Mom's Basement Media

Well, hello. I forgot I had this thing, almost. Time to...

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:27:42 -0500

Well, hello. I forgot I had this thing, almost. Time to re-purpose MBM, I think.
More on that later, but I’m having ideas.

I’ve been putting my reading time to good use, and trying to learn stuff. I’m halfway through The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte, and I put this graph together, based on what I’ve learned, so far.

Is Obama a US Citizen?

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:38:52 -0500

Is Obama a US Citizen?

Dan Carlin - Hardcore History Archive

Tue, 12 May 2009 14:29:09 -0500

Dan Carlin - Hardcore History Archive:

I’ve officially become a Hardcore History addict. I find myself reading more history than anything lately, and these Podcasts always give me great ideas for further reading, as well as something to think about as I trudge the deep rut between work and home.

Balloon Juice--The Mirror Speaks, The Reflection Lies

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:15:49 -0500

Balloon Juice--The Mirror Speaks, The Reflection Lies:

I love it when towards the end of the video someone near the camera yells “Burn the books!” No wonder there’s a Stupid problem on the right. Willful ignorance.

Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer: The Extended Daily Show Interview

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:42:18 -0500

Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer: The Extended Daily Show Interview:

Isn’t it amazing? America’s most incisive, hardest-hitting journalist is a comedian who has a show on Comedy Central.

PolitiFact | The Obameter: Tracking Barack Obama's Campaign Promises

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:02:45 -0600

PolitiFact | The Obameter: Tracking Barack Obama's Campaign Promises:

This is the most useful site I’ve ever seen for keeping track of a politician’s campaign promises. Lets hope they keep the site going for the whole 4/8 years. So far, for 3 days in, I think he’s off to an awesome start.

KTUU 2008 Sarah Palin turkey interview (via...

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:00:00 -0600

KTUU 2008 Sarah Palin turkey interview (via ArkansasTVarchives)

Dear G*d, please let them nominate her in 2008. She’s utterly oblivious. My favorite part of the video is how the star-struck, blood-spattered, turkey-choker in the background stares at the awesome celebrity while the wood chipper goes about its turkey snuffing business.

See ya on the 5th!

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:29:53 -0500

I swore off the internet today until after the election. If I see or hear the words Sarah Palin one more time, I WILL CUT OFF MY HAND!!

Peace, Love & Victory,
Stumpy C.

Colin Powell Discusses His Endorsement of Barack Obama (via...

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:04:04 -0500

Colin Powell Discusses His Endorsement of Barack Obama (via tpmtv)

Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama. I think it’s...

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:59:29 -0500

Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama.

I think it’s important that everyone interested in this election listen carefully to what Gen. Powell says here.

So, they allowed her cards? Still funny, either way. Via The...

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 07:32:00 -0500

So, they allowed her cards? Still funny, either way. Via The Daily Irrelevant

Obama before the debate. 1 in-a-1000 photo. (via Barack Obama)

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:49:27 -0500

Obama before the debate. 1 in-a-1000 photo. (via Barack Obama)

Sarah Failin

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:36:06 -0500

Sarah Failin:

Cute blog. Could turn into something fun, if she doesn’t quit this week. Here’s hoping for 38 more days of Failin’ Palin!

Sarah Silverman suggests you get your butt down to Fla. and have...

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 07:15:42 -0500

Sarah Silverman suggests you get your butt down to Fla. and have a talk with your Jewish grandparents. I don’t have any Jewish grandparents, but I still thought it was hilarious.

The Great Texas Bumper Sticker Poll

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:05:00 -0500

Sure, Austin is a hotbed of commie liberalism, but a few weeks ago, I began to think I was seeing a lot of Obama bumper stickers on cars, and wondering why I hadn’t seen a single McCain sticker. My first thought was that I was a victim of “confirmation bias,” whereby a person sees things that are agreeable with his worldview, and doesn’t absorb information that isn’t. (or, more dryly, according to Wikipedia, which is always right about everything: “confirmation bias is a tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions and avoids information and interpretations which contradict prior beliefs.”)

Anyway. I decided to count. Sure, Austin is liberal, but this is still Texas, and there’s still plenty of Republicans around, right? I’m sure there are, but they’re not showing it on the backs of their cars these days.

I started carefully wathcing for political bumper stickers everywhere I went in and around Austin. I kept a quick tally of the following 4 categories:
1. Obama stickers
2. McCain stickers
3. Ron Paul stickers
(sure Paul is a has-been, but he’s also a home-boy, so he gets lotsa love around here, still)
4. Ron Paul stickers also accompanied by infowars.com stickers
(infowars.com stickers tend to appear exclusively on older single-occupant pickup trucks driven by middle-aged white males.)

