Another of those political test thingies ...

It's a few years since I did one of these quizzes designed to evaluate one's place on the political spectrum; this one is very US-centric, though, so a number of the questions are irrelevant in a British (or indeed I'd say European) context. Just as one example, the question about capital punishment is pointless because it will never be reintroduced in the European Union (it's a basic condition of membership that no member state have a death penalty) and I am pretty comfortable with that. Capital punishment is just state-sponsored murder - and murder is wrong.

Anyway, here are my detailed results:

You Are 70% Conservative, 30% Liberal Social Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal Ethics: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Defense and Crime: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Having said all this, I think it is probably reasonably accurate, specially the part about fiscal issues. I tweeted about this here.

What kind of wine are you?

My first quiz 'thingie' in quite a while; the result for me is pretty accurate, I'd say, specially the bit about being sophisticated (but if you were really sophisticated, you wouldn't have remarked on it - Ed.)

You Are Pinot Noir

Sophisticated and worldly, you probably know more about wine than most drinkers. You have great taste, and you approach all aspects of life with a gourmet attitude. You believe that the little things in life should be cherished and enjoyed... and of the best quality possible. And while you may take more time to eat a meal or tour a city, it's always time well spent. Deep down you are: A seductive charmer Your partying style: Refined. And you would never call it "partying" Your company is enjoyed best with: Stinky expensive cheese

What Kind of Wine Are You?

(thru Much Ado About Monty..., in turn thru Tom's Place, in turn thru jamesobrien.id.au - it's an internet meme, it goes back a long way I expect!)

Can you spot fake and genuine smiles?

Another of those interesting online quiz things - this time to assess how well you can tell a fake from a genuine smile, and vice versa.

I got 15 out of 20 correct, perhaps slightly better than I thought I might get - but still with enough mistakes to realise I can be fooled rather too often. Of the five I got wrong, 2 were genuine smiles that I thought were fake, 3 were fake smiles that I thought genuine.

(thru Rachel from north London)

What's all this about US politics, then?

(Please see UPDATE at end.)

I really don't want to endure 11-months of endless debate about who is going to become the next US President. Of course I'm interested in the outcome and whoever it is will likely have a considerable impact on many people outside of the US, including in our li'l ol' country. After this post, however, I shan't be commenting on the upcoming US Presidential election until the candidates of the two major parties, Republican and Democrat, are formally selected at their respective cconvention in the summer. That'll still give three or so months to debate the topic to death.

Anyway, I saw this quiz at Doctorvee and thought I'd try it to see where it rated me. Not being an American some of the questions were, to me, a little obscure, but I'm glad that the person rated top for me is Ron Paul as from what I've been reading for several months he is certainly the potential candidate whose views most closely match my own - he believes in small government, genuinely small government, and the government keeping out as much as possible of the private lives of the citizens who elect it to govern. If I were American and he was a candidate next November I'd certainly cast my vote for him. I really have no idea who I'd vote for if he wasn't available, but from the little I know of most of the rest I'd need a pretty strong drink to persuade me to vote for several of them (particularly Romney, Thompson, Huckabee and Clinton).

60% Ron Paul 59% Mike Gravel 58% Rudy Giuliani 54% Bill Richardson 54% Mitt Romney 52% John McCain 52% Dennis Kucinich 50% Fred Thompson 49% Chris Dodd 47% Mike Huckabee 45% Hillary Clinton 44% Barack Obama 42% Tom Tancredo 42% John Edwards 40% Joe Biden 2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

And that's the last I'll write on this subject until August or thereabouts.

UPDATE: (Monday 14JAN08 17.15 GMT) Ron Paul and gay rights: it just goes to show! Even I, with my caution about writing about US politics, appear to have got it badly-wrong. I wrote above that, were I an American and were he on the ballot in November (which he was never likely to be), I would vote for Ron Paul as President. I must now retract that pledge as one born of ignorance of more complete information about him; not that I was alone in my ignorance of some less savoury information about Ron Paul - see here, here and here (and follow all the links in the third link, too). I don't think anyone realised just how bad George W Bush would turn out to be, particularly before his first election victory; it was widely-believed he would be a 'consenus' politician, based on his record as Governor of Texas. I doubt we yet know all there is to be known about the other potential candidates for President from the two main political parties either! The only thing I think I got right when I first wrote this post was my promise not to write any more until the Democrat and Rebublican nominees for President are selected and 'annointed' at the Party Conferences in the summer.

'Star Trek' addiction - hopelessly caught in the web!

I'm afraid I have a confession to make - that's me above. I was watching Star Trek IV ('The Voyage Home') a couple of days ago and this morning I've been watching Star Trek 'Insurrection' - just a couple of weeks ago I finished watching, for the third or fourth time, the entire 'Enterprise' series and that followed-on immediately after I had completed perhaps my fifth or sixth viewing of the entire 'Voyager' series - which itself followed .... You get the picture?

So when I saw that Jay at come back to what you know had done a post about a quiz on this vital topic, vital for the future of humanity, etc, etc (surely you jest - Ed) I was immediately attracted, just as moths are to light:

Your results: You are Jean-Luc Picard A lover of Shakespeare and other fine literature. You have a decisive mind and a firm hand in dealing with others. Jean-Luc Picard - 65% Will Riker - 65% James T. Kirk (Captain) - 60% Chekov - 50% Geordi LaForge - 50% Data - 42% Spock - 40% Leonard McCoy (Bones) - 40% Uhura - 40% Worf - 35% Mr. Sulu - 25% Mr. Scott - 20% Beverly Crusher - 2-% Deanna Troi - 0% Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

You will note that only the original 'Star Trek' series and the follow-on (many years later) 'Star Trek - The Next Generation' seem to be covered by the quiz. However, probably my favourite series was 'Voyager', because I think 'Captain Janeway' was good, although to be honest the presence of the gorgeous Garrett Wang ('Ensign Harry Kim') might have had something to do with it, too!

