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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Why, yes I do have a selfish desire for Obama to win the election. You see, I very selfishly want my country to reverse course on the vast amount of control that corporations have on our government, the refusal of it's administration to do what's best for it's citizens, allowing arm chair warriors to send our sons and daughters to die of foreign soil because of some jingoistic BS and last, but not least, because the economy is about to eliminate the middle class.
Yes, I must say I have a very selfish desire to see Obama as POTUS as I believe that he will be able to get the reversal started. This is my country and I'm sick of seeing morons and con artists run it into the ground.
I think the strategy of responding quickly and effectively to the rumors and lies about Sen. Obama is correct. However, I worry that relying on their response website to correct the rumors and inaccuracies may be inadequate. Those people that are more likely to believe these paranoid rumors are not the type that will proactively look up a pro-Obama website to learn how what they think is incorrect. It may be shortsighted to rely on this website to change peoples' perceptions of Sen. Obama. It would seem that a more diversified strategy would be needed.
@AJCalhoun:
You write:
I notice someone stated that the average IQ in the US is 100 and extrapolated from this unscientific statistic (which is commonly believed but utterly proof proof),
erm... The average IQ is defined to be 100 in modern IQ measurement. Look it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ
that it meant half the populace (even the part which has never taken an IQ test) has an IQ below 100. An average, brothers and sisters, is the aggregate number associated with any trait, divided by the number of subjects involved.
Yep. That's exactly what the mean is too. There are three commonly used statistical measures of the centre of a distribution: mean, mode, and median. The mean is identical to the average: the sum of the observations divided by the number of observations. The mode is the most common observation. The median is the observation below which half the observations fall.
It is only an average. Were the mean IQ of US citizens 100, then half would be below and half above. The average means almost nothing, since a handful of geniuses could skew it up to 100 and damn near all the rest of us could be virtually brain dead (which appears to be the case).
You are thinking of the median, not the mean, in what you write above. The skew could be important if IQ were measured the way you apparently think it is, but in fact it is defined to be a projection onto a Gaussian distribution with mean 100. A Gaussian is unimodal and symmetrical, so the mean, median, and mode are equal. 50% of the population is below the average by construction.
From an American perspective, you are whatever you want to be. If you want to claim to be Arabic, black, believer in human sacrifices or whatever, it will be accepted because that's what you want to be labeled as. So if BHO claims to be Christian it will be accepted.
From a Muslim/Islamic perspective, things are not so easy.
Who is a muslim?
1- Someone who recites the shahada.
Quote:
"Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/opinion/06kristof.html?_r=4&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
The Islamic call to prayer is the sahada and by reciting it, muslims would consider him a muslim. BTW, how would he know the sahada in Arabic unless he studied in koranic school in Indonesia and only muslims can take those koranic classes in Indonesian schools? How come the website says he has "never" been a muslim? But I digress.
2- Someone who's father was muslim (even if only nominally).
Check. for Obama. Both his biological and adoptive were muslim (although nominal).
BHO has caused his own problems by being either ignorant or misleading about his Islamic heritage. What he should do is admit that under an Islamic view of the world, he would be consider a muslim. Then say that although he acknowledges that such perspective exists, he rejects it and defend the rights of all human beings to determine their own beliefs irrespective of their heritage. A good show in support of apostates would go a long way in gaining admiration of human right advocates in Muslim countries. Something along the lines of JFK in Berlin but applied in defense of apostates in the Muslim world who face unbelievable odds against them: "I am also an apotate" would go a long way to eliminate the "smear".
From an American perspective, you are whatever you want to be. If you want to claim to be Arabic, black, believer in human sacrifices or whatever, it will be accepted because that's what you want to be labeled as. So if BHO claims to be Christian it will be accepted.
From a Muslim/Islamic perspective, things are not so easy.
Who is a muslim?
1- Someone who recites the shahada.
Quote:
"Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/opinion/06kristof.html?_r=4&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
The Islamic call to prayer is the sahada and by reciting it, muslims would consider him a muslim. BTW, how would he know the sahada in Arabic unless he studied in koranic school in Indonesia and only muslims can take those koranic classes in Indonesian schools? How come the website says he has "never" been a muslim? But I digress.
2- Someone who's father was muslim (even if only nominally).
Check. for Obama. Both his biological and adoptive were muslim (although nominal).
BHO has caused his own problems by being either ignorant or misleading about his Islamic heritage. What he should do is admit that under an Islamic view of the world, he would be consider a muslim. Then say that although he acknowledges that such perspective exists, he rejects it and defend the rights of all human beings to determine their own beliefs irrespective of their heritage. A good show in support of apostates would go a long way in gaining admiration of human right advocates in Muslim countries. Something along the lines of JFK in Berlin but applied in defense of apostates in the Muslim world who face unbelievable odds against them: "I am also an apotate" would go a long way to eliminate the "smear".
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
