Pointless polls

It's been a year? Wow. Last year at this time, there was a run of silly votes for what is called the Shorty awards on Twitter — you may recall that a couple of quacks, Mike Adams and Joe Mercola, snapped and started cheating furiously to win the Health category, to no avail: their votes were mostly disqualified. It was hilarious. Anyway, I got an email asking me to promote another set of candidates this year. If you already have a twitter account — you don't get to create one for the sole purpose of voting — you can follow the directions below. I was hoping I could get some help adding a…
Jen McCreight is running an online poll to determine the most influential female atheist of the year. Uh-oh. You'd think she'd learn. But given that the results will be utterly meaningless, it's still useful — there's quite a long list of good XX godless folk, and commenters keep mentioning more that were left out. Go there to see the depth and diversity of atheism, even if you don't vote.
Atheist Ireland is looking to determine the most fervent believer of the year with an online poll (frivolous topic, frivolous poll), and I was astounded to discover it had hardly been touched. It was an almost virginal poll. The really, truly True Believer™ of the YEAR 2010 And the winner of 2010 is… Islamic breast hacking clerics 0% [ 0 ] Vatican Child Abuse as bad as Ordination of Women. 0% [ 0 ] God phoning children in Massachusetts. 0% [ 0 ] Conor Lenihan and the anti science anti evolution book. 100% [ 2 ] Sheikh Maulana Rape ok in marriage 0% [ 0 ] Irish Minister for Social…
I'm so used to our do-nothing Democrats accomplishing nothing that I'm pleasantly surprised that they actually managed to repeal the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy afflicting our military. Congratulations, gay servicepeople! Unfortunately, now we have to worry about marines' legs falling off, and Fox News has gone whining to popular opinion with a poll (big numbers there, we probably won't budge it much). Will Ending 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Affect America's Ability to Defend Itself? Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/12/18/decide-dont-ask-dont-tell-military-gays/#ixzz18V7Ahe00 No…
The City Church of San Diego has a website with a fill-in-the-blank statement you're supposed to complete, and they're actually displaying the results, after they've been approved…and it looks like they've been reasonably liberal in their approvals. Help 'em out. Tell them what JESUS IS ______. I said, "a myth", but I also saw "a Jewish zombie" and "Placebo" and "very upset that you called him gay" appearing on the page.
This is fabulous news: the Louisiana school system has been wrestling with a proposal from the Louisiana Family Forum (you know the rule: the word "family" in their title means they're anything but) which would have had the schools using science textbooks with absurd warning labels and watered down content. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has seen the light, however, and voted 6 to 1 in favor of using quality textbooks for the kids of Louisiana. It's an all-around win for everyone. The Louisiana Patriarchy Forum is not happy. They are venting their frustration a bit with a…
It's another of those horrible stories of an ignorant fundie family with a sick child who could be easily cured by modern medicines, but they chose to treat him with the uselessness of prayer…and guess what happens? They're now the proud parents of a corpse. The media doesn't help. They give a voice to all the frauds saying things like, "Our teaching is to trust Almighty God for everything in life: for health, for healing, for protection, for provisions, for avenging of wrongs" and "The result was not what they wanted because our faith is imperfect at times. But God is perfect." And then…
The Fort Worth transit system is running horrible, hateful ads on their buses: they say, "Millions of Americans are Good Without God." I know, pick yourself up off the floor, that's terrifying…how dare atheists be so offensive? The Star-Telegram is going to settle this by running a poll. Look who's winning! Should The T have rejected the 'Good-without-God' ad as DART did? No. The T policy is rightly non-discriminatory 32% No. The T could use the ad revenue 2% Yes. The T should steer clear of such controversy 23% Yes. And I won't be riding The T until the ad comes off 43% Woo hoo! Buses in…
Now the Catholic League — you know it's going to get ugly when Bill Donohue joins the fray — has bought a billboard near the American Atheists' billboard. The pro-superstition sign says, "You Know It's Real: This Season Celebrate Jesus". Isn't that sweet? It's just like the religious side to proclaim a falsehood. Anyway, they're welcome to buy the ad space. The real winners here are the commercial enterprises marketing billboards and selling, selling, selling…and when you get right down to it, isn't that what Christmas is really all about? Meanwhile, the British have their own weird version…
Hmmm. We may not be able to really skew this poll, since my sense is that readers here are somewhat divided on the topic — but here goes anyway. Obama wants to crack down on leakers, while Sarah Palin thinks we ought to hunt down Assange and treat him like a terrorist. So what do readers of the NY Daily News (and now, Pharyngula) think? Is WikiLeaks right in making these 'secret' documents public? Yes, the people have a right to know. 58% No, they are endangering lives and destroying important alliances. 39% I don't know 3%
