Posted on 08/30/2007 5:38:08 AM PDT by theothercheek
Writing about that recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll on the number of books Americans read in the previous year, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra J. Sauders pounced on how AP reported the findings – specifically, that "liberals read more books than conservatives":
The poll found that among people polled who read at least one book in the last year, liberals read nine books and conservatives read eight.
When I called Michael Gross, associate vice president of Ipsos public affairs, to find out more about the Ipsos poll, he told me the one-book difference "is within the margin of error, it's not a statistically significant difference."
This statistically insignificant finding was enough to give former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder (D-CO), now the president of the American Association of Publishers, an excuse to crow about how much smarter liberals are, as compared to conservatives:
"The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple of slogans: 'No, don't raise my taxes, no new taxes.' It's pretty hard to write a book saying, 'No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes,' on every page."
She also told AP that liberals "can't say anything in less than paragraphs. We really want the whole picture, want to peel the onion." …
Notes Saunders, "[a]ccording to Schroeder, as a conservative, I've got a bumper sticker for brains."
Brevity - not bloviating - is the soul of wit. The reason liberals can’t say anything in less than paragraphs is because they are smug, self-satisfied windbags.
That’s why The Stiletto thought it was more than a bit of a stretch for people to "worry that [the new ABC sitcom "Cavemen"] will reinforce racial stereotypes by encouraging viewers to identify the maligned Cro-Magnons with African-Americans," as Stanley Fish put it in a recent column, "A Fictional Minority" (TimesSelect subscription required).
Though the writers and producers all disavowed any equivalency between the proto-humans and blacks, Fish insisted on insisting, "[o]f course it’s a show about minorities and racism."
As a conservative, perhaps The Stiletto is being too literal but she believes the show is not about racial prejudice at all. It’s about prejudice against people who are – or are perceived to be – intellectually inferior by the elites. Clearly those Cro-Magnons are conservatives.
The Democrat platform as long been
“If you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance,
baffle ‘em with bullsh!t”
I don’t see how reading “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” or “Goodnight Nobody” makes me a better person.
1. Too many books are written by leftwing shills and aren't worth the time to read.
2. Conservatives actually do think for themselves.
Quality instead of quantity.
liberals read nine books and conservatives read eight.
_________________________
Sample Liberal Reading List: 9 Oprah books of the month.
Sample Conserervative Reading List: The Bible, The Federalist Papers, Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy,” William Manchester’s “The Last Lion,” Hayek’s “The Fatal Conceit,” Benjamin Franklin’s “Autobiography,” a Tom Clancy novel read at the beach and some horrifying book assigned as reading from their child’s public school.
Then why are most of the bumper stickers I see trite anti-Bush messages stuck all over beat-up Volvos? ;)
I asked her if she was enjoying it, and she said, "The story is a bit dumb, but I find the actual history in it fascinating."
I just nodded at her, like she was my kitten properly using the litterbox.
In that case, I’m baffled. Big Time.
It doesn’t.
Great point - if you included all the monitoring parents did of their kids’ reading assigments, conservatives would be reading double the number of books as liberals. I don’t have kids myself, so I never would have thought of this!
Liberal single women read a lot of romance novels.
I am SOOOO impressed!
How about all those cars that still have Kerry-Edwards stickers on them?
If the statistics come from the numbers the people polled offered (and I don’t see how they could have verified them), it may just mean that liberals are more likely to inflate the number of books they read...or that conservatives are more honest. How many people know for sure how many books they have read in a year...unless the number is zero?
“Even if true, there are several good reasons for this, here’s a couple:
1. Too many books are written by leftwing shills and aren’t worth the time to read.
2. Conservatives actually do think for themselves.”
3. Conservatives spend more time at work.
When I called Michael Gross, associate vice president of Ipsos public affairs, to find out more about the Ipsos poll, he told me the one-book difference "is within the margin of error, it's not a statistically significant difference."
What's going on is that liberals who "read more" are just engaging in escapism: it's like watching 6 hours of soap operas and turning off the TV when a documentary on physics comes on - how does that sharpen your mind?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.