Daily Archives: August 4, 2007

Internets Poll Doesn’t Understand the Internets

Ron Paul Wins FreedomWorks GOP Presidential Straw Poll, but I’m concerned about how accurate their poll is. The following statement sets off my bullshit meter:

“The FreedomWorks GOP Straw Poll was engineered to allow for only one vote per e-mail address, and all email addresses had to be validated to count in the poll, making it one of the most accurate online polls.”

No, never mind. It must be remarkably accurate — because, you know, I don’t have at least 5 different e-mail addresses, and I don’t use a different name with any of them.

[Note: This is not a judgment of Ron Paul, any other candidate, or their supporters.]

UPDATE: After some Ron Paul supporters left a few comments, I decided I’d clarify a few things.

I don’t doubt Ron Paul’s support on the internet, and I wish him the best because I’d really like him to shake up the Republican Party, even though I will not ultimately support him or any other Republican candidate for president in the 2008 elections. Furthermore, Ron Paul has an actual record of limiting government, unlike the Security Demagogue, Rudy Giuliani, or the platitude-machine, Fred Thompson.

I guess my real point is the press release’s silly “one of the most accurate online polls” claim. The security hole is there, I’ve pointed it out, and I pass no judgment on the candidates, any of their supporters, or the true state of support for anyone. I changed the title of the post (from “Ron Paul Wins Online Poll, But…”) to further reflect that.

I wish Ron Paul’s supporters the best of luck at the Ames Straw Poll. I’d love to see Mitt “Double Guantanamo” Romney go down in flames.

War on Aging Infrastructure

So when’s the War on Aging Infrastructure coming? A bridge collapses in Minnesota and oh… how about those levees in New Orleans? Isn’t it time for people to demand action?

Naw, I guess aging infrastructure isn’t as scary as drugs or brown people.

EDIT: On a more serious note, money and good intentions aren’t enough. Instead of demanding “action,” maybe it’s time people demanded “results.”

Worth Quoting

This is worth quoting a million times (but I wish I had my book with me because I like that translation of the quote better)

“Infinite examples read in the remembrances of ancient histories demonstrate how much difficulty there is for a people used to living under a prince to preserve its freedom afterward, if by some accident it acquires it, as Rome acquired it after the expulsion of the Tarquins. Such difficulty is reasonable; for that people is nothing other than a brute animal that, although of a ferocious and feral nature, has always been nourished in prison and in servitude. Then, if it is left free in a field to its fate, it becomes the prey of the first one who seeks to rechain it, not being used to feed itself and not knowing places where it may have to take refuge.” – Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, Book I, Chapter 16