Sunday, October 7, 2007

Those Poor, Poor Huddled Masses

Next time you hear someone complain that the Australian election campaign is getting "too American", remind the complainer of one of these stories.

Via Ezra Klein:

With so many candidates for President from both parties ...it might be hard for even dedicated political junkies to know, moment by moment, just how much each candidate is saying about God. Well, thank somebody for Beliefnet and Time, because they've created the God-o-Meter (pronounced "gah-DOM-meter).

With the God-o-Meter, we have a scientific tool that scientifically measures the just how much each candidate is Godding up his or her campaign. For example, Obama, Richardson, Huckabee, Romney and McCain all top the rating at 8 apiece, with Dodd and Giuliani occupying the bottom rung at 3 apiece.

Meanwhile, controversy on the campaign trail: Barack Obama refuses to wear an American flag pin on his lapel, probably because he is a yellow-bellied, America-hating liberal with a suspiciously Muslim-sounding middle name. Naturally, this has spawned all kinds of commentary on which candidate wears what on his or her lapel, as well as a fresh round of why-do-liberals-hate-their-own-country-so handwringing. This particular beatup has been aided immensely - one might say engineered - by Rupert Murdoch's Fox network, which is deeply gratifying to my own inner patriot. AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE.

So you see, we're not quite in land-of-the-free territory yet, Kevin-Oh-Seven t-shirts notwithstanding.

1 comment:

Diego Luego said...

In "The God Delusion" Richard Dawkins demonstrates that it is not possible for an atheist or even an agnostic to be elected to the US Congress or Senate.

As an antidote, he recommends that American atheists should learn to lobby as effectively as the powerful US Jewish lobby.