Reading between the pronouns...

Today’s New York Times featured a profile of psychologist James W. Pennebaker, and his work analyzing word usage as a cue to psychological well-being and intentions. His work has helped to monitor the progress of therapy on victims of trauma, to analyze the threats of terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri, and most recently, to examine the electibility of the presidential candidates. By counting how many pronouns are used (and what type of pronouns, I vs. we, etc.), and analyzing incidence of positive vs negative and specific vs. vague words through the use of a special software called LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count), Dr. Pennebaker asserts that he can tell a confident person from a shy one, a liar from a honest man, etc.

His theories are most interesting in application. While Pennebaker’s blog, Wordwatchers, examines all four of the candidates speech patterns, I highly recommend the analysis of Gov, Palin’s word usage. The most interesting aspect of this analysis is looking at how Palin’s word usage shifts drastically between her speeches (likely written by experienced members of the campaign) and her in-person interviews with the likes of Gibson and Couric. Her lack of specific words, under usage of “I” and over-reliance on non-exclusive words, suggests a level of deception not present in the other 3 candidates speech-patterns. Read the full post here.

The conclusion of the blog puts it best, “Using less ‘I’ and fewer exclusive words is a hallmark of deceptive language or spin. She might find more empathy than pity in her audience if, when cornered, she admitted her shortcomings rather than unsuccessfully evading the truth.” Amen.

Bigotry is alive and well in America

News-Leader.com, based in Springfield, Missouri, reported on Friday about the below sign depicting Barack Obama wearing a turban. The creator of the sign has not come forward, lending credence to the idea that bigotry is always accompanied by cowardice.

CBS news posted the following video today of a man at a Sarah Palin rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He appears to be holding a Curious George doll with an Obama sticker placed on it. Once he realizes his actions have been caught on camera, he ditches the Obama sticker and gives the stuffed animal to a young child in front of him.

A YouTube channel, Morrill Majority, posted this following video of the same "gentleman" waiting in line before the event.



Finally, we have the following video posted by TheUptake.org on their YouTube channel. A supporter at a McCain event in Lakeville, Minnesota said, "Obama is an Arab." To McCain's credit, he corrected the woman.

Watch CBS Videos Online

The last clip is upsetting on several levels. So what if Obama was an Arab? Would that make him less of an American? And less of a human? I fear what the answers would be to those questions in many parts of this country.

Furthermore, Obama is not an Arab, he is the son of an American mother and a Kenyan father. The above woman's ignorance of these facts worries me that she has gotten her information about Obama from right-wing talking heads rather than her own research.

I suppose that would be too much to ask of an American though, thinking on his or her own.

An election season glossary

Since this is purportedly an arts & entertainment blog, I’ve decided to take a literary slant to my political rants. So, here you are… a current events glossary

clean coal (noun) as oxymoronic as it sounds. See this recent Slate article for the most informative explanation I’ve seen.

hockey moms (plural noun) the Alaskan equivalent of soccer moms, only replace the minivan with a giant SUV, and the starbucks latte with a shotgun. Affinity for pit bulls. And lipstick.

gotcha journalism (noun) an attempt to ask straightforward questions and get straightforward answers, apparently.

Joe Sixpack (noun) an insult masked as a rallying cry for Middle America. An attempt to lure tired, working class, beer drinking American men to vote for the pretty lady in November. Often married to Hockey Moms.

Main Street (noun) in media terms, the “real world,” i.e. not Wall Street. But more popularly, anywhere in Middle America where common sense loses out to fear-mongering, libelous calls to arms. There is a Main Street in my town, but judging from the Obama lawn signs adorning it, it doesn’t count.

maverick (noun) a word that used to bring to mind pre-Scientology, Navy-hot Tom Cruise in his flight suit. Now, a substitute for offering a substantive answer at debates or in interviews. Usage: “What do you plan to do about the economy?” “We’re gonna bring our maverick ways to Washington and do mavericky things, cause we’re a coupla’ mavericks, gosh darn it!”

middle class (noun) apparently, suckers tricked into thinking the GOP is looking out for them (or even better, that GOP politicians are actually a part of the middle class), only to suffer the greatest at the hands of their failed policies.

time-line (noun) traditionally, a plan with dates and times in mind. New usage attempts to falsely suggest the word is synonymous with an admission of failure or surrender.

Remember civics?

The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services has released the new, revamped questions of the citizenship test, which they’ll be slowly phasing in to completely replace the existing test by Oct. 1, 2009 according to this CNN article. The new questions are arguably a bit harder, in that some ask slightly more abstract questions. (“What does the Constitution do?” versus “What is the Constitution?”… although to be perfectly frank. The Constitution doesn’t do anything, aside from sit in its case and wait for the GOP to slowly eat away at its underlying purpose.)

Now, I ask… could you pass the new test?

To be a citizen, you would have to correctly answer 6 out of 10 questions, randomly chosen by test-givers from 100 questions. (The USCIS publishes all possible questions and acceptable answers for would-be citizens to study, so there is no trickery involved).

So, here are 10 randomly-selected questions for you to test your civics knowledge:

The New Test

1. The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words?

2. What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?

3. What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful?

4. The House of Representatives has how many voting members?

5. What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now?

6. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them.

7. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

8. There were 13 original states. Name three.

9. What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

10. What did Susan B. Anthony do?

To see the answers and the full list of possible questions, click here.