Friday, May 8, 2009

The Thin Red Line

I received an email today from a co-worker that I think some of you may find interesting. Undoubtedly, many of you have received a similar email in the past - especially where we are coming off a bitterly fought presidential election. You know the type: "Important" facts that "every voter" or, better yet, "American" - "should know about", usually accompanied by some fancy graphics, vague statistics, or mildly disturbing or eye opening photograph.

Well, the election has come and gone, and after apparently going back to the drawing board (once again), the chain-mailers are back:

It does not hurt to read this several times.




Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the Presidential election:
  • Number of States won by: Democrats: 19 Republicans: 29
  • Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000 Republicans: 2,427,000
  • Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million Republicans: 143 million

  • Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Democrats: 13.2 Republicans: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Republicanswon was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years. If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

Normally, these emails go straight to my 'delete' folder, but I was feeling a bit feisty today. My reply:

Republicans (at least those like this fellow - which are increasingly numerous) are always quick to point this sort of thing out, despite the fact that any reasonable American, regardless of party alliance, could put together a nice one of these little chain emails with statistics like "Percentage of Citizens with 4 year Degrees in Areas won by Party" and "Number of Universities" "Number of Museums" "Infant Mortality Rate" "Average Reading Level" "Life Expectancy" etc, etc. I would wonder what that grid would look like. I wonder what I would be called for pointing this out.

There are 2 reasons that most Americans don't do this: 1) The Union, who's sanctity Professor Tyler seems so anxious to uphold, holds it's Presidential elections through the electoral college. Every time it works against a party, it's "broken" - but when it works in your favor....well, that brings me to 2). Remember the election of 2000? If you do, you've ignored these same Republicans who told the majority of Americans - who voted for Al Gore (in fact, not just the majority, but at that point, the highest popular vote tally ever recorded for an individual candidate) to get over it. That was the past, time to rally behind our Commander in Chief. So, this is really just par for the course.

These are the same folks who rail about Federal spending under Democratic leaders, though Republicans spend multitudes more - and put up billboards like this:



...and say things like this: "I believe 9/11 could have been prevented if we'd had a Republican president at the time," Meehan (who put up the billboard) said Wednesday on CNN's "American Morning."


Also, Professor Tyler must have gotten a staffer from the University's Democratic-leaning math department to calculate his statistics, because they're a little "fuzzy" - unless two states have seceded from the Union. Perhaps the 29-19 tally (which totals 48) in favor of the Republicans, didn't work as well in his favor as does the actual final tally of 28-22 - in favor of the Democrats.


Again, most folks just delete these, and quietly chuckle to themselves about what they have just read. Not me, though, not anymore. I'm getting a little too tired about reading some one's lies about our truths destroying everyone's 'freedom.'

3 comments:

  1. Remaining quiet about "propagandic"
    emails like this one could be compared to the following scenario: You see one termite slip through the seam on your window sill. No harm you think. It's only one...
    Do we allow the one sexist, gay bashing, anti Catholic, or anti-semetic comment to pass without comment? No harm, it's only one...
    Each side should be able to express their views. The scary thing about this post is that this professor has young impressionable minds at his disposal. One can only hope that he does include the 2000 election results, or at least has a student who is willing to risk his/her GPA and challenge/discuss these "facts" and speak up during a lecture. Probably not.

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  2. I got this email a while back from one of my friends who voted Republican. After reading through the email, I first thought "What's up with these random, hand-picked statistics and are they even true?" It actually took very little digging to get to the bottom of it. The email is bogus. The funny thing is that it's an adaptation of a chain email that was started when BUSH was elected in 2000! Professor Olson at Hamline University is an expert in tax and business law. His website has a disclaimer that specifically denies his authorship of that data. It also links to a website that debunks the whole thing.
    http://law.hamline.edu/node/784
    Nevertheless, Ian, I applaud your feistiness and your refusal to be a passive recipient. I'm so proud of you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great info, Smack, and very well-written!

    Thanks for checking in.

    ReplyDelete