Comments

  3. James Sweet says

    Hah! I figure their going to HAVE TO take it down. They can’t have the FoF website saying that 90+% of the responders aren’t going to pray. Hell, even 13% seems kooky for people going to that evil website…

  4. Elwood Herring says

    To hell with praying – May 7th is Tchaikovsky’s birthday. Roll out the cannons!

  5. says

    Hmm. I notice that right now it’s 80% “Yes,” 19% “No,” and 3% “I Don’t Know.” That’s some good rounding they have over at Focus on the Family…

  6. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    Could you speak up PZ, I can’t hear you… (now to see if Safari can vote).

  7. mk says

    Vote early, vote often… Because you can! I did my part to crank it up to 22%. Then I got tired. Someone take over please.

    Cheers.

  8. sammywol says

    23% Nice progress given only 894 votes in total. Also, it seems to allow multiple voting without much fuss.

  9. Giffy says

    Well I talk to my dogs and sometimes myself so I think I have to answer yes…

  10. Asemodeus says

    I just finished a Construction Materials final, which was taken at 7 o fuckin 30 in the morning. So no thanks, I’ve already exceeded my daily limit of mental pain and anguish.

  11. Menyambal says

    Huh. There’s even a disclaimer:

    Attention:

    This poll is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those Internet users who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole.

    I’m giving points for that.

  13. ThePetey says

    so, its national waste of time day

    Why isn’t there a “HELL NO!” option?

  14. Notorious P.A.T. says

    I think I will join him in prayer.

    Dear God, I was laid off yesterday. I sure could use my job back. If you are out there, please let me go back to work so I can earn an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Thank you.

    If that doesn’t work, I’m sure Mr Dobson will admit that prayer doesn’t work. Yeah right.

  15. Silva says

    I’m going to donate blood.

    Whatever happened to the atheist blood donation movement? Is it fizzling?

  16. Asemodeus says

    I just finished a Construction Materials final, which was taken at 7 o fuckin 30 in the morning. So no thanks, I’ve already exceeded my daily limit of mental pain and anguish.

  18. David Wiener says

    I keep praying that Dobson will go away and nothing happens. Should I pray harder?

  19. Mephistopheles says

    1. Press F5
    2. Select “No”
    3. Click “Submit >>”
    4. Go back to 1.

  21. Janine, OMnivore says

    I have not prayed in over a quarter of a century. Not even when my brother had an operation to remove a tumor from his head. (It has been a decade and it has not grown back.) Not when I though my mom was about to die. (She recovered.) Not when I though I might have a terminal illness. (It was a false positive.) Why start begging now.

  22. Porco Dio says

    today i will pray that PZ will post another poll to crash tomorrow…

    oh happy monkey

  23. B Wood says

    Well I’d pray for prayer day to do something useful, but since I hate wasting my time…

  24. MikeM says

    I think I’ll celebrate National Day of Fear instead.

    Oh, wait. Same difference.

    Carry on.

  26. A.T. says

    I’m not praying, but my THOUGHTS are with Lieutenant Dan Choi, dismissed yesterday from the New York National Guard for publicly coming out as gay and breaking the inhumane, immoral, unconstitutional Don’t Ask Don’t Tell regulation, that the Obama administration should be repealing. A regulation, promoted by fanatics like Dobson’s lunatic organization.

  29. Elwood Herring says

    What would happen if I pray that my prayer is not granted?

    Lesson one in How to Confuse God With Logic.

  30. RockitQueen says

    It’s my birthday…please do not pray on my birthday. I want my petty request for a record player to come through and don’t want the lines blocked up.

  32. Manduca says

    I voted until “yes” fell below 50%, then I figured I had squeezed all the entertainment value out of this activity.

  33. Brownian, OM says

    There should be zero ‘Yes’ votes.

    These liars are supposed to be praying, not clicking. It’s like God always says, “Never trust an openly pious Christian” (God, 1986, 2005, 2009. Personal communication.)

  34. Equisetum says

    Yes 51%
    No 49%
    I don’t know. 2%

    ??? Don’t they do math in Dobsonland?

  35. MikeM says

    All this will do is feed their persecution complex.

    Which is exactly why we’re doing it…

    Man, I hate the new formatting in these comments. I pray that Scienceblogs fixes this soon. Let’s see if this prayer works.

  36. Sgt. Obvious says

    Well, at least it’s kind of appropriate to have the NDP during finals week. Just fits somehow.

  37. Ricky Gremlin says

    I really dislike that schmuck. I’m at work so I’m going to vote for the next 6 hours.

  38. says

    Um…how ’bout NO

    I don’t plan on wasting my time today, thank you very much. I have actual productive things to do.

