USA Today's Pledge Poll

I just went and voted. I urge y'all to do like wise.

 

Hey, Mark, thanks for posting this. The Christians need to go vote because I can guarantee you (without even checking) the atheist/agnostic/infidel sites are posting this poll and any others like it and are busy tilting the results in their direction right now. Probaby on email, too.

I know it's just a poll and doesn't really count in the final outcome. But whatever the results of these polls turn out to be always makes the news.

Baptists....GO VOTE! It only takes 2 seconds.

And if you're a Baptist who believes "under God" should be taken out from the pledge, then shame on you.

 

Results as of 1:41PM.

 

So far so good, but I expect the results to change radically once the college students get on line tonight and in the wee morning hours if the poll is still up.

 

SheEagle911 said:

But whatever the results of these polls turn out to be always makes the news.

Not so. The polls you see reported on the news (Gallup, Barna and so forth) are done by professional pollsters with checks in place to ensure that their sample is indeed representative of the whole population, and so they can say that the results of the poll are accurate to within a certain percentage.

An Internet poll is the electronic equivalent of one of those mail-in surveys you find in magazines. Professional pollsters call those SLOPs: Self-selected Listener Opinion Polls. "Self-selected" because the people who tend to fill them in/vote online are ones who have a vested interest in the outcome and are sufficiently motivated to do so. We see this in your assumption that all the atheists are going to stack the vote and therefore all the "Baptists" ought to stack it the other way. SLOPS are completely unscientific because they do not reflect general opinion.

A real poll, on the other hand, has a sample (usually of 1000 people) that is chosen at random by the pollster and contacted by them.

 

(sigh) Well, then how come it will be reported on cable news, "the latest USA today poll..." or the latest "Time/Warner poll..." ??? Or even, "the latest NBC poll..."

Perhaps you don't get American cable? I see you live in Canada.

Actually, you left out a few professional pollsters, Zogby for one. Dick Morris runs an Internet poll.

There is a tendency for certain groups to try to slant these internet polls via email and message boards. I will not post links though just to prove my point.

[ September 16, 2002, 03:13 PM: Message edited by: SheEagle911 ]

 

You don't need to post links. This whole thread is an attempt to "slant" the thread according to what you think Baptists believe about the pledge.

 

SheEagle911 said:

(sigh) Well, then how come it will be reported on cable news, "the latest USA today poll..." or the latest "Time/Warner poll..." ??? Or even, "the latest NBC poll..."

Because those are the good kinds of polls conducted by telephone on randomly selected people.

No news outlet who wants to be seen as credible would ever report the results of an Internet poll as statistically accurate.

There is a tendency for certain groups to try to slant these internet polls via email and message boards. I will not post links though just to prove my point.

No need, I was reading it for myself in this very thread.

 

So, are we to conclude neither of you think "under God" should be in the pledge?

Ransom, why do you care about this issue at all since you live in Canada?

 

So, are we to conclude neither of you think "under God" should be in the pledge?

Show me where I said that.

Ransom, why do you care about this issue at all since you live in Canada?

If you don't like to be offended by Canadians correcting you, check your facts.

 

I said nothing of the sort...

Frankly, I could care less about the pledge unless the government wants to pressure people to recite it -- especially school children.

I love my country and will fight and die for it without having to constantly reaffirm my "loyalty" every blasted day.

 

Baptist Believer & Ransom: If you don't want to vote, don't take it out on me. I didn't start this thread.

 

I didn't intend for it to sound harsh... Just wanted to point out that the very thread we are posting in was created to skew the results of the poll... just like you suggested (in a negative sense) that other groups would try to do.

It just seemed to be a strange accusation since people here at the BaptistBoard are trying to do the same thing.

 

Well, Mark, welcome to the Baptist Board....where every keystroke can turn into a source of contention! LOL!

Look at the bright side, with all this bickering going on, at least it's keeping the poll at the top of the heap so maybe people will go vote!

BTW, Baptist Believer & Ransom, I gave you a new thread to comment on....Boycott Arab Oil! LOL!

[ September 16, 2002, 05:14 PM: Message edited by: SheEagle911 ]

 

I hope everyone votes on this one.

[ September 20, 2002, 10:31 PM: Message edited by: WisdomSeeker ]

 

I think I heard the "Under God" version at the last school program I attended.

Can the Feds enforce states to enforce this court decision while in sits in appea?

 

Sorry I'm so late responding. I guess I missed your note because we posted at the same time the other day.

I'm a writer who writes whatever will sell. I also edit books.

My background has been in magazine feature writing and then most recently editing books and ghosting material for books.

I have also worked as an editor for three magazines, "Fort Worth, Texas" magazine, "PetLife" magazine and "Chile Pepper" magazine. The first magazine is the local city magazine and the last two are national magazines. The national mags are kind of fun because I always get a little thrill when I see my work on the shelves when I'm out of town.

I've edited (sometimes rewritten) seven books but unfortunately none of them have been bestsellers.

Currently I work outside the traditional industry creating marketing materials (text and graphics) because I wanted to get paid a good salary to get marketable experience for the art director side of the business. I plan to get back into traditional magazine or book publishing within the next few years.

Currently I am working (very slowly) on my first novel as well as putting a lot of work into a children's mystery series. The mystery series has the potential to be much more marketable than the novel because the novel deals with religious themes and issues but is probably too dark for Christian stores and to "religious" for mainstream publishers.

Currently I do not think I have anything available on the web, although a story I wrote on J. Frank Norris for Fort Worth, Texas magazine has been quoted online somewhere...

Okay... that's too much about me.

[ September 21, 2002, 12:55 AM: Message edited by: Baptist Believer ]