(no subject)

I keep returning to this thought experiment, concocted by the part of me that's been continually angry since November:

You are presented with a button, and are told that pressing it will instantly vanish every person not in the United States. They will simply wink out of existence, leaving the whole world empty of people, except for this country.

Would you press it?

Intentionally worded to avoid words like "kill" and "destroy". If the interviewee asks if the people would die, the interviewer does not answer definitely, instead reiterating that the people would vanish entirely, as if they had never existed in the first place. If the interviewee asks if they could choose to spare certain people, the interviewer says that they could not; it's an all-or-nothing deal.

My hypothesis, which I have no intention of actually pursuing: among people who voted in the 2004 presidential election, a greater number (to a statistically significant degree) of Bush voters would choose "yes" over Kerry voters.

I would not be surprised if in fact a majority of Bush voters chose "yes" and a majority of Kerry voters chose "no", but that would be an interesting side-observation if so.

A swingin' I must go, I must go

I really like the Unhappy Birthday page for all the wrong reasons. Terrible truth about me: I hate that song and all that it stands for. I never sing it at anyone's birthday celebration, instead just standing there smiling and waiting for everyone else to get done with it. I find it thoughtless and trite, like small talk, or a prefabricated greeting card with watercolors of bluejays on the front and something printed in a cursive typeface on the inside.

Boy, I am the crankiest bastard in the world according to my own LJ posts today, huh.

Well my name it is Sam Hall, Sam Hall
Yes my name it is Sam Hall, it is Sam Hall
My name it is Sam Hall
And I hate you one and all
And I hate you one and all
Damn your eyes!

Looking forward to game night, anyway.