Friday, April 12, 2013

Ability to Liberally Connect Dots


Ability to Liberally Connect Dots

This is a test to see if the examinee can process information, consistent with the philosophy that seems to govern liberalism.   A high score might even qualify you for political office or at least as a spokesperson for liberal causes, without the annoying need to lie about your perceptions.

1.     If you have a sore tooth, you would see a
a.     lawyer
b.     obstetrician
c.      dentist
d.     none of the above

2.     If your car does NOT stop when you apply the brakes, you would see a
a.     doctor
b.     mechanic
c.      postal employee
d.     none of the above

3.     If you are running out of money, you would
a.     get a second job
b.     spend more
c.      rob a neighbor
d.     none of the above

4.     If the economy is not working well and you want advice, you would
a.  call on a person who has never had a regular job
b.  call on a successful business person
c.  call on a person who has invested in a series of unsuccessful green companies
d.  none of the above

5.     If you want to create a winning baseball team, you would
a.     give raises to the worst players
b.     blame the best players for losing
c.      blame George Bush for ruining the field
d.     none of the above

6.     If you want people to work harder, you would give more to
a.     the people who work hard
b.     the people who do not work hard
c.      your friends and don’t worry about who works hard or not, friendship is more important
d.     none of the above

7.     If you are trying to build positive community spirit, you would
a.     praise everyone
b.     criticize people who play by the rules
c.      punish those who are successful and reward those who are not
d.     all of the above

8.     Who is most likely to be a racist and anti-Semite, a person
a.     who attends a racist and anti-Semitic church
b.     whose principle spiritual advisor is a racist and anti-Semite
c.      whose church gives a big award to a famous racist and anti-Semite
d.     all of the above

9.     Suppose that two people have funded a number of businesses and most of X’s choices went bankrupt and Y made mostly good choices. This would mean that
a.     X and Y are equally good judges of businesses
b.     X was a better businessperson because he or she really wanted their choices to succeed
c.      Y used money from voluntary investors and this was foolish because they could have lost money
d.     none of the above

10. Your job is to consider the following facts and then answer the question below which asks what conclusion you draw:
* His father was a member of religion M in which the children take the religion of the father.
* In 3rd grade the child said he was a member of that same religion M
* He said the sounds of that religion were the most beautiful sounds
* He went on a visit to a number of countries that practice religion M
* When he returned from the visit he changed his name to a version that is common in religion M
* He joined a church that has a close affiliation with that religion M
* His church gave a big award to a racist and anti-Semitic member of religion M
* A college acquaintance says he was a member of religion M
* When he visits countries that practice religion M, he gives talks in which he hints he is a member of religion M
* When he visited one country that is the most prominent to religion M, he bowed deeply to the head of that religion
* He has taken steps to forbid public criticism of religion M
* He blamed a C-person who criticized religion M for the violence committed by persons who are members of religion M
* He has sponsored prominent religious events celebrating religion M
* He has exaggerated the history of religion M in his country
* He has criticized a country that is an enemy of religion M
* He has said that people in that country should not build housing in the areas that he thinks should be housing people of religion M
* He has said one of his closest allies and personal friend and advisor on raising his daughters is a prominent and extreme member of religion M
* He has rarely been seen practicing that religion
* He said he is a member of religion C

Now the challenge is to choose the most likely conclusion (connect the dots):

a.     He must be a member of religion C
b.     He is a member of both religion M and C, but at different times
c.      He is a member of religion M
d.     None of the above

11. Consider the following facts and then answer the question below:  Note that these questions have to do with people of two different colors – B and W
* He criticizes a policeman of color W for stopping a resident of color B who was found breaking into a home
* His assistant stopped a lawsuit charging some members of B-group from threatening W members to keep them from voting
* He supported a young B person who was on probation from school for violent anti-social behavior after the B person tried to attack a W person
* He was a member of a B-church whose B minister is famous for criticizing W-people
* That minister was claimed to be his primary spiritual advisor for 20 years
* Whenever he is himself criticized, his friends claim that racism is the reason for the attack

Now the challenge is to choose the most likely conclusion (connect the dots)

a.     he does not like W people
b.     he does not like B people
c.      he does not like anyone.
d.     None of the above

12. If you really want the sum to be 5 and you are faced with two 2s and you are asked for the sum, you can
a.     claim that they were very large 2s and therefore the answer is 5
b.     claim that 2 plus 2 has always been 5
c.      claim that it is Bush’s fault that it is 4
d.     none of the above

13.  Suppose you borrow 5 dollars from a person and you promise to pay back the loan plus 50 cents.  In a month you pay them back the 5 dollars but they only ask for 25 cents extra.   You conclude:
      a.  you made a profit of 25 cents
      b.  you still owe them 25 cents
      c.   they now owe you 25 cents
      d.  none of the above


14.  The following are a series of statements.   Mark each as true or false

T  F      If you are driving a car and it runs over and kills a child it is the car’s fault
T  F      If you are playing baseball and you throw your bat and it hits a kid, it is the bats fault
T  F      none of the above

15.  If you have two guns and want to buy a third, but are stopped from doing so, you now have
      a.  fewer guns than you did before
      b.  the same number of guns you had before
      c.  more guns than you had before
      d.  none of the above

16.  If you were the person who stopped the purchase of a new gun, you have
      a.  decreased the number of guns in circulation
      b.  prevented a murder
      c.  made arrangements for someone who has a gun to follow you around
      d. none of the above

