Glibertarians.com 2019 Archive

Category: Poll

  • Poll: Holiday Shopping

    So, holiday spending is in full swing. Assuming you purchase gifts for family/friends/Secret Santa/whatever this time of year, what kind of holiday shopper are you?

    I dislike going to brick-and-mortar stores anytime during the year, but especially now. The constant Christmas music, the horrendously gaudy displays, the crowds of humans, the bad parking situations, the fake-cheerful employees…all of it bugs me and makes me more depressed than I already am.

    I do nearly all my shopping all year online, including using grocery delivery services, so why would I change now? Right, I wouldn’t. Also, online shopping fits nicely with the fact that nearly everyone to whom I would give something lives far removed from me, so add in that shipping when I have purchased something in person is a hassle.

    Of course, I do acknowledge that there are some people who love holiday shopping out in the wild. I don’t understand them, but I know they exist.

    How about you? What kind of holiday shopper are you?

     

     

  • Poll: Dentists

    My MIL is getting some long overdue new dentures, and it has fallen to me, the dental phobic, to escort her to her appointments.

    I’ve never had a dentist not hurt me. This guy promises as pain-free a procedure as possible for Mom. We shall see.

    Today’s questions:

    How do you feel about going to the dentist?

    How often do you go?

    Do you have dental insurance? Is it worth a dental dam? (I crack myself up!)

     

    Discuss!

  • Poll: Which is the Greatest Halloween Candy?

    So, you all have probably figured out by now that TPTB are all real-life friends. We don’t make any secret of that fact; after all, it’s why this site exists.

    As such, we spend most of the day (and evening) popping into and out of a Super Secret Chat Room. Well, last Friday morning, I posted a link in chat, and damn, Skippy, if all hell didn’t break loose.

    It didn’t quite get to the level of slapping each other with gloves and choosing seconds, but it was just short of that.

    Here’s the link that incited the near-riot: Most Popular Halloween Candy

    What say you, Glibertariat? What’s the greatest Halloween candy of all time?

  • Poll: There’s an eye chart?

    Full Disclosure: I am decidedly not good with eye stuff. When I worked in EMS, I invariably made my partner handle treatment of all eye issues. I mean, ALL eye issues, even if it was just an eyelash in an eye.

    And, of course, in the way of karma, along with Alzheimer’s, my MIL has macular degeneration. This results in her having to have a horrific treatment every 6 weeks. This means immediately after relocating her to AZ, we had a “new patient” visit with one of the top retinal specialists in Phoenix.

    New patient visit means a battery of tests and imaging, taking a few hours over the course of an afternoon in a very packed office. I was seriously the youngest person there (by far!) who wasn’t an employee.

    Anyway, so far, so good.

    We sit down in the first exam room and the polite, chirpy, young tech addresses Mom, “Hi! I’m Jenny! Mrs OMWC’s Mom, please look at the eye chart being projected on the wall and read the first line for me.”

    “There’s an eye chart?” *pause* “Which wall am I supposed to be looking at?”

    “The one in front of your chair.” Tech taps a few keys and increases the eye chart to Interstate exit sign size. “How about now?”

    “Oh! Yes, that’s an…O. Or maybe…a G. Hmmm…maybe D.”

    I think to myself, “No, it’s a Q. Damn, can’t I get away from those Glibs even for one afternoon?!”

    “Thanks, Mrs OMWC’s Mom. I think that’s all we need for now. John will take you in for the next test in a few minutes.”

    ***************

    It got me thinking. I only go see an ophthalmologist if I need a change in my eyeglass prescription, so every couple years or so. I could never in a zillion years stick a piece of plastic in my eye every morning, so I have never even considered contacts. WebDom has been wearing contacts since she was a teenager. But, then, she’s a honey badger.

    Tonight’s questions:

    1. How often do you see an eye doc?
    2. Do you wear either glasses or contacts?
    3. Do you let them do the drops?
    4. Do you have any more serious eye issues?
    5. Is SP a saint for taking her MIL for these horrific treatments?

     

  • Poll: Salad

    I love salad. In fact, this is something we eat at least four nights per week.

    OMWC makes the absolute best salad dressing. Ever. Period. End of discussion.

    However.

    I LOVE OMWC’s green salads, truly, I do. Yet, I also love salads with every vegetable in the fridge and some fruits thrown in. Maybe some nuts and cheese, too. (#notvegan, sorry WebDom). And I love pasta salads, rice salads, tabboulehs, cucumber salads, and pretty much any other salad. (As long as it doesn’t incorporate soapweed.)

