January Poll Says "No" to Assisted Suicide on Television

So, my polls are always completely unscientific, being that they're internet polls that simply take the opinion of people who visit my blog and chose to vote. 

I can tell who comments if the posts aren't anonymous, but I do not track who visits. I track numbers of visitors, but that's it. 

Nonetheless, I find it interesting to ask questions, and I like having at least one interactive element on my blog. 

I've never had such a one-sided poll result before this month! 

To the January question: "Should an assisted suicide be aired on television?" the resounding answer is "No." 

1 "Yes", 22 "No," and 2 "I Don't Know." And, I have no way to know this for sure, but I would guess that people who visit this blog are more likely to be interested in talking/reading about death than the average person. So, it seems people do not want to see PAS on TV. 

It makes me wish I remembered better how the country reacted when 60 Minutes aired an assisted suicide enacted by Dr. Kevorkian in 1998. 

November Poll: Can Vampires Be Highbrow?

In honor of the official Twilight freakout that is about to descend upon America, I ask a question about the "undead": vampires.

It is possible to have a highbrow work of art based on vampires? I've never read Bram Stoker's Dracula, so maybe that's the one ... but it just seems like there's something about the monster meets eroticism meets hunting human beings that lends itself to being a little tacky.

I've been struggling all week to come up with a poll question related to vampires that wasn't totally lowbrow, and finally, I decided to give up and ask you all if it's even a topic that reaches beyond the lowbrow. Again, I'm not concluding; I'm not voting; I'm just asking.

Okay, so if you're a big fan of vampire stories, don't hate me for asking this question.

I've read one of the Anne Rice books. I've read the first Twilight novel. I've seen the movie version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. And they strike me as definitely genre fiction, made more to appeal to a certain class of readers/viewers than simply to be great works on their own merit.

And I'm not against monster stories. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of my favorite books of all time. It's beautifully written—the Gothic style, the grand questions about whether man "should" just because he "can."

So sound off. Tell me I'm crazy and wrong and just haven't read/seen the right thing.

Why the McCain Poll?

A commenter questioned why I had this month's poll topic focused on John McCain. I answered in the comments field but wanted to also draw it out into the main blog in case other people were wondering, as well.

McCain is 72 now and would be 76 at the end of his term. The average life expectancy for an American, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, is 77.8 years. And McCain, should he win, would be the oldest person ever inaugurated president.

October Poll

It's a poll and an eye exam!

So, you'll notice the October poll is up at the top of the right sidebar. For some reason, the answer options are coming out really faint. They really are there and can be seen ... but barely. I created it the same way I have created all of my other polls, and I've never had this problem before, so I'm not sure what's happening.

The question is "If John McCain is elected, will you worry that he might die in office?" The first answer to pick is "yes"; the second is "no." Pretty simple options. I haven't given up on fixing it, but in the meantime, I'm hoping it's workable.

Update: It seems to be fixed. I think changing the background color did it. Thanks for you patience!

July Poll Results

The question was "If you could live forever, would you want to?" And here are the results:

Yes: 8
No: 6
I don't Know: 4

I'm a little surprised by these answers. I thought most people would say no. (Granted most people voted that they either did not want to live forever or did not know how they felt.) Maybe my views come from being an English major and having the quaint literary knowledge of books like Tuck Everlasting. It's possible there actually would be something to gain from living forever. You would have the opportunity to learn a lot. But wouldn't it be awfully sad to watch people you love die when you were in this world for eternity? Then again, it's only a highly non-scientific poll on a blog. There's also the possibility that people didn't take it that seriously :)