Taking a Break…on grading and other things…

Grading: about half of my students in one class were very well prepared….others….not at all. This will be an “A’s and F’s” distribution.

Other posts

Bill Moyers and President Obama’s compromise on birth control: I still think that the religious types get too much “credit”. Yes, people should feel free to worship whatever deity, but their religious beliefs should have no say in public policy. But alas, that won’t happen in my lifetime.

Robert Reich: explains that talking about manufacturing is not the same as talking about people having a job that pays a living wage. The real problem is that while businesses are doing well and those at the top are making record profits, the workers are being left out. Rising tides do NOT lift all boats…

Why do the GOP Presidential candidates seem out of touch with many Americans? Answer: they are currently playing to a tiny slice of the population:

But before getting into how this minority has steered the party into a corner, let’s look at the size of the electorate. The nine states that have held caucuses or primaries to date are home to roughly 28 million total registered voters, of all political persuasions.

So far, three million voters have participated in the Republican races, less than the population of Connecticut. This means that 89 percent of all registered voters in those states have not participated in what is, from a horse-race perspective, a very tight contest.

Yes, we know Republicans don’t like their choices; it’s a meh primary. But still, in some states, this election could be happening in a ghost town. Less than 1 percent of registered voters turned out for Maine’s caucus. In Nevada, where Republican turnout was down 25 percent from 2008, only 3 percent of total registered voters participated.

This is not majority rule by any measure; it barely qualifies as participatory democracy.

Results from the two populous states that have held big, media-saturated primaries, and are more likely to attract average voters, are also very revealing. In Florida, the largest and most diverse state among the nine, turnout was down 14 percent from 2008. And 84 percent of the state’s total registered voters did not participate in the Republican contest.

South Carolina is the major outlier this year, the only state to show a big increase in turnout, up 35 percent from 2008. But when you look at who voted, you see a very specific niche.

In the Palmetto State, 98 percent of primary voters were white, 72 percent were age 45 or older and nearly two-thirds were evangelical Christian, according to exit polls. From this picture, you may think South Carolina is an all-white, aging state, full of fervent churchgoers. But the Census says the state is only 66 percent white, with a median age of 36. Exit polls from 2008 put the evangelical vote at 40 percent of total.

Florida was at least closer — only in the Latino vote — to the general election of 2008; in both cases, it was about 14 percent of the total. But voters 45 or older made up 78 percent of the primary, versus 59 percent in the general matchup four years ago.

Outside of Florida, this contest has been nearly an all-white affair. Nevada is 26 percent Latino by population; in the primary, only 5 percent were Latino. Caucus voters in Iowa were 99 percent white.

Again, these numbers represent a small echo chamber. Whites are 63.7 percent of the total population of the United States; in 1900, they were 88 percent — still more diverse than Republican primary voters today.

So yes, the Republican primary might represent the Applebee’s crowd but that is only a small subsection of the United States (though I am sure that they view themselves as the “Real Americans”….)

And by the way, I am grown up enough to know that I am miles out of the mainstream; I have little in common with most of America in many areas (e. g. religion). That is why I accept that my candidates will never see eye to eye with me on many issues.

Sarah Palin: will continue to milk her supporters for more money by teasing about running for President.

Humor/Political Humor
I hope that my wife doesn’t accept this:

A New Hampshire lawmaker with a history of surprising statements suggested on Thursday that married couples who want to use contraception should practice abstinence instead of using birth control pills.

Ok, my wife is well past her child bearing years…but I know that some poor guys are going to have some serious wrist injury issues if they listen to this clown.

Posters

I honestly don’t know about the bottom right frame since I don’t know him personally. The rest are pretty funny though.