Freudian Slip, Political Style

It seems that Dan Klepal of the Cincinnati Enquirer has promoted Councilman Pat DeWine to the office of U.S. Senator:

Reps. Steve Chabot of Cincinnati and Rob Portman of Terrace Park, along with Sens. Pat DeWine and George Voinovich, all Republicans, say in the letter they were unaware of the proposed change until reading of it in the Enquirer Oct. 4.

Of course Mike DeWine is the current Senator from Ohio, who is Pat's father. I hope Pat got a good laugh from that one on his dad.

FOX News Religious Bias?

In their latest poll FOX News is trumpeting that 92% of Americans believe in "God." Now, why this is something for a news group to poll I do not really know, but FOX does cater to religious right. The bias in this article starts with the following:

Fully 92 percent of Americans say they believe in God, 85 percent in heaven and 82 percent in miracles, according to the latest FOX News poll.

That was from the first paragraph in the article. That says that based on the poll 276 million out of 300 million or so people in America believe in "God." Now, I will try to forgo the problem of lumping "God" as a singular and monolithic title to something that has such widespread variations in definition and belief. Asking if people believe in "witches" is by itself insulting to those who practice Wicca, but I “digress.” (But not really)

The real meat comes later in the intro to the specific polling data results:

Polling was conducted by telephone September 23-24, 2003 in the evenings. The sample is 900 registered voters nationwide with a margin of error of ±3 percentage points. Results are of registered voters, unless otherwise noted. NA = national adult

Please note the part that I made bold. This poll was of only registered voters. This poll does not mean that 92% of Americans believe in "God", it should have read 92% of Registered Voters. So the leading poll question, one that does not define what they mean by "God," is limited to a subsection of the populace, but is passed off as the results for the entire population.

Polling registered voters is fine, when polling on political issues affecting elections. They are only ones who can vote, so the results are valid. This poll, even beyond the leading "concepts" of "God, Heaven, Hell, and the Devil", is flawed and misleading. I wonder if showing as high a possible percentage of people "believing" in "God" provides support to those who want state religion by popular vote. Well, I don't need to wonder, because I can see no other logical rationale for spinning this story that way, beyond incompetence of course.

Next Time a Tea Cosy?

Peter Bronson's column from Sunday seemed a little forced. I think he was going for a Midwestern Martha Stewart style word picture. I expected him to share his burch beer recipes or maybe his plan for a great pattern for a new wool blanket to warm him and someone special while they root for the home team....ah...good times. (Cough, Cough)

MIAMI 59, Buffalo 3

Love and honor to Miami,
Our college old and grand,
Proudly we shall ever hail thee,
Over all the land.

Alma mater now we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this lay,
Love and honor to Miami,
Forever and a day.

Coverage: Enquirer, AP, and Buffalo News.

Why Old Cincinnati Doesn't Get It

Peter Bronson's column from Saturday asking why there are not more bland television shows for people like him out there is exactly why this city lives in the past, and fails to develop a vibrant downtown.

What Peter just does not get is that there are people who live a life not wanting what he wants: the Leave It To Beaver life. People don't want to be bored. Peter wants to be bored. The people who think like Peter are too scared not to be bored. If they are exited about something new, they must be "sinning."

Now, when I say new, I don't mean a new book detailing the history of the bible from the point of view of a modern Jesus Freak that likes rap music. I mean new as is inventive and crisp ideas that are not just derivative of an old story that has passed the morality judges living in the burbs.

The problem here is Peter's jealousy. He claims there are not enough "family" shows on television. He is wrong. There are tons of networks shows that the "family" can watch (meaning kids and prudish adults). There are dozens of cable channels fitting that market as well. Peter is pissed that his shows are not as popular as the ones that break new ground, or from his point of view that swear and show bare asses. I would guess that Peter thinks the West Wing is just the work of the devil and that Trading Spaces is just vanity run amuck. I think Peter needs to stop being afraid of breaking the taboos that are no longer taboos. Skirts to the ankle and not wearing hats indoors are just not things that matter in life. Being offended by swear words is nothing but Political Correctness, the original kind. If those words offend you Peter, just don't listen. Don't be such a PC prude.

Enquirer Sports Page Goes to Bed Early

It appears that someone wanted to go home and get to bed early last Monday Night.

In the not so clear picture above it reads:

Tampa Bay's Keenan McCardell catches a touchdown pass during Monday's game against the Colts. The Bucs rolled to a 35-14 and then held off a Colts rally.

Now there are two problems here. First the last sentence is missing a word, "to a 35-14 and then...." Maybe it should have been: "to a score of 35-14 and then...."

The second and, well, far bigger problem was that the final score of the game was 38-35 Colts. The last time the score was 35-14 was at about 3:40 to go in the fourth quarter. Now this kind of thing happens all the time, and the Sports Section is the least important in the paper, but this was on the front page. I would have thought they could have stopped the presses a few minutes after they sent it to the printers, but I don't know how the process works on that detailed of a level. I hope this kind of thing never happens with hard news.

Hip Again?

If Cincinnati is not Hip, we are at least trendy. For the second time in a week a national newspaper has done a story on Young Professionals and they have focused on Cincinnati. The attention is great. We had another great time at CincyTommorrow's After-5 Walk last night.

This article, like the CSM article, has a drive by view of Cincinnati, but it is not that far off. We have let the rest of the country define us mainly because a majority of the region is stuck living in a 1980's frame of mind.