I'm not so sure it's that accurate a measure, but....

Here are my responses to the Class questionnaire that's been going around:

Father went to college (for years and years, part time at night, while working days...)
Father finished college   (when he was in his 50's and I was in college myself)
Mother went to college
Mother finished college 
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor (my great grand uncle was a physician in Sweden in the late 19th/early 20th century, before he came to the United States)
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers  (probably the same as some of them. Not higher than any of them.)
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children's books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 (piano - 6 mos., art - 6 mos., voice - 2yrs, paid for by my grandparents)
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels (Sometimes. We didn't go on many vacations, though. I think I remember three that involved hotels or motels.)
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 (Believe it or not, no. Even though I was an only child, I got hand-me-downs from a couple of neighbor families with kids just a bit bigger than me. And I was happy to have them, because they were good clothes.)
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
There was original art in your house when you were a child (My mother sketched and painted, and my parents also bought a couple of paintings at "starving artist" sales.)
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home 
You had your own room as a child (Well, I'm an only child, and my parents did own a whole house)
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 (Mom and I accompanied Dad on a business trip to California when I was 14, and took a loan on an insurance policy to be able to do so)
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up (Museums, anyway)
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family (I only knew it was expensive, but nothing more specific than that)

(This exercise comes from here.)

Of motes and logs, pots and kettles, and highly polished mirrors

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK) comes this headline: Conservapedia - the US religious right's answer to Wikipedia.

From the article:

Although entries on Wikipedia are open for anyone to edit, conservative campaigners say they are unable to make changes to articles on the site because of inherent bias by its global team of volunteer editors. Instead they have chosen to build a clone which they hope will promote Christian values."I've tried editing Wikipedia, and found that the biased editors who dominate it censor or change facts to suit their views," Andy Schlafly, the founder of Conservapedia, told the Guardian. "In one case my factual edits were removed within 60 seconds - so editing Wikipedia is no longer a viable approach."

Whereas no one is permitted to sign up to edit Conservapedia at all. I know; I've tried. Oh, and check out this comparison between some descriptions given at Wikipedia and their counterparts at Conservapedia (from the Guardian article):

Dinosaurs

Wikipedia: "Vertebrate animals that dominated terrestrial ecosystems for over 160m years, first appearing approximately 230m years ago."

Conservapedia: "They are mentioned in numerous places throughout the Good Book. For example, the behemoth in Job and the leviathan in Isaiah are almost certainly references to dinosaurs."

US Democratic party

Wikipedia: "The party advocates civil liberties, social freedoms, equal rights, equal opportunity, fiscal responsibility, and a free enterprise system tempered by government intervention."

Conservapedia: "The Democrat voting record reveals a true agenda of cowering to terrorism, treasonous anti-Americanism, and contempt for America's founding principles."

No, they're not biased at all, are they?



Just for the sake of interest, here are Wikipedia's entry about Conservapedia and Conservapedia's article about Wikipedia.

Religious Literacy

Test your religious literacy

I got an “A” - 100%. Though I will note that the quiz is top-heavy with references to the “Big Three” Abrahamic faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. There were a couple of questions each about Buddhism and Hinduism, and nothing at all about any other religions. Still, it covered a decent bit of information that one might suppose, or hope, that the average American would know with regard to religion.

Take it, and tell me how you do.