  40. Elwood Herring says

    RockitQueen – that’s not the way to do it. Just steal one, then ask God to forgive you. (Thanks Emo Philips!)

  41. Richard Harris says

    I think I’ll pray, as it’s a special day. I’ll pray that god disappears up his own ass. That shouldn’t be too difficult; he’s had his head up there since Old Testament times.

    Oh wait! The fecker doesn’t exist.

  42. DGKnipfer says

    My sympathies and best wishes to Lt Choi. As an AF retiree I am continually amazed at the talent we let go over this stupidity that is DADT. Here’s hoping he can win his fight.

  44. Copache says

    I hope he comments on this on his crappy radio show…

    “…So these evil atheists came and crashed our poll!”

    Proud to be one of them. Best part: my mom will come home talking about it. ;D

  45. Denis Alexander says

    But if everyone speaks at the same time, wouldn’t it be more difficult for him to listen? I’ll vote NO just to make his life easier…

  48. Mephistopheles says

    The greater than 100% issue is with the rounding of the numbers. Not a big deal.

  49. says

    What would happen if I pray that my prayer is not granted?

    Sure. Great. Crash the universe. See if I care…

    (/More seriously, 65 percent no, as I write this. Oh, you magnificent bastards.)

  50. Darren says

    Excellent 70% “No” now. I hope they blame PZ and moot for the failure of their alluring poll.

  52. Ouchimoo says

    70% voted no out of 2000 people. Hahah, How many people visit Pharyngula a day?

  54. Brownian, OM says

    A.T., have you got a link for Lt. Choi? Is there anything we can do, like send letters of support, write Members of Congress, or luridly describe that one night in Bangkok we spent playing chess naked with a yet-unnamed AF Lieutenent General in letters to the editors of major print media nationwide*?

    *The above is hypothetical. I get my kicks above the waistline, Sunshine. Plus, we ‘lost the white bishop’ sometime around 7:30.

  55. says

    Just voted, NO is at 80%! LMAO! Who cares if it feeds their persecution self image, they have that whether we vote or not. Its just nice to show them that there are more of us then they think, gets em scared the end is near.

  56. sasqwatch says

    I think I’m going to vote 10,000 times today. And I don’t take Geritol every morning, either.

    There’s really neat software out there — I use iMacros — for doing repetitive web browsing tasks, like voting NO,
    cleaning your cookies (in this case, not necessary), and repeating. Anyway, I’m not a shill for iMacros or anything, but thought I should let the good folks here know how easy it is. iMacros also is trialware, so you can record and play short macros for free.

    In case there are any iMacros users out there (or new ones as a result of this post), I bring you the macro that votes NO. By setting a counter value and hitting “Play (Loop)”, this can be made to run as many times as desired.

    VERSION BUILD=6210326 RECORDER=FX
    TAB T=1
    TAB CLOSEALLOTHERS
    URL GOTO=http://www.focusonthefamily.com/
    TAG POS=1 TYPE=IMG ATTR=ID:radioImage646e47a1-dda6-4ec4-8e83-ef948ec87742
    TAG POS=1 TYPE=A ATTR=TXT:Submit>>
    CLEAR
    URL GOTO=http://www.focusonthefamily.com/

    that last re-navigation to the Focus site (at bottom) resets the site, getting it ready for another vote.

    It’s also good software to have for lots of stuff, not just Pharyngulating stupid polls. Have fun out there.
    the Firefox iMacros add-on (they also have an IE version, and their own browser):
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3863

  57. Not that Louis says

    And if you join them in prayer, will you be using your Prayer Max 5000?

  60. bunnycatch3r says

    Surely the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will thwart our efforts to crash this poll.

  61. Patricia, OM says

    Will it count if I pray to the debble to quit messing with the formatting here? This SUCKS!

  62. JJR says

    I went over and voted “no”, too. No is to mild….Mocking laughter, snorting, slapping side and then “no” is more like it.

  64. HandledTrivia says

    May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. Will you join us in prayer on Thursday?
    Yes 23%
    No 77%
    I don’t know. 2%
    Total Votes 3070

  65. Scooty Puff, Jr. says

    #9: Yeah, and if anyone knows about things that are unscientific, it’s Focus on the Patriarchy “Family”.

  66. hje says

    Michelle Bachmann is going to be involved in this day of prayer thing. Can’t wait to see what craziness emerges from her jesus-addled brain.

  67. Larry says

    The things I do for satan. Just going to that site, even for such a noble cause, just gives me the willies.

  68. fenderplayer96 says

    Something tells me I wasn’t the first Pharyngula reader to vote…

    Yes: 23%
    No: 77%
    Don’t know: 1%

    total votes 3223

  69. minimalist says

    Oh. I was wondering why there was a yammering tent-revival-style preacher outside Building 1 here. I keep forgetting about this.