    What do you like? Plain greens? Greens with heirloom or other tomatoes on the side? Bread? What kind of dressing? Loads of vegetables? Non traditional salads?

    Please share. Recipes, too, if you have ’em.

    I’ll be over here enjoying this salad while you talk among yourselves.

     

     

    See also, Tulip’s excellent salad post.

  • Glibertarian Survey Results

    I promised we would all get to see the results of the Glibertarian survey from last week, to answer a question that one member of the editing staff posed.

    Lets just say, somebody owes somebody else $1.  Now the results, based off 309 total respondents:

    Question #1:  Are you libertarian?

    95% of  respondents answered in the affirmative.  Which given a certain statistic (98%) by a certain individual, whom we will call “Michael Hihn”, suggests there are at least 14,308 libertarians out there that reject the label.  Are the respondents really libertarian?  Is there a way we can determine this?  Yes.  With this purity test…

    Question #2:  If yes [to question #1], choose the statement you most agree with.

    An overwhelming 85% of respondents chose the two statements that most closely align with the “correct” libertarian position on regulating Google.  Correct, from a purely doctrinal standpoint.  One’s opinion on this topic in particular might vary to some degree, which is the reason behind a second correct answer.  One of the responses cited a specific tenet of libertarian philosophy:  private property rights.  The other took a basic NAP approach but perhaps left a possibility for one to be a “realist”  but does not imply direct action taken against Google.  The difference between the two in the quantitative sense is not very large (5%); in the qualitative sense however, it can be argued this makes a world of difference.  Perhaps more can be said on that later.

    As for the 13 respondents that use Google to get their jollies…now Google knows you like ginger trannies…

    Question #3:  Do you intend to vote in the 2020 election?

    The data suggests at least 2/3 of respondents are going to.   Not many ways to split this one.

    Question #4:  Who do you believe will win the Republican nomination?

    Like Question #3, this one is also straightforward.  One thing to add here is there is a single respondent that believes Bill Weld will win.  It stands to reason that only Bill himself, thinks he has a chance to primary Trump.  Which means Bill is watching—let’s give Governor Weld a nice, warm, Glibertarian welcome…

    Question #5:  Who do you believe will win the Democrat nomination?

    The results here are filtered for responses greater than zero, given the number of choices available at the time the survey went live.  The respondents have Joe Biden up 10 percentage points on the next highest candidate, Kamala Harris.  Followed by Elizabeth Warren, who likely has a plan to correct these responses.  Which brings us to…

    Question #6:  Who do you prefer to win the Democrat nomination?

    Tulsi Gabbard received 25%, 5 points more than the next highest response being “other”.  It is somewhat troubling Marianne Williamson was third on the list, which can only be explained by promises of taxpayer funded crystal meth.

    Question #7:  Will you entertain a third party option?

    About half of the respondents are willing to throw their vote away…

    Question #8:  Are you retarded?

    Trick question.  Everyone compared to Mr. Lizard, is retarded.

    Question #9:  Should Justin Amash run for president, will you entertain the idea of voting for him?

    It appears 44% of respondents will…with one caveat—

    Question #10:  Which of the following notable libertarians do you like for the Libertarian party candidate or as an independent?

    Amash does not poll well when compared to other well-known libertarians.  He barely gets 1% above the throw away response,”None of these cucks are worthy of my vote.”  The respondents’ preference is Rand Paul, who at 28% is 10 points higher than the next highest choice, the lovable TV host Mike Rowe.

    Where it gets interesting, is when the responses are cross-referenced.  When filtering among respondents choosing the purity question (#2) response suggesting “realism”, the support for Amash drops by 3 points in Question #9.  Support for Paul in Question #10 rises by 7%.

    The reverse of this results in a rise of support to 51.88% for Amash in Question #9, and slight drop to 26.87% for Paul in Question #10, respectively.

    Why does this disparity exist?  Feel free to discuss.

  • Poll: How do you keep track of your finances?

    A few days ago there was a short discussion about tax returns and business finances.  I understand that a lot of folks (maybe most of them) who operate their own businesses use CPAs or other accountants.  How about keeping track of household finances?

    1. If you have a business do you use accounting services or do you keep track on your own?  If the latter, do you use a program like Quickbooks or Peachtree or something else?
    2. How about personal accounting? Again, software or pencil and paper?  Or do you not bother to keep track and just pay the bills as they come in?

