Posted on 01/12/2007 4:36:40 AM PST by theothercheek
The Stiletto was reading an article in The Washington Post about The House passing a bill that would ease President Bush's restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research by a vote of 253 to 174 - short of the two-thirds majority needed to override an expected presidential veto. She then decided to check out which Republicans voted with the Dems in favor of H.R. 3 and vice versa. The Post broke the vote down by party affiliation, state, region, “boomer status,” gender and – get this – astrological sign.
Though The Stiletto can’t quite figure out how this information could possibly be predictive, it turns out that those born under the signs of Aries, Leo, Sagittarius and Scorpio voted 2:1 in favor of embryonic stem cell research, while those born under the sign of Pisces went for the bill by a ratio of nearly 3:1. The only group voting against the bill in greater numbers than for it was Gemini (26 to 24).
The Stiletto consulted Wikipedia to determine whether these signs correlated with personality traits that would explain the votes (emphasis hers):
† Aries: The first sign of the Zodiac, associated with fresh vigor and new beginnings. Individuals born under this sign are thought to have a confident, energetic, adventurous, enthusiastic, fair, passionate, and pioneering character but one which is also prone to selfishness, boastfulness, intolerance, impulsiveness, and impatience.
† Leo: The fifth sign of the Zodiac, associated with creativity and drama. Individuals born under this sign are thought of to have a proud, honest, generous, self-motivated, charismatic, warm-hearted, and enthusiastic character, but one which is also prone to conceit, bullying, rigidity, intolerance, and snobbery.
†Sagittarius: The ninth sign of the Zodiac, associated with travel and expansion. Individuals born under this sign are thought to have a dynamic, ethical, humorous, generous, open-hearted, compassionate, and energetic character, but one which is also prone to pridefulness, foolishness, impulsiveness, impracticality, and superstition.
† Scorpio: The eighth sign of the Zodiac, associated with intensity, passion, and power. Individuals born under this sign are thought to have a complex, emotional, analytical, keenly perceptive, inquisitive, focused, determined, hypnotic, and self-contained character, but one which is also prone to extremity, jealousy, secretiveness, possessiveness, stubbornness, cruelty and cunning.
† Pisces: The twelfth sign and last sign of the Zodiac, associated with human emotions. Individuals born under this sign are thought to have a dreamy, romantic, generous, emotional, receptive, affectionate, and honest character, but one which is also prone to exaggeration, fickleness, passiveness, hypersensitivity, and paranoia. It is notable that early believers in Christianity often used the symbol of Pisces (two fish swimming in opposing directions) in order to secretly identify themselves.
† Gemini: The third sign of the Zodiac, associated with youth and versatility. Individuals born under this sign are thought to have a lively, communicative … witty, inquisitive, clever, and adaptable character but one which is also prone to superficiality, maliciousness, inconsistency, cowardice, nervousness, and cunning.
Putting all of this together, Pisces is associated with Christianity, and legislators born under this sign supported embryonic stem cell research more enthusiastically than any other group. On the flip side, Geminis - the only group voting against the bill, albeit by a razor-thin margin - are superficial, malicious, inconsistent and cowardly.
It’s just as The Stiletto suspected all along: Astrology is as fraudulent as Freudian psychology.
The Stiletto decided to slice-and-dice the vote by sir name to see if any interesting patterns were evident (hey, this analysis should be at least as valid as one based on the Zodiac):
†Davis: Among the Dems, the Davis vote was a wash: one for, one against. Among Republicans, three Davis’ voted against and one voted for it. In total, the Davis vote went 2:1 against the bill.
† Diaz-Balart: Both voted against the bill.
† Johnson: Both voted against the bill.
† King: Both voted against the bill.
† Miller: Both voted against the bill.
†Smith: All three voted against the bill.
† Wilson: One for, one against the bill.
†Young: Both voted for the bill.
The Stiletto’s vote breakdown shows that House members who share a sir name have an unusually high propensity to vote in lockstep. She will perform this sir name analysis on other votes of particular interest, and report the results in future editions of The Stiletto Blog to see if the correlation holds up.
NOTE: Original Source includes links to relevant articles and Web sites.
As good as anything the WaPO or NYT produces.
Are these guys Lords? Well they think they are.
Sir names? LOL.
Considering The Stiletto appears to have meant this as a joke, then your observation is kinda scary, if you know what I mean! Anyway, it will be interesting to see if these representatives keep voting the same way as other people in the House that share their last names - though in the case of the Diaz-Balats I think they are related. Not that it really matters, I have one brother who is pro-life and one who is pro-abortion - and we grew up in the same home.
The stupid Davis who voted yes was MY congressman.
Oh well. At least all the other republicans from the districts around me voted no.
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