    As to what I did instead, I was actually heading to a very nice talk about the spatial relation and regulation of the associated exocytic and endocytic zones of the synapse. Much more useful than a one-sided conversation with a ghost.

  70. Dahan says

    You owe me PZ. I went to that site to vote and now I feel all nasty and degraded. Not in the usual good way either.

  73. Brownian, OM says

    Sorry to hear about your job situation, Notorious P.A.T. (Or were you kidding?)

    Anyways, I wish you all the best in getting back on your feet.

  74. DaveL says

    How is it that when the government proclaims a National Day of Doing Nothing Useful, I still have to go in to work?

  75. deviljelly says

    Yes 20%
    No 81%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 3849

    Love creationist math

  76. says

    No at 81%. :)

    I saw news articles about Obama toning down the White House participation in the Day of Prayer, which I thought was a step in the right direction. (Even if he doesn’t dispatch the Day of Prayer altogether.)

  77. DGlenz says

    Guess God is extra busy today. Doesn’t that mean that a higher percentage of people will experience unfulfilled prayers today?

  80. stinger says

    18% Yes, 82% No.

    I always have to be sure I’m in a secluded spot before reading (and voting in) these poll posts, because I am guaranteed to laugh out loud at the results. (And I only vote once.)

  81. Greg Peterson says

    Jesus supposedly prayed that “those who will believe in Me…all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:20-21)

    Number of separate Christian denominations? Approximately 38,000 currently in the world.

    So if the Son of God can’t get his prayer answered, what chance do a bunch of hypocritical a-holes have, really? Complete frigging waste of time. Helps keep the pietistic prunes in bouffants and K-Y jelly, though.

  82. Lily says

    Sometimes I just cross out the “In God We Trust” on my money and replace it with “In dust we trust”

  83. Chemist says

    The “Alerts” box of the focuss (ha!) webpage asks us to take a survey to evaluate their radio ministry. Asks what you like best (nothing) and least. To that one I replied “Dr. Dobson”. As to why, “his bigotry and unchristian views”.

    I invite everyone to “tell it like it is”.

  84. Tom Coward says

    Going to Dobson’s website brought to mind a bumper sticker I saw the other day: “FOCUS ON YOUR OWN DAMN FAMILY!”

  85. Dr.Woody says

    How is it that when the government proclaims a National Day of Doing Nothing Useful, I still have to go in to work?

    Her: what did you do today?
    Me: nothing…
    Her: That’s what you did yesterday!
    Me: I wasn’t finished…

  86. Patrick says

    No – 84%
    Yes – 17%
    I don’t know – 1%

    …
    Wait a second…102%?

  87. davem says

    Poll Pharyngulised. Now at 84%.

    I assume that the other 364 days of the year are ‘National Pass Round The Collection Plate’ days?

  91. 'Tis Himself says

    Instead of National Prayer Day I celebrated Have a Root Canal Day. Praying would have been less painful.

  92. Levi in NY says

    I just realized the irony of my listening to a song called “Die Durch Die Hölle Gehen” while crashing this poll…

  95. Meursault Lives! says

    What is it about crashing a fundie poll that brings out the giggling little school girl in us all? Tee hee!

  96. Alex says

    Instead of praying, I think I shall chant to Cthulhu. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. I just need to find something for a sacrifice…

  97. says

    I’m not praying, but my THOUGHTS are with Lieutenant Dan Choi, dismissed yesterday from the New York National Guard for publicly coming out as gay and breaking the inhumane, immoral, unconstitutional Don’t Ask Don’t Tell regulation, that the Obama administration should be repealing. A regulation, promoted by fanatics like Dobson’s lunatic organization.

    Amen to that. (Metaphorically, of course.)

    In the UK we legalised homosexuality in the military in 2000, and there has been no negative impact whatsoever on operational effectiveness – therefore debunking the notion that there’s any coherent secular rationale for retaining DADT in the US.

  98. Levi in NY says

    If we can push the total votes to somewhere in the 8000s, then “yes” will be in the single digits.

    Currently at 12% yes, 88% no, 1% don’t know.

  99. 386sx says

    Wait a second…102%?

    Maybe it’s possible to have 100% no!

    I don’t usually go in for these things, but since today is a holiday…

  100. Holbach says

    88% in reason’s favor.

    Join you in prayer? No, I’ll be puking in your favor. Moron.

  101. JackC says

    “Fuck Off” is not an option :-(

    88% no when I voted.

    Dammit – I was supposed to give blod for the National Day of Reason today – but they changed the time and I can’t do it now. Another frownie face.