    I’ve used Quicken for over 20 years.  I was looking to update my software (my version is 2009) but I see that Quicken has gone to a subscription service that costs about $40 per year and your data are stored in the cloud rather than locally.  I’d be interested in hearing if others have alternatives.

  • Glibertarian Survey

    A question was posed to the editing staff here at Glibertarians.com.  Unfortunately it resulted in a few, um …heated discussions and disagreements as to the possible answers.  Things escalated.

    First something aggravated the Old Man

     

    Which got Brett upset.

     

    Then somebody threatened to call the cops

     

    …so we decided we were going to simply ask you.  Yes YOU, the garden variety Glibertarian to settle the disagreement.

    It got out of hand.  The problem is we only seem to be able to obtain data from the commenters.  So we took it upon ourselves to create a short survey.  This is our first attempt to create a poll of millennials Glibertarians.  Unlike previous polls this one is an attempt to allow for greater participation:  from people that read but don’t comment.  No offense to the commenters here, but we have a sneaking suspicion there are others watching and thought it might be possible the quiet part of the audience might have something to say.

    At the below link, is a short survey of 10 questions.  Why 10 and not 20?  Your time is valuable and quite frankly the good guys at Survey Monkey will only give me ten questions for free.  This should take about a 2 minutes to complete.  We will not indulge upon the one question we were fighting about, however in one week’s time we — let’s be real — I will compile the results and allow you to view it for yourselves.  By view, I mean I will give you screenshots and percentages…..

    THE LINK

  • Poll: Mentors

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    Mentoring consists of a long-term relationship focused on supporting the growth and development of the mentee. The mentor becomes a source of wisdom, teaching, and support, but not someone who observes and advises on specific actions or behavioral changes in daily work/life.

     

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    Someone in my real (read: non-Glib) life, recently commented that I am their mentor in a specific area of my professional endeavors. I was surprised by this, as I certainly hadn’t thought of myself or our relationship that way. Sure, I offer excellent advice when asked, and am a truly great listener (I get it from my mother), but it had never occurred to me that this person held that view.

    So. Do you have/have you had a non-family mentor in any area of your life? Was it an acknowledged mentoring relationship? Did it start out that way or did it evolve?

    Have you been a mentor? What was the experience like for you?

    Discuss!

     

     

     

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  • Poll: Zoning

    Last time I asked the Glibertariat how they felt about HOAs. This week, let’s keep the controversy going by discussing zoning laws!

    Although an exceptional human by 95% of objective measures, there was nothing very libertarian about my Mom. In fact, she was appointed the chair of the planning board in her village. During her (very long) tenure, the planning board decided to undertake a revision of the local zoning laws. I happened to be visiting her one day when the documents were laid out on her desk. I was astonished that a village with a year round population of 2000 needed so many rules and regulations.

    Granted, things there are somewhat complicated by being the home to three universities. Additionally, practically the entire village proper is a designated Historic District. However, the sheer volume and insane amount of detail of the regs was mind blowing.

    Now, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that some of the revisions were an improvement. Mom was big on clear and unequivocal language, so she insisted that vague edicts open to interpretation by a code enforcement officer (or village flunky) be changed. So, instead of, say, a regulation stating, “fences must be no higher than is reasonable and placed safely,” Mom insisted they pass the change to be something along the lines of, “fences seen from the street frontage of the property may be no taller than 4 feet and may not be placed so as to obstruct the view of vehicles operating on village streets.” At least under those sorts of revisions, it was more clear what was and was not allowed.

    However.

    Being a very small college town, off-campus housing is at a premium always.  Own a house that’s bigger than you need? Why not rent out a room or two to meet market demand and help offset your own housing costs?

     

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Stop it, you’re killing me.

    Where is this house? Is it in the Historic District? How many square feet? How big is the driveway? How does the driveway intersect the street? Is there a garage or barn? How many bathrooms does it have? How many entrances and exits? Are the people living there related by blood or law? How many days per month will it be occupied by how many people? How many residents per square foot? Will any interior or exterior structural changes be made to accommodate the new use? What will the rent per square foot of leased space be?

    You get the picture.

    And permits? That would be an entire series of posts.

     

    So, zoning, yea or nay? (Yeah, yeah, I know, property values. Yeah, yeah, I know, bars next to churches. Yeah, yeah, liquor stores next to elementary schools.)

     

    Let’s hear what Glibs think!