Mister Green

Quiz Time

Here's a Q&A I've seen floating around, so I thought I'd list my responses so that my vast and devoted audience can gain some insight into the best blogger working today who is currently wearing my pants:

1. Which political party do you typically agree with? Neither. As the Republicans come more and more to resemble a bunch of Bible-thumping spendthrifts, I agree with them less and less. The core principle of the Democratic party seems to be “Whatever is the opposite of what the Republicans say, unless it’s really popular.” I don’t much like them, but my regard for them is not dropping over time as is my regard for the R’s.

2. Which political party do you typically vote for? Whichever is running the candidate I find less repellent. Illinois is an open primary state, so I vote in the primary of the party where there are specific candidates I want to vote for or against. But my candidate never wins, so I don’t know why I bother.

3. List the last five presidents that you voted for? I was too young by a month to vote in ’88, but I would have voted for Bush. ’92 was for Clinton. In ’96 I was too disaffected to bother voting. In 2000 I voted for Bush.

4. Which party do you think is smarter about the economy? The D’s like to stick their hands in the economy and muck around with it, via redistributive taxation, tax incentives for “socially desirable” activities, regulation, etc. To the extent that the R’s do less of these things, they’re smarter. But when it comes to running the government, do you like tax-and-spend Democrats or spend-and-don’t-tax Republicans? They both suck. The Dems a little less so these days.

5. Which party do you think is smarter about domestic affairs? They’re equally stupid in their own special ways. I could run through the list, but it’s too depressing today. Maybe later.

6. Do you think we should keep our troops in Iraq or pull them out? We made that decision last March. You can argue the wisdom of the decision to go in, but the consequences of quitting now are unthinkably bad. We’ve got to see it through.

7. Who, or what country, do you think is most responsible for 9/11? Al Qaeda specifically, but militant Islam in general. And the states that encourage it or at least allow it to flourish – Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan (prior to the American defeat of the Taliban), Egypt, Iran, etc.

8. Do you think we will find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? We did. That one sarin shell. But in the sense of massive stockpiles, probably not.

9. Yes or no, should the U.S. legalize marijuana? Yes.

10. Do you think the Republicans stole the last presidental election? No. If anybody stole it, it was Ralph Nader. (And I’ll bet Bush never even sent him a bouquet of flowers or anything, the ungrateful bastard.) Or maybe it was the Florida voters too dumb to perform the act of voting. The Supreme Court had to call a stop to it at some point, or we’d still be counting the damned ballots. If it had gone the other way, I’m sure it would be the Republicans alternating between crying in their beer and working themselves into white-hot spasms of fury over how the other guys stole the election.

11. Do you think Bill Clinton should have been impeached because of what he did with Monica Lewinsky? No. What he did with Monica was get head. He was impeached for lying under oath, as he should have been.

12. Do you think Hillary Clinton would make a good president? No. I would like to expand on that “no” to more fully communicate the extent to which I believe she would make a horrific president, but I have not the words.

13. Name a current Democrat who would make a great president: Joe Lieberman.

14. Name a current Republican who would make a great president: Richard Lugar.

15. Do you think that women should have the right to have an abortion? In cases of rape or incest, absolutely. As birth control, I’m not so sure. I’m still pro-choice, but not as absolutely as I once as.

16. What religion are you? Agnostic. No omnipotent deity would be obligated to arrange Its creation in such a way that it makes sense to the likes of me. And the apparent randomness and cruelty of this world may be irrelevant or even justified in some higher cosmic sense. But from where I sit… Man. This world is fucked. Up.

17. Have you read the Bible all the way through? No. But I was raised a good Baptist boy, even if it didn’t take, so I have read a fair amount of it.

18. What's your favorite book? The Last Convertible, by Anton Myrer.

19. Who is your favorite band? Favorite performer? Miles Davis’s sextet on Kind of Blue, with Cannonball Adderley on alto sax, John Coltrane on tenor, Bill Evans on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and “Philly” Joe Jones on drums. A close second is Miles’s later quintet with Wayne Shorter on sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. Favorite performer is (surprise) Miles.

20. Who do you think you'll vote for president in the next election? Kerry will take Illinois by a couple million votes, so it won’t really matter whom I vote for. I don’t think Bush or Kerry deserve my vote this year, so I may vote for the Libertarian as a protest. Or maybe I’ll write in Blackfive.

21. What website did you see this on first? Naked Villainy.

Posted by Mr Green at May 28, 2004 03:42 PM