PS/ I had to make quite a lot of adjustments to the code which this quiz produces to make it format correctly in my blog - it works the way it comes, but it does look terribly higgledy-piggledy and amateurish. Obviously I haven't altered the basic result in any way.

Yet another personality thingie: 'The Everything Test'

I'm a sucker for these tests; of course some of the questions are very difficult to answer relevantly for non-Americans, but it is probably not too far out in its assessment of me, even if certain of the specific findings are rather false (but I'm not specifying which those are - that's for me to know and you to guess).

The Everything Test

There are many different types of tests on the internet today. Personality tests, purity tests, stereotype tests, political tests. But now, there is one test to rule them all.

Traditionally, online tests would ask certain questions about your musical tastes or clothing for a stereotype, your experiences for a purity test, or deep questions for a personality test.We're turning that upside down - all the questions affect all the results, and we've got some innovative results too! Enjoy :-)

Personality You are more logical than emotional, more concerned about self than concerned about others, more atheist than religious, more loner than dependent, more lazy than workaholic, more traditional than rebel, more engineering mind than artistic mind, more cynical than idealist, more leader than follower, and more extroverted than introverted. As for specific personality traits, you are outgoing (100%), intellectual (74%), innovative (64%), greedy (60%).

Stereotypes Young Professional 70% Prep 54% College Student 45%

Life Experience Sex 27% Substances 8% Travel 50%

Politics Your political views would best be described as Libertarian, whom you agree with around 68% of the time.

Socioeconomic Your attitude toward life best associates you with Upper Class. You make more than 88% of those who have taken this test, and 13% more than the U.S. average.

If your life was a movie, it would be rated PG-13. By the way, your hottness rank is 62%, hotter than 55% of other test takers.

TAKE THE TEST
brought to you by thatsurveysite

(thru Alan at Recovery Beach)

Green is my favourite colour ...

... and according to yet another of these quiz 'thingies', this is where I am in the green spectrum:

You Are Mint Green

Balanced and calm, you have mastered the philosophy of living well. Your friends seek you out for support, and you are able to bring stability to chaotic situations. You're very open and cheerful - and you feel like you have a lot of freedom in life. Your future may hold any number of exciting things, and you're ready for all of them!

What Color Green Are You?

(thru timrollpickering)

PS/ I had a very enjoyable, but tiring, trip up to Torrevieja earlier today to have lunch with a friend. There is lots to write about the 'Cash for Honours' inquiry as there were many developments during my absence today, but I prefer to leave any comments I may have on the latest news until the morning, when I will have had a good night's sleep. I thought the 'green' quiz was a nicer way to round off a long day.

I must really be like him!

Amazingly I didn't answer the 'favourite food' question as jelly beans which he apparently always had on his desk, but this quiz still said I was most like him:

You Are Most Like Ronald Reagan

People tend to think you're a god - or that you almost ruined the country. But even if people do disagree with you, they still fall victim to your charms!

What Modern US President Are You Most Like?

- and I don't mind at all, because I think he was indeed the finest US President I can remember.
(thru timrollpickering)

If I were a Mormon I might have been named ...

... Arville Caramon. Not bad, but I think I'll stick to the one I have - it suits me just fine.

To find your Mormon name just click here
(thru La vie ou l'avis de Thierry du Var)

Frankly I'm amazed - I'm not completely ignorant of the Bible

I am not a religious person; I don't think I'd classify myself as 'anti-religious', exactly, but 'areligious' is probably a more accurate assessment. What I am might best be called 'spiritual', I suppose. At any rate I did less badly at this little quiz than I thought I would, but to be honest a lot of the answers I gave were pure guesswork so some of my guesses must have been correct; I'm always suspicious of multiple-choice questions because however carefully they are compiled they still give you the correct answer as one of the choices so with a choice of 4 answers for many questions one is highly unlikely, even in complete ignorance (which I do not claim - I have after all been subjected to low-level religious [Christian] dogma all of my life), to get much less than 50 per cent or so. I think this places my result in better context:

You know the Bible 69%!

 

Wow! You are truly a student of the Bible! Some of the questions were difficult, but they didn't slow you down! You know the books, the characters, the events . . . Very impressive!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

(thru Gavin Ayling who, coincidentally, achieved precisely the same result)

I read only in moderation ... honest!

But it seems perhaps I do a little more than that:

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Literate Good Citizen
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

(thru 'Doonesbury' at The Council of Lemurs)

I also cook every meal I make myself from scratch; chilled or frozen pre-prepared food has no place in this household. I don't really think I'm any kind of 'book snob', but I don't mind admitting that when it comes to what I put into my mouth (foodwise - lol) I most certainly am.

Is he gay or is he nay?

An amusing online quiz to evaluate how 'gay' you are; now I am gay, as I mention in the header of this blog (so the result is pretty much as expected), but I was interested to see how closely I fit the 'pattern'; I'd say it's broadly accurate and surely wouldn't come as too much of a surprise to people who know me well.

You Are 50% Stereotypically Gay

You definitely have some stereotypically gay traits. You might set off a person's gaydar now and then. If you are not actually gay, you could be mistaken for gay from time to time. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

How Stereotypically Gay Are You?
Make a Quiz

What about you? (... and if you're 'straight', are you man enough to divulge the result if the quiz shows you to be a 'raving poofter'? - he, he)
(thru James at The Rittenhouse Review)