Starting August 18th, I carefully recorded every single campaign sticker I saw on any car — I went out of my way and trolled several parking lots, as well as regular driving in traffic — on a little notepad in my car, and stopped on September 10th, because I was just tired of doing it. I took 2 “road trips” during this time span.

The results:

In and around Austin:
1. Obama 50
2. McCain 1
3. Ron Paul 6
4. Ron Paul plus infowars.com 1

Notes about Austin — It was a full week before I spotted the McCain sticker, on 8-23. On about 9-3, I got excited thinking I’d seen another one, but upon closer inspection, determined it said “McSame.” I didn’t attribute it to Obama, having no idea who had produced it. Also, I probably undercounted Obama stickers by at least ten, because I didn’t know until after I got done counting that the black “Got Hope?” stickers were Obama-specific, so I didn’t count at least five of them, and there’s a generic “Texas Democrat” sticker that looks an awful lot like the “Texans for Obama” sticker, so I didn’t count those unless I could very clearly read them. I was sorely disappointed by category 4, as I sincerely thought I’d seen quite a few RP/IW combos prior to my poll. This is the one place where I did suffer confirmation bias. On the one drive I took from central Austin out into the suburbs, I didn’t see any more republican-based stickers, only a dwindling of Obama stickers. Also, I did not count the 4 Obama stickers we have on our vehicles here at my house, as just going around slapping stickers on cars, then counting them doesn’t sound like clean statistics to me.

Road Trip 1: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Flew into Philly on a Wed. afternoon, then drove around the west side of Philly, into the suburbs to the northwest, then back to the airport the next day.

The Results:
Obama 4
McCain 1

Road Trip 2: 4-hour drive into the Texas hinterlands, west of Rocksprings, on US 290, then on the smaller 2-lane Texas 41. A beautiful hill-country drive, almost entirely unmarred by the notion of presidential politics.

The results:
Obama 1
McCain 1
Paul 1

I think I saw all three of these in Fredericksburg, which is entirely overrun by tourists on weekends.

Total totals:
Obama 55
McCain 3
Paul 7

What does all this mean?

The massive lead in Obama stickers might be a factor of the contentious Democratic primary, and people have left theirs on since then. If that’s the case though, where are the Hillary stickers? I saw only one. The utter absence of a Republican primary presence may also be contributing to the utter absence of McCain stickers. The other factor more than likely is the makeup of the contributors (people motivated enough to give money to get a sticker), with Obama having a larger number of individual contributors, giving a smaller amount of money each, and McCain having a smaller number of contributors, giving larger amounts individually. However, I do think it says something about the general state of enthusiasm, or lack of it, on each side in this campaign. (these musings, are all pre-Sarah Palin — I’m just publishing this now, because I’m a complete slacker. I’ve seen fully 2 more McCain stickers since she took the veep nod.)

A final thought:

In general, the number of cars with political bumperstickers appears to statistically insignificant. I find myself kind of surprised to note that theres probably 300 cars on the road with no bumperstickers of any sort for each vehicle that has one, and then, the largest number of stickers one sees are not directly related to the ‘08 election. Parents are disproportionally proud of their soccer players in the world of bumper stickers, and even people with overtly political messages (anti-abortion, pro-choice, environmentalism, anti-war, we support our troops, etc. there is at least 10 cars in this group without an ‘08 candidate sticker.

Another final final thought:

Where are the McCain yard signs? Haven’t seen any of those either. The vast majority of Obama yard signs note the March 4th primary, but they’re holding up well, and the number does seem to be slowly growing.

Register to vote.

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:34:00 -0500

A
• Alabama • Alaska • American Samoa • Arizona • Arkansas •
C
• California • Colorado • Connecticut •
D
Delaware • District of Columbia •
F
• Florida •
G
• Georgia • Guam •
H
• Hawaii •
I
• Idaho • Illinois• Indiana • Iowa •
K
• Kansas • Kentucky •
L
• Louisiana •
M
• Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana •
N
• Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Northern Marianas Islands •
O
• Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon •
P
• Pennsylvania • Puerto Rico •
R
• Rhode Island •
S
• South Carolina • South Dakota •
T
• Tennessee • Texas •
U
• Utah •
V
• Vermont • Virginia • Virgin Islands •
W
• Washington • West Virginia •

John McCain doesn’t know how many houses he has. From...

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:56:00 -0500

John McCain doesn’t know how many houses he has.

From Politico: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

“I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”

Turns out he has seven, though even his campaign staff could only peg the number at “at least four.” At least. If I forgot my house, I’d be homeless, & probably then institutionalized by the State of Texas. How does this guy find his Ferragamos in the morning?

By Neddie Jingo!

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:22:00 -0500

By Neddie Jingo!:

A Really cool blog by a really interesting writer.