Tonight, Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens will debate on whether religion is a force for good. I'd love to hear Hitchens on that subject, but Blair? That's almost as comical as having Hitchens debate Bush on the subject. The newspapers are relying on two tools to promote the event. Hype: Together, Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens are two of the great British thinkers on religion. Wait, Blair…isn't he the simpering me-too former prime minister who was our American lackey in the UK? The one who converted to Catholicism, an act that clearly marks him as mentally deficient? Hmmm. Oh, well…
The current silly Skepticon controversy is easily resolved: just vote on it. How much of a so-called skeptic convention can be about religion? None 0% (0 votes) No more than 25% 0% (0 votes) No more than 50% 0% (0 votes) Just so long as it isn't all of it 25% (3 votes) All of it, why not? 75% (9 votes) Nicely done. There's only one choice that isn't arbitrary and incoherent and unjustifiable; I'd like to see the complainers confront the specific details of their position. Oh, and by the way, I haven't escaped Missouri yet — I'm stuck in an airport, waiting to fly out, and facing the…
I'm about as pro-choice as you can get; I'm even willing to say that I'm pro-abortion, and would like to encourage more people to abort. But I'm also rather shocked by my fellow Minnesotans, Pete and Alisha Arnold, who have decided to allow people to vote on whether they should get an abortion. Way to trivialize a significant life decision, Pete and Alisha! They have an online poll, and you can go vote right now. Should We Give Birth or Have an Abortion? Give Birth 77.3% (118,301 votes) Have an Abortion 22.7% (34,741 votes) Clearly, looking at those numbers, the 'bots have been at work,…
It's telling that kooks like Bill O'Reilly can turn purple with rage if you say "happy holidays" to them, seeing affront in friendliness. You know, It doesn't matter — so why do we need a poll to find out if some jerks want to dictate how you say hello? How do you feel when you hear "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas?" I prefer it 21% I don't care much either way 34% It bothers me 45% I suggest that everyone who is offended by being told either "happy holidays" or "merry christmas" should start wearing a little sign so we know not to hurt their delicate little feelings by…
Do you detect the little scientific and logical problem in this press release about a new prayer study? A ground-breaking online study was recently initiated to discover if Americans believe prayer has a place in medicine. Shannon Pierotti, a graduate student at USciences, is using a social networking basis for recruiting participants in a National survey to assess attitudes regarding the inclusion of spirituality and prayer in medical practice. What's "ground-breaking" about that? She's simply using an online poll, advertised on religious sites, to ask if respondents believe that magical…
I wish I could say only a Fox station in Texas would ask a question this stupid, but nah, it could be anywhere in this crazy nation. Do you think the Ten Commandments should be posted in public school classrooms? 26.76% Yes 73.23% No Savor the comments at the poll results, too. Ah, theocracy.
I remember my physical education class in high school — the instructor (I will not dignify him with the title "teacher") was a psychopath, as far as I was concerned. He ran the class like a petty tyrant; members of the football team were treated royally and given exemptions and privileges, while the rest of us were subject to his whims and rather vicious rules. We had jock strap inspections every day, and if we were unequipped, we'd be punished; we had to, for instance, run a certain number of laps around the track, and the students who came in last would be punished. And punishment was…
A few days ago, sent you off to vote on a debate on genetically-modified crops, a debate that has continued onwards. We didn't quite pharyngulate this poll; it has gone back and forth, and now the anti-GMO forces have a pretty good lead. One reason that we didn't pound it into the ground is that there was some dissension here, even — I think a fair number of the people who read about it here went off to vote for the antis. And then, also, I've learned that the anti-GMO gang organized their own opposition (which is perfectly fair!), which I suspect voted with much more unity than the gang from…
There's a debate going on in The Economist. Pamela Ronald is defending the proposition that biotechnology and sustainable agriculture are complementary, not contradictory, which is weird: agriculture is biotechnology, and just breaking ground with a sharp stick and throwing some seeds in is an example of an 'unnatural' human practice. I don't understand how the opposition can make a case, especially when this is their opening statement: Biotechnology is not a system of farming. It reflects no specific philosophy nor is it guided by a set of principles or performance criteria. It is a bag of…
The New Humanist is handing out an award for the most egregious contributions to irrationalism and superstition, the Bad Faith awards, and you can vote! This is going to be a tough one, because every one of the nominees deserves an acknowledgment of their inanity. It does have a bit of an English bent, so you might be unfamiliar with some of the names…but the voting page also has a brief description of each person's crime against reason. Lauren Booth 7.33% (25 votes) Prince Charles 9.09% (31 votes) Pastor Terry Jones 9.09% (31 votes) Cardinal Walter Kasper 4.69% (16 votes) Sheikh Maulana Abu…