THIS WEEK - Presidents, Lies, Voters ... and the Boy Scouts
What's the responsibility of the President in accurately educating the public on matters of government policy? Or on anything, for that matter? SI states the case for a teacher-prez, but Ex takes a somewhat controversial position. The rest of the Herd, including special guest Chappy, weigh in. (00:00)
How vigilant is the voting public about our elected officials telling us the truth? What can the electorate do? Chappy is optimistic about the possibilities, but SI punctures her balloon. We also look at our compliant press. (14:13)
One of us thinks voters should have to take a test before casting their ballots. Is there an elitist in the house? Find out who he or she is. (If you're a regular listener, try to guess beforehand.) Do Americans lack intellectual curiosity and necessary basic knowledge? Most of the Herd argues that you can’t force the electorate to make informed decisions. (30:24)
OG is annoyed at The Boy Scouts of America Centennial Commemorative Coin Act. Does she have Scout-envy, or is there something insidious at work in the proposed legislation? We briefly discuss the history of B.S.A.'s B.S. Evo ably sums up the Herd's position, and, for once, Ex and SI refrain from embellishing. But someone tries to earn the sound-effects merit badge. (51:52)
Opening Music [00:00]: excerpt from "Another Goddamned Draft"
Bridge Music [13:32]: excerpt from "Highway 45"
Bridge Music [29:00]: excerpt from "One of Many"
Bridge Music [51:17]: excerpt from "Middle Earth"
Closing Music [1:05:43]: excerpt from "As Jazzy as I Get"
(All music: copyright 2008 by Rachel Murie)
This Week's Goddamned Links
Joe Klein's Article about McCain
Huffington Post on Klein and McCain
The Constitution of the United States
Boy Scouts Commemorative Coin Act
Numismatists Jump for (Discriminatory) Joy
Secular Coalition's Action Alert
Wikipedia on Boy Scouts of America and Membership
The Scouts' Discrimination Against Gays
JREF Forum on Scouts and Atheism
How to Tie a Sheepshank
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12 comments:
Ex, if you have high blood pressure, take some meds before following this link.
Oh, he already found it and he's probably been pissed off for DAYS! :)
It's not clear from the article whether the people who allegedly don't like his name are reacting to the Barack part or the Obama part.
I suspect those people are full of shit. If his name were Thomas Jefferson, the very same people wouldn't like it because they'd say it sounds too Black.
I really like this episode. In Australia voting is compulsory. Which is good because Australians are culturally apathetic in regards to anything but sport and beer.
The average voter though is still pretty uninformed when it comes to how the political system works though.
Thankfully our election campaigns only run for about 6-8 weeks.
On the subject of the Scout Oath Australia still includes God and Queen although queen maybe dropped in some cases and god is the nebulous, abstract higher power sort.
So we still inculcate scouts with religion unlike new citizens who are not forced to swear allegiance to god.
By the way if you are ever interested in an international guest I could make myself available :)
"God and Queen", "God and country"... kind of the same nonsense. Ours doesn't specify "Jesus". Lots of Jewish kids are Scouts. You just have to believe in god because as every good scout knows, you can't be a good scout if you don't believe in god. It's impossible.
I really hate the idea of compulsory voting. If someone really doesn't want to go vote, who really wants them casting a ballot? To me, that would be like compulsory drivers licenses, even if you have no desire to operate a motor vehicle.
Thanks for being a regular listener. I think it's safe to say we are up to a half dozen now. We can stop saying "both" of our listeners!
I would prefer compulsory voter education. That being said there are ways of getting out of voting if you want to.
If we go off of my experiences, OG and the chaplain didn't miss out on a lot. The highlights of my two years in the Girl Scouts were: "camping" in the courtyard of the apartment complex, learning how to make paper fortune tellers, and cooking for Mothers Day. Of course, I was only a Brownie Scout, but I'm pretty sure it didn't get any better, at least in that troop.
And, I apologize for my absence from the comments, but I took a break from listening at some point and it's taken me this long to catch up!
Maybe I heard this wrong, but did you guys say that 50% of Americans believe the the Earth is 6000 years old?
Venjanz, I tried to find what you were referring to because my own memory on it was a little hazy. Ex asked me a question. Whether it was what % of Americans don't accept evolution or what percentage think that the Earth was created in the last 10,000 years, I'm not sure. I replied "I think it's close to 50%". I was probably on target if it's a question of evolution. If the question was about the earth being less than 10,000 years old, I think the percentage is somewhat lower in the most recent studies, but it is still a huge chunk of the country.
I'm sure there's a stat in this lecture from Coyne.
Well, I just started listening to this
video discussion between Lawrence Krauss and Richard Dawkins and RD mentions (quite early on)that it is about 50% who believe the earth was created in the past 6,000 years. Kraus says "and we know who those 50% voted for".
sorry for the really late comment, but i found this podcast recently and then started over from ep1...
i was also wondering about the 50% creationist thing which i have heard many times without citations, and despite being raised in the church- in the bible belt- i have never met anyone that professed such belief, so i am skeptical. any sources? i found this interesting:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2680/nearly-half-the-u-s-population-believes-the-earth-is-less-than-10-000-years-old
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