Oh, great.
I railed pretty hard against McCain’s bizarre behavior when it comes to superstition. Rightly so, I’ll add.
But now I find out that Obama has a good luck piece or two as well. The story, such as it is, comes from a picture via Time magazine. It shows what are ostensibly Obama’s hands holding various trinkets. The caption reads:
Amongst the things that Barack Obama carries for good luck are a bracelet belonging to a soldier deployed in Iraq, a gambler’s lucky chit, a tiny monkey god and a tiny Madonna and child.
I haven’t heard anything more than that, so it’s hard to draw conclusions. These may not be good luck charms so much as reminders, things to keep him focused on the task at hand. Or he might be a complete lunatic… though honestly, when it comes to goofy rituals of superstition, McCain is way ahead.
Interestingly, Time only shows McCain with a single penny in his hand, which is pretty unfair, given the large number of talismans he carries around.
Is this yet another example of the MSM being unfair; treating McCain with kid gloves? I doubt it, but criminy enough examples of this abound. It’ll be interesting if and when the media decide that maybe McCain has some laundry that needs airing out. Maybe a few dozen hampers full.
Until then, I’ll keep my ears open about Obama’s superstitions as well. It won’t influence the election at all, but it’s interesting.
Tip o’ the lucky feather to Hemant at Friendly Atheist.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:22 am
If all you’d ever done with your life was crash airplanes, do what lobbyinsts tell you and cheat on and insult a series of broken wives, and you didn’t want to rationalize your political success as nothing but the result of being the son of an admiral, maybe you’d chalk it up to supersticious nonsense too.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:26 am
In the big picture, an endless war, a plummeting economy, is this THE most important thing to criticize a candidate on? IMO, there are far more important issues to nail the candidates on besides whether or not they carry good luck charms around with them.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:27 am
At the risk of sounding cynical, I’d say that the soldier’s bracelet is carried as a political symbol more than a charm.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Potential Republican VP nominee Bobby Jindal trumps both these guys in the woo department. He’s been involved in a hardcore exorcism (screaming demons, faith healing, the lot) and wrote a long, serious piece about it.
Fortunately I doubt McCain will choose him since he’s only 36 years old and his selection would completely undermine the attack on Obama is too young and inexperienced for the Oval Office. But Jindal is sure to be a darling of the religious right (in spite of being a Catholic) in the years ahead.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:39 am
On the one hand, I think it’s early to jump to conclusions. There are other potential reasons for the trinkets. As Steve points out, they may be symbols. Also, consider the stress he is under in the campaign. He may just grab the nearest trinket and handle it to deal with stress. There are lots of things we do for comfort that don’t make sense. Personally, I talk to my dog about things he couldn’t possible understand… I don’t think.
On the other hand, he is a Christian, which does lend itself to dealing with idols and other non-skeptical behaviour. Faith… that’s just weird…
June 12th, 2008 at 10:57 am
“If all you’d ever done with your life was crash airplanes…”
Your Swift Boat membership card will be in the mail shortly.
You stay classy, rcglinsk.
On another note, I have friends affiliated with both parties claiming that the press is prejudiced against their man. One decries the “kid glove treatment McCain gets” while others claim that “the press is cheerleading for Obama.” Yet another has a collection of what she calls specific examples of sexism in the press where Clinton is concerned.
Unfortunately, in this case, you can’t stop the signal. When we were on vacation a month ago on a remote Caribbean island that is an overseas department of France, American political mudslinging was the highlight of the daily newspaper.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Kendall, your dog is a Christian? Now that’s just, just…..
June 12th, 2008 at 11:19 am
If either one of them actually come up with solid plans for the economy, education (particularly math and science), and the war in Iraq…..I couldn’t really care less what trinkets they carry around to ease their stress.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Heavens to Mergatroid! They carry around things they like! Better not vote for either of them. (If only there were someone decent to vote for.)
And here’s a news flash. Someone feels that the media isn’t treating the candidates equally. Film at eleven.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Wow, I must be one of the “wackos” because I carry things around all the time as well. I’ve got a pocketknife I’ve had since I was nine years old, and I misplaced it for a few days. I was kind of upset until I found it.
So I guess I’m an ignorant fool.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:48 am
what the heck is that post above by asd? the answer to the essay question:
please drone on and on in one billion words or less.
whoever becomes our next president, i just hope they discard their personal luck charms and do the only sensible thing when facing tough questions facing the nation. call up a $4.99/min psychic to find out the answers to tough problems facing the world. they better stay away from the phone sex numbers though! we don’t want our government officials wasting tax payer money on those!
June 12th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Time to play “Spot the Loony”……….
June 12th, 2008 at 11:56 am
ASD:
Capitalization is your friend, as is space between paragraphs.
