that my efforts were helping make the US electorate a little more educated.  When a picture trumps actual research, you know our country is in trouble.

I did start to get a little hope back for America when someone else responded to David (though she smartly and appropriately only responded to David and CC’d me, not the whole list):

David,

I am also on this e-mail chain for some reason! But I thought it was rather arrogant of you to pass on e-mails that are not true of others (regardless of whether you think they are light years behind someone else on certain issues or not). If the message is not true than you are in the wrong to send it onto other uninformed individuals making them believe untrue things of others. It is clear that you are a believer in Christ by your comment about not liking the ACLU and giving them a different name than is theirs, but certainly your actions of passing on untrue material of others does not support this professed belief! I personally am grateful for those who have the courage to take a stand when things that are NOT correct are passed around. I hope that you might also have that same courage. I wish the best to you.

Annie

So, I was feeling pretty good.  Then I opened my email this morning to find this:

Frankly, who the heck cares? Stop sending me junk mail. I’ve never sent anything to you – so stop sending it to me!!!!

The FACT that Obama is an inexperienced, slick, lying, socialist flip-flopper whose voting record pegs him as a Kennedy-Dukakis Liberal and who has directly communicated his intention to raise taxes to levels that will crush economic growth and prosperity is all I need to know about him. If I wanted to live in a socialist haven with a perpetually depressed economy and with liberal government micromanagement and over-regulation, I would move to such a place.

Doug

What’s the take home message?  As you consider the upcoming election, especially if you support Barack Obama and are actually hoping for a change in direction in the US, keep in mind that there is a large segment of the population that isn’t really interested in facts.  From the content of these emails, I’d guess they make their decisions on who to vote for based on just a couple of pieces of information gleaned from their environment that get them emotional (FYI this is supported by social scientific research, which indicates the best way to predict voting behavior is to find out what a person is emotional about, not what they know).  In short, depending on what percentage of the voting public thinks this way, I’d say McCain has a pretty good shot, not because he is a great candidate, but because people have their heads up Rush Limbaugh’s nether regions and are too afraid to pull them out to think for themselves for a minute.  In fact, when I tried to pull their heads out for a second, they slapped me away and shoved it in further (see picture for illustration).  Unless Obama is better at extracting heads from nether regions, McCain will probably win.

(Note: Photo courtesy of yours truly.  I wasted quite a bit of time putting that one together this morning.  But it does make me laugh.)

I caught the announcement that Barack Obama was visiting Tampa for a rally a few days ago via the local paper. So, Debi and I signed up for tickets and went today. We had already been to two rallies for candidates we’re not going to vote for (Mitt Romney and John McCain), so we figured we better go see the candidate we actually like.

The doors were supposed to open at 10:30. We wanted decent seats, so we got there around 9:30 only to find that the line to get into the St. Pete Times Forum literally wrapped all the way around the building:

You can’t see it very well in this photo, but this is about 3/4 a mile from the entrance and they were already letting people in. The people you see in the distance are part of the line and they aren’t even close to the beginning. Debi, as always, was quick to point out the demographics (she beats me to it every time): It was close to 40% black; the rest were white or Hispanic. And, Obama supporters come in every shape and size:

When we first arrived we thought we might not get in, but lines can be deceiving – we got in with plenty of space. In fact, we went against the recommended seating and sat all the way across the Forum, directly opposite the podium. When we arrived, no one was sitting there so we got front row seats. It was kind of far, but gave us a great view. (Note: The security personnel and volunteers were trying to position everyone behind the podium so the place looked full for the news media. Yes, Democrats do stage their rallies too. It wasn’t really necessary as the place filled up anyway, but so it goes.)

The news media probably worked against filling up the St. Pete Times Forum by claiming tickets were running out the day before, but the Forum was still pretty full by the time Obama arrived. The NYTimes article on the rally estimated around 15,000, which is what I estimated it at as well considering the upper level was mostly empty and the capacity of the Forum is 20,000. Here’s a panorama (click on it for full size) of the Forum about 30 minutes before Obama actually arrived. Tampa Mayer Pam Iorio, who endorsed Obama at the rally, was speaking at this point:

I snapped this shot zoomed in as close as I could with my camera (not a great zoom). You can barely see Senator Obama in the picture:

So, I went the easy way and snapped this one off the jumbotron:

Having listened to Mitt Romney, and based on Debi’s report on McCain, Obama is a much more charismatic speaker. Maybe it helps that we agree with him on most issues – ending the war in Iraq, providing better healthcare (we actually think Hillari has a better plan here, but he at least wants to try), funding alternative energy research, etc. Whatever it is, the guy is likable and charismatic. What’s more, he spoke for over 30 minutes extemporaneously and kept our attention the whole time. (I’d love to see our current president try to wing it like that for 30 minutes…) It took up most of our day, but here’s to hoping we just saw the next president of the U.S.!