August 14, 2012

New Poll Shows Atheism Up, Religiosity Down

A new poll called “Global Index of Religion and Atheism” shows atheism is gaining ground around the globe and in the United States. The same poll shows that the percentage of people identifying as religious is on the decline. To be clear, religion still rules the day with 59% of the world identifying as religious. The percentage of the world identifying as not religious was 23% and as atheist, 13%. The poll was conducted in 57 countries with interviews of 50,000 people.

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August 13, 2012

Paul Ryan: Member of the Republican Obstructionist Party Controlling the House

Congress’ approval rating is lower than that of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and that’s really hard to pull off! Yet this didn’t stop Mitt Romney from choosing Paul Ryan, a member of congress, more specifically, a member of the majority obstructionist party controlling the House. In the era of the Obama administration, obstructionist is just another way of saying Republican. Mitt Romney didn’t have to choose a current member of congress, but that is exactly what he did, and so the low approval rating of congress will be part of the critique of the Romney-Ryan campaign. And President Obama wasted no time making this connection in a speech on Monday in Iowa:

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August 13, 2012

Don’t Vote for the Party or the Candidate, Vote for What is Right

It might seem like a difficult choice sometimes to vote at all, particularly if you live by the idea of voting for what is right. I guess a more nuanced approach would be to say you should vote for the candidate who is closer to what you believe is right. The game might be rigged, but don’t allow the candidate who is further from your values to win by not casting your vote. And I sincerely say this regardless of who you plan to vote for. I will lay out the case in article after article of why I think that should be Barack Obama, but you will have to vote your conscience, not mine.

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August 13, 2012

The Republican Electoral College Math Challenge

20120812-234518.jpgIt will be interesting to see the result of the popular vote vs. electoral college in the upcoming election. Any path to victory for Mitt Romney will involve a close popular vote and close electoral college vote. For President Obama, he could win slim in the popular vote but still win fairly large in the electoral college. The problem for Republicans in this election and future elections is demographics. Many of the most populated states are solidly Democratic and they are also states that have large minority populations that are growing larger each year. As long as the Republican Party continues to be the party of old white guys (ok, Paul Ryan is only one of those things) they will find the electoral college math increasingly challenging.

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August 11, 2012

Paul Ryan Says Rights Come from Nature and God, Not Government

Paul Ryan - photo by Gage SkidmoreAfter being introduced as Mitt Romney’s running mate on Saturday, Representative Paul Ryan (WI-R) said that America was founded on an idea. What is the idea? Ryan said, “Our rights, come from nature and God, not from government.” Oh really? Ryan, which God are you referring to? The Christian God? I’m willing to bet there are Americans who are members of a different faith who might think their rights come from God too. The problem is that the rights people believe they have from God might not exactly line up depending on which God they pray to. This is why Paul Ryan is wrong.

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