Matt A
June 12th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
here is a description of some of mccain’s luck totems:
“In addition to a lucky penny, John McCain carries a lucky nickel, and a lucky rubber band, which he wears around his wrist. He also has a lucky sweater and a lucky hotel room in New Hampshire. ”
do you suppose the hotel room thing *really* works and he gets lucky?
June 12th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
What the hell do good luck talismans have to do with anything? I come here for the awesome astronomy (you know, that word in the title of your blog?) but it’s so bogged down with childish commentary that I don’t even know why I bother.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Asd… Take a breather. And take note: I doubt anyone will be truly arsed to read such a long, boring and miswritten text. You gotta focus your blabber, man!
About lucky charms… I do have my own “charms”. Well, trinkets at least. I don’t think they have powers, but I like having them with me and I feel naked without ‘em!
June 12th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
@Josh: YOU! Yes YOU, server owner! Write about what I WANT! I say so! Do eet… or I’ll pout!
June 12th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
asd == cut-and-paste troll. Ignore him/her/it.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
My lucky charms are magically delicious.
Of course, I had to bludgeon that stupid leprechaun to death to get them, but that’s between me and the Irish authorities.
Matt A
June 12th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
hey, josh, phil also has another word in the title of his blog:
bad
Oh, phil is a naughty person and he must pay the penalty, and here in castle anthraxbad astronomy comment posts, we have but one punishment for failing to discuss astronomy…
June 12th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Whenever I hear about politicians being superstitious or saying they pray regularly, it really scares the s— out of me. Take the president (anyone, not just the incumbent): He has literally thousands of nuclear devices at his disposal that can deliver radioactive death to any and all parts of the world, and freely admits to hearing voices in his head (which he calls God).
It seriously makes me want to leave the planet as quickly as possible.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
@Zeb: they rarely admit that God speaks back, so I think it’s cool on the hearing voices part. They’re just talking to themselves.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
BA, I’m glad you pointed this out, even though you still managed to bash McCain at the same time. I hope you don’t think that if you carry just ONE talisman that somehow makes you less loony than the guy who carries a few more. Superstition is superstition.
There are obviously vast political differences between these two candidates, but I don’t see how one has an advantage over the other when it comes to science, or more specifically, anti-science.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
[...] oder – noch schlimmer – McCain merkt, dass er sein Hufeisen zu Hause vergessen hat? Bad Astronomy – Obama’s superstitious, too [↩]Bad Astronomy – McCain’s bizarre beliefs [↩] « Spiele töten… [...]
June 12th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I dunno what’s more irrational, a good luck charm or obsessing about it endlessly like it matters.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
See, he is a closet Darwinist. Woo hoo.
I don’t put much stock in what superstitious charms people carry around and I know they can give some of you comfort but they really are… um… I can’t come up with a word that wouldn’t be offensive to at least some people but choose the word least offensive for you… quaint, childish, stupid, ignorant, ridiculous, irrational, etc etc etc.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:54 am
-a bracelet belonging to a soldier deployed in Iraq-
If Obama has it, it can’t have been too lucky for the soldier.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:11 am
So you are basically saying
McCain has “bizarre beliefs” but Barrack’s superstitions are not that bad and maybe they are nothing because I like Barack so I’m going to point out that Time is bias against Barrack for showing multiple things he believes in?
June 13th, 2008 at 8:00 am
[...] Addendum: Julia reminded me about the extreme superstitions of US presidential candidate McCain and, to a much lesser extent or maybe not at all, Obama. [...]
June 13th, 2008 at 8:31 am
“Tiny monkey god”? Wtf?
June 13th, 2008 at 8:46 am
This comment thread already has nearly everything: claims of bias, dismissal, calls of “Testify!” and even a surprise visit by e e cummings.
These comments are lacking, however, conspiracy theory. You see, superstition was invented by the Earth Goddess Cult of Ur to keep people in line, and said EGC has retained the keys to the basic code of human superstition and memetic warfare up through the time they redefined themselves as first the Freemasons and later the Illuminati. What everyone has wrong isn’t that the Freemasons/Illuminati are part of the New World Order; what’s actually going on is a shadow memetic war between the current powers that be (the Earth Goddess Cult) and the wannabe powers to be. The MK-ULTRA experiments were actually an attempt to replicate the EGC’s memetic control, and Majestic-12 are attempting to use alien technology to rewrite the human source code. The recent environmentalism is a counterforce operation of the EGC trying to ‘return to its roots’ of Earth-Motherism.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Centipede–
Dood, I am so in ur Area 51, stealin ur alienz . . .
June 13th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Again, Obama’s minister (jeremiah wright) is an issue because Obama has spent significant effort in his life listening to the guy and making decisions based on his nonsense (else why would he put the effort in?). If that’s not a high degree of superstition….
But then, if McCain does this, he’s an idiot; if Obama believes in a man in the sky it’s merely interesting.
Just an observation. I fully understand that a person has to cowtow to xtian nuts to hold high office. (Obama goes to far for my liking but whatever).