Another theory hits the dust

Me: We could move to Hawaii without any job prospects whatsoever. It's so warm you can't freeze to death if you're homeless!

Neil: That's true, but we could starve to death instead.

Tergiversation With Numbers

The Washington Post recently ran a story that was slightly obstinate in tone, debunking "post election myths."

One of the myths it talked about was the idea that voter turnout didn't change much amongst youths; in 2004, young voters (ages 18-24) were 17% of the electorate and in 2008, this year, young voters were 18% of total voters. After a lengthy conversation with Jon, though, I'm pretty convinced that those are deceptive numbers.

We are an aging population; the Census says that the median age from 1990 to 2000 went from 32.9 to 35.3. Proportionately, there are less youth amongst us. So unlike what the Post contends, it's not fair to say that youth didn't turn out in greater numbers; they almost certainly did, actually. They were merely outnumbered by the fact that there are MORE older people than there used to be.

From 1990 to 2000, the proportion of people aged 50-54 (who are now 58-62) grew 55%, and people aged 45-49 (now aged 53 to 57) grew 45%. That is a lot of growth amongst the older generation. While people who would now be young adults (10-14 then are now conveniently aged 18-23) did actually increase their numbers by 20%, that wasn't enough for young voters to have a better voice, when outweighed by the enormous growing number of older people.

Alas.

Top 18 List of Gorgeous Celebs

It's interesting to think about attractive celebrities. Most of the male celebrities I can think of offhand don't have particularly gorgeous features. Of the ones that do, sometimes the roles they play or their tawdry personal lives make them grossly unattractive. Tom Cruise so doesn't do it for me anymore, though I really loved his role in Jerry Maguire. Orlando Bloom... always manages to play a character that is vaguely annoying. Sorry, I never liked Legolas or Will Turner.

Then there are the interesting cases of people who I sort of don't care about as far as how they look. If Dan Savage, of Savage Love, were straight and available, I would be a screaming fangirl and rip my clothes off etc. I mean... he's Dan Savage.

But a quick list of Kim's other top hotties goes like so:

• Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen Twilight squee!)
(Note: he's off my list as of having actually watched Twilight)

• Drew Barrymore
  
• Kate Winslet
  
• Elizabeth Banks
  
• Paul Rudd
  
• Isla Fisher
  
• Rachel Weisz
  
• Alexis Bledel (I love her as Lena, in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants)
  
• Leonardo DiCaprio (Has any girl who grew up with Titanic ever forgotten Leo?)
  
• James Franco
  
• Ashton Kutcher
  
• Nicole Kidman
  
• Jude Law (You must see him My Blueberry Nights, where he is not as scarily gorgeous as usual)
  
• Scarlett Johansson
  
• Tobey Maguire
  
• Kirsten Dunst
  
• Nathan Fillion
  
• Alyson Hannigan
  

Then there are the people who sort of scare me that would be attractive if the characters they play didn't seem so intimidating. Like Kirsten Bell (holy cow, who would have the balls to date Veronica Mars?) or Angelina Jolie (I neither want to date Lara Croft nor uber mommy nor keeper of Billy Bob Thornton's blood).