Alright, I don't know whether to be more discouraged by the idea that people who care enough about politics to look up vote totals actually want to know about legislators' signs, or by the fact that WaPo would cater to their bizarre superstition. Either way, I think I have to make this a short post, so I can go pour cool water over my steaming brain....
[1] If this reference is too ancient/obscure for you, look here.
UPDATE: I e-mailed PZ Myers, Rationalist-in-Chief at Pharyngula, about this and he very flatteringly linked to this entry. A couple of commenters noted that the intention was just to have some lighthearted fun and attract readers to the (admittedly very cool) Votes Database. Well, that makes me feel better... but only a little bit better. I used to be firmly in the it's-harmless-fun-as-long-as-you-don't-believe-it camp regarding astrology and such, but I'm increasingly concerned that even such benign bemusement gives aid and comfort to the all-too-numerous inhabitants of the demon-haunted world we live in.
Besides, are astrology believers really the voters we want to be enabling?
4 comments:
Where on the Wapo web site do you find this option? Looking just now, under Politics I found a link to "Votes Database", but there I see no option to group by atrological sign.
Greg
Greg:
When you select a particular measure (by HR or title under Explore the Database->Recent Votes), you'll find the Vote Totals table, and there's a tab bar that allows you to choose "By party, By state/territory, By region, By boomer status, By gender, By astrological sign."
Happily (I think), that last choice is intended to be lighthearted, it turns out.
-Bill
Thank you, Bill. I see that now. Funny.
Greg
So... did they find any correlation between astrological signs and votes? It would be interesting to know. If so, it's something to consider. If not, then we can go ahead and make fun of them.
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