17.   Please complete the following sequence of numbers: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.9
      a.   10
      b.   it can be anything it wants to be
      c.   it is a racist question and I refuse to answer
      d.  none of the above

18.  If you have an allowance of 10 dollars per week now and you go to your Mom and Dad and ask for a raise to 12 dollars, and your Mom says OK, but your Dad says you can only have 11 dollars, you conclude:
      a.  your Mom wants to keep you salary where it is
      b.  your Dad wants to cut your salary by half
      c.   they must have made their decisions at a tea party because otherwise they should just give you 13 dollars
      d.  none of the above

19.  If you slow the rate of increase in a debt, after 3 years it:
      a. will cease to exist
      b. it will no longer be available to spend
      c.  huh?
      d. none of the above

20.  If you want young people to be employable, you would
      a.  raise the cost of hiring them
      b.  talk about how much you want young people to have jobs
            c.   criticize any company that does not hire a young person
            d.  all of the above
           
21.  Did Thomas Jefferson, after the passage of the 2nd amendment, go to George Washington and tell George he would have to register his rifles, turn in his pistols, and it was illegal for him to carry a weapon on his person?   
      a.  Yes, but he was very tactful in doing so
      b.  Yes, and he explained that it was for George’s own good
      c.  George was pleased that someone was taking an interest in his affairs
      d.  none of the above

22.  Do you see any pattern here:  Taking the property of a person and giving it to someone else who will pay higher taxes, interpreting the civil rights act as permitting racist policies as long as the “right” group is benefitted, applying the commerce clause to an action that is done on one’s own property and involves no commerce, ruling that one-man one vote is the rule of the land in apparent ignorance of how election for the Senate occurs, forbidding people to drink really large sodas…..
      a.  yes, they are all efforts to do the right thing to help people who need help doing the right thing
      b.  no, I see nothing unusual here
      c.  no, there is no larger principal being violated
      d.  none of the above

25.  If the rate of increase in funding an activity that you support is decreased, has the amount of funding decreased?
      a.  huh?
      b.  yes
      c.   we need more information to answer this question
      d.  all of the above

Scoring the test:
Twenty-five (25) points if you genuinely feel that you knew the answers.
Twenty (20) points if you were not sure about the answer some of the time
Fifteen (15) points if you muttered while you took this test
Ten (10) points if you had to get up and go to the bathroom before finishing test
Five (5) points is you went to a friend and engaged in a rant about “stupid” questions

For those of you who scored high, congratulations on trying really, really hard and caring so deeply.  Thinking does not really substitute for caring, but it does have its place.   J

A Comment on Gun Control


                        A Comment on Gun Control
There are some issues that seem to be going unanswered or at least unadvertised in the hot and heavy debate about gun control. First, I ask the reader to take a short test.
1.     If you have a 10 dollar allowance and you go to your parents and ask for a raise to 12 dollars and your mom says yes, but your dad says that he will give you 11 dollars, do you believe your dad wants to cut your allowance in half? 
2.     If 10 people have something and 2 more want to have the same thing and you prevent these 2 from getting what they want, do you believe you have reduced the overall number of the object desired?
3.     If a person commits a crime and you cannot punish that person, should you punish someone else who is not guilty to make a point?
4.     If you want to do something that you believe is right, but it is illegal to do so, and doing so has been shown to contribute no positive benefit, should you do it anyway so at least you can say you did something?
5.     Do you believe that you should eliminate temptation indulged by a very few, even though the vast majority do not give into that temptation?
6.     Do you believe that after the 2nd amendment was passed, Thomas Jefferson got in his buggy to go tell George Washington that from now on he would have to register his long guns and could not even own a pistol?

I would like to make a few points to those who say yes to even one of these questions. 
           
1.     There are approximately 300 million guns in America.  Stopping future purchases will not actually decrease that number. 
2.     Teaching people that there are negative consequences to their bad behavior is a good social function.  Teaching people that they will be punished when someone else does something bad is a very dangerous social function.
3.     Focusing on the inanimate object associated with a crime is not going to be as effective as focusing on the person and their violent behavior.  We do not ban hammers or baseball bats, or knives or cars even though examples of terrible killing using these objects are easy to find.  
4.     There are many instances where a weapon has prevented a rape, beating or other crime, but since the prevention itself does not usually get publicly counted, one is lead to believe, falsely, that only the gun related crimes are occurring in society.
5.     Banning the fork to eliminate over weight or banning cars because there are people who drive drunk, or more serious observations such as the idea that guns don’t kill, people kill, or that the only thing that is going to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun can be dismissed as silly, simple minded, just a joke or worse.  But that is a pejorative response and not a thoughtful argument. The observation that protecting kids in school necessitates having someone with a gun and appropriate training within the immediate area demonstrated a desire to protect children and the broader society.
6.     Only criminals will still have guns as the honest and compliant people are forced to give up theirs. People living in a violent neighborhood, unable to defend themselves, has not worked very well in our cities. 
7.     We could identify and help people with emotional issues that have demonstrably rendered them much more likely to commit violence.  We do not even deal effectively with violent students who are repeat offenders that attack other students and even attack their teachers.

A simple solution such as banning weapons is not going to take weapons out of the hands of those who use them to do harm but it will prevent people from defending themselves.  Instituting a mental health system that participates in early identification and consequential treatment is something we could do, but so far, we have not.

We are polarizing society when we target with punitive action a group that has done nothing wrong. When politicians impose rules that are plainly forbidden by the founding principals of our country, they run a risk of creating a much more negative situation than the one they are pretending to solve.