I found that the percentage of voters sampled who said they attended church at least weekly was the same—42 percent—in both 2000 and 2004. The percentage never attending church was also the same, at 15 percent. The middle group, those attending occasionally, was, you guessed it, 42 percent each time. Interestingly, while Bush slightly improved his standing among frequent churchgoers, by about a point in 2004, his support grew by 3 to 4 points among those attending seldom or never.

Yep, it was the atheist vote that really put Bush over the top in 2004.

Dear Democrats,
While you think about how to do better next time, please stay true to your core values and feelings. Don't restrain your anger; part of your problem in this election was that you didn't put it out there enough. If other Americans understood how truly mad you are it would make more of an impression.

You need to try harder to make them see that you're smarter and better than your opponents. Unleash your indignation and express your outrage and they will start to get your superiority to the religious fanatics, racists and homophobes who oppose you. You've got to make the point over and over that these people are intolerant stupid hicks while you are smart, good and wise.

Face it, you're just not getting your message across. You run mild, polite candidates who can't or won't let it all hang out. If everyone understood, really understood, your anger, intelligence and moral superiority, well, things would have turned out differently.

Why stop with gay marriage when there are so many more moralistic targets? In fact, the devil's own cocktail snack shellfish, which everyone KNOWS is an abomination before god, is just as evil on a sliding scale of 1-213 points.

Apparently, we are 29% evil. Which, of course, means that we are 71% good. So we’ve got that going for us, which is nice.

Television is eating your child’s brain!

Report finds pre-schoolers use media as much as play outside

But of course, you already knew that.

The study found that even the youngest of children are no exception. Nearly two-thirds of kids under 2 spend a couple of hours a day in front of the screen. (The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that children under 2 not watch TV at all.)

Mr. Mafioso tells us why today’s male youth are garbage.

”Elders and people in a position of authority deserve respect. Today's youth seem to think that respect is not picking their nose when someone is talking to them.”

It’s worth reading for the quotes if nothing else. The scary part is that I have a hard time disagreeing with most of it, and it is supposed to be satire. I MUST be getting old...

When I was young, I didn't need crutches, a hug from my father, or to have every goddamn, meaningless accomplishment praised by someone in order to feel good about myself.

Nobody wants to get their fingernails dirty. No one wants the unglamorous job...they have unemployment lines from Miami to San Francisco yet job openings in restaurants, farms, factories, and fishing boats go unfilled because no one wants to break a sweat on the job.

Yea!

If you are at all interested in science, be sure you don’t miss this special on PBS on Tuesday the 28th. Let your lobes out for a little stretching, as it were.

(Calabi-Yau make my heads hurt)

Dane has a nice little rant about subjective reporting from Iraq. Which ever side you are on, you have to agree that the spin is a bit out of control

And listen up. Optimism trumps pessimism and reality trumps delusion, every time. You are stinky little journalists, you are not a fourth branch of counter-government. Your job is to objectively document reality, not to construe and misrepresent facts to sway public opinion. Save your ongoing narratives that are inconsistent with reality for your disingenuous books that are making you a millionaire.

So there.

Michael Totten has an interesting take on the evolution of Libertarians and libertarians in today’s climate. Go give it a read.

Oh, and he couches his opinions in a subtle bashing of status-quo French politics and their beloved anti-Americanism through a antithetical newcomer to the scene.

Who can resist a good French bashing these days?? Call me arrogant and imperialistic, but I know I can’t.

Via Instapundit

Because we all, from time to time, struggle back to a place where we wish we had been a bit, just a little bit, different. A heart-felt commentary on the immortal John Denver’s rendition of The Box Called War and its place in the great circle of post-modern politicking and, redundantly, pre-pubescent schleping.

He gets an extra 100-points for using the phrases,

“…struggling feebly amidst the limb-strewn abattoir, barely seen in the crepuscular light of dusk”

and,

”… I, however, prefer to believe the maestro came from and returned to the magical land of hushabye, where Jiminy Cricket, Puff the Magic Dragon and Compassionate Conservatism also reside.”

together with the two gif's below all seamlessly in the same piece.