Oct 22, 2012
The World of Fan Fiction: Harry Potter Lives Again
The Conservative Bubble
Most weekends, I watch Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC early on both Saturdays and Sundays. On a recent show, one of the topics discussed was "the Conservative Bubble" which lead me to post this blog. The guests included Republicans Josh Barro of Bloomberg.com, Linda Bair, former Chairwoman, FDIC, and Joe Weisenthal of Businessinsider.com. Host Chris Hayes lead the group in a lively discussion, starting with the recent conservative chatter railing against the polls which report Gov.Mitt Romney trailing President Obama. During the course of the conversation, several "alternative realities" embraced by many Republicans challenged my personal sensibilities.
Chris presented an interesting concept called "epistemic closure" from blogger and commentator Julian Sanchez explain how Republicans dismiss information that comes from the liberal media that conflicts with their reality. The term "epistemic closure" has been used in US political debate to refer to the claim that the belief systems of political conservatives are closed systems of deduction, which cannot be affected by empirical evidence.
"One of the more striking features of the contemporary conservative movement is the extent to which it has been moving toward epistemic closure. Reality is defined by a multimedia array of interconnected and cross promoting conservative blogs, radio programs, magazines, and of course, Fox News. Whatever conflicts with that reality can be dismissed out of hand because it comes from the liberal media, and is therefore ipso facto not to be trusted. (How do you know they’re liberal? Well, they disagree with the conservative media!) This epistemic closure can be a source of solidarity and energy, but it also renders the conservative media ecosystem fragile."
Here are some of the amazing statistics on conservative beliefs:
- 52% of Republicans believe ACORN stole the election for Obama. Only 27% of Republicans believe President Obama actually won the race. (That would mean that ACORN stuffed ballots with 9.5 million votes, Obama's national margin).
- One in six Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, including 24% of white evangelical Protestants, 18% of Republicans, and 11% of all Americans. The President is a Christian.
- 64% of Republicans believe that President Obama was born in another country he was not. He was born in Hawaii, the 50th state.
- 63% of Republican respondents in a recent Dartmouth poll still believe that Iraq had WMD when the U. S. invaded in 2003, along with 27% of Independents and 15% of Democrats. WMDs were never found in Iraq.
- 70% of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11 terrorist attacks, even though he was not involved.
The "Catholic Vote" Wants Social Justice
According to a poll released Monday by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, most U.S. Catholics think the church should focus more on social
justice and helping the poor, even if it means focusing less on issues like
abortion.
The 2012 American Values Survey finding
on Catholics goes against the focus of many U.S. Catholic bishops, who have
stressed the church's ban on abortion and artificial contraception in their
public policy statements. The poll found that 60 percent of
Catholics want a greater focus on social justice issues rather than abortion,
while 31 percent support the opposite approach.
The divide was true even among Catholics who attend church once a week or more, a group often considered more socially conservative. A slim majority of this group, 51 percent, thought the church should focus more on social justice issues.
"The survey confirms that there is no such thing as the ‘Catholic vote,'" said Robert P. Jones, chief executive of the institute and co-author of the report. The survey included more than 3,000 respondents. "There are a number of critical divisions among Catholics, including an important divide between ‘social justice' and `right to life' Catholics."
U.S. bishops strongly oppose same-sex
marriage, abortion and contraception. They specifically oppose the mandate in
the U.S. 2010 health care overhaul which requires hospitals, universities and
other institutions to provide insurance that covers artificial birth control,
which is against Catholic teachings.
The survey also found that among
Catholics who attend church weekly or more Often, 57 percent support a prison
sentence of life without parole as opposed to the death penalty.
The divide was true even among Catholics who attend church once a week or more, a group often considered more socially conservative. A slim majority of this group, 51 percent, thought the church should focus more on social justice issues.
"The survey confirms that there is
no such thing as the ‘Catholic vote,'" said Robert P. Jones, chief
executive of the institute and co-author of the report. The survey included
more than 3,000 respondents. "There are a number of critical divisions
among Catholics, including an important divide between ‘social justice' and
`right to life' Catholics."
U.S. bishops strongly oppose same-sex marriage, abortion and contraception. They specifically oppose the mandate in the U.S. 2010 health care overhaul which requires hospitals, universities and other institutions to provide insurance that covers artificial birth control, which is against Catholic teachings.
The survey also found that among
Catholics who attend church weekly or more Often, 57 percent support a prison
sentence of life without parole as opposed to the death penalty.
He noted that Catholics who are more conservative on the
abortion issue are more "liberal" on the death penalty.
Religion and Political Views
A survey taken between September 13 and September 30, before
the presidential debates, and involving 3,003 respondents, with a margin of
error of plus or minus 2 percent gives us some significant information on the
link between religion and political views. Here are some of the findings:
Oct 20, 2012
Halloween: Time for Horror History
Humans beware. It's the Halloween season of ghosts, goulds, and goblins. Witches, black cats and screams through the night cause our hearts to pound and our teeth to chatter. Hollywood surrounds us with supernatural beings that assail, afflict and torture humans and cause dreadful mishaps, even death. Follow along with me as I visit some of the iconic villains in the cinema's Horror History.