    JC

  102. sasqwatch says

    The denominator wasn’t going up fast enough for me. I’ve seen some startling Pharyngulations before, but this one seemed a little sluggish. So I’m kicking it in the butt. My peer group here in Colo. Spgs. colorfully refers to their organization as “Focus on the F@gg@ts”, as this is their special interest over all other special interests. I really have it out for these guys, in other words.

    So a nice, intuitive elementary science lesson plan could include a reference to Pharyngulation… like… if a single computer can vote NO 45 times a minute, how long will it take the counter to get to 10,000? And for extra credit, calculate the probability that a Focus system administrator figures out what’s going on before the 10,000 is reached.

    BTW, when I started, the denominator was at about 5630.

  106. sasqwatch says

    The macro I’m using doesn’t bother with the “clear” command, and works fine without the second navigation. Updated macro. (hint, hint)… imagine what 100 of these things running at the same time could do… hint, hint..

    streamlined version, for speed:

    VERSION BUILD=6210326 RECORDER=FX
    TAB T=1
    URL GOTO=http://www.focusonthefamily.com/
    TAG POS=1 TYPE=IMG ATTR=ID:radioImage646e47a1-dda6-4ec4-8e83-ef948ec87742
    TAG POS=1 TYPE=A ATTR=TXT:Submit>>

  107. Michelle R says

    How dare they put their national prayer day on my national fart day?

    Christians, stealing holidays again…!

  110. «bønez_brigade» says

    Nein!

    Current percentages:
    Yes 11%
    No 90%
    Derrr 1%

    That’s right, 102%

    BTW, the FotF fuckers tried to open a goddamn pop, but FF3 said no!

  111. jj says

    Instead of National Prayer Day I celebrated Have a Root Canal Day

    Hm, I celebrated that day on Tuesday, and then again in two weeks. I’d disagree, Nitrous can make it way more fun than praying…

  112. Yossarian says

    May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. Will you join us in prayer on Thursday?
    Yes 11%
    No 90%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 7450

    90% !!!

  113. Anonymous says

    Michelle R:

    How dare they put their national prayer day on my national fart day?

    Hang on… there’s a fundamental problem here. I surmise from your name that you are probably female. And, as EVERYONE knows, women do not fart. Ever. It does not happen.

  114. astrounit says

    NO.

    Prayer is the refuge sought by those who BELIEVE NOTHING ELSE THEY CAN EVER DO can make a goddamned bit of difference.

    In other words, it is the practice of choice for the worthlessly incompetent.

  115. omc says

    I thought today was the day to celebrate LA Dodger steroid day.
    Guess I was wrong. Prayer day, it doesn’t appear on my calendar. WTF?

  117. Janine, OMnivore says

    And, as EVERYONE knows, women do not fart. Ever. It does not happen.

    And Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, did not have legs.

  119. says

    I did participate today. Most of the morning even, sometimes silently, sometimes with my fist in the air. My speakers were going the whole time, too, it wouldn’t complete without it.

    Doesn’t everyone get in on the National Day Of Slayer?

  121. Qwerty says

    No is now at 90%. With the numbers now reversed this pointless poll is now pointless.

  122. Barbara_K says

    Though it’s a standard term for survey submissions, considering the nature of FOTF I did hesitate a bit when it came to clicking on “submit”.

  124. Aenthropi says

    I just visited, and it seems I tipped it to 91% with my vote, but look at these results:

    May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. Will you join us in prayer on Thursday?
    Yes 10%
    No 91%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 8249

    102 per cent! We crashed the hell out of that poll.

  125. Cambrico says

    I voted and it was “No 91%”. PZ really moves the masses.
    We atheists are going to hell… where all the Playboy girls will be send… for an eternity…
    Hey, you don’t have any other ludicrous religious page where we can vote and get more points for our eternal damnation?

  126. mus says

    Hmm…. Right now the percentages are 10, 91, and 1. That gives you 102%. Obviously it’s a rounding issue, but how is that even possible? At first I thought all three were .5, but that gives you 100.5…

    So what is it, am I stupid and don’t understand math, or are THEY stupid and don’t understand how to round?

  128. sasqwatch says

    Taste the vengeance, yay, the smitefulliciousness of Lord God King iMacro. All faithful who look on the face of the counter, weep, gnash yer fangs, and beat your titties in anguish. For I have come to mash yer little shoe-in pat answer to the realm of the low single-digits. And with that utterance, He found that he could open a MULTITUDE of robot browser windows — on a single machine — each one running his perfectly-designed hell-no macro. And he saw the counter skyrocket and said, “that is good”.

  129. Prosthetic Head says

    Yes 9%
    No 91%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 8825

    lol – when do you think they will take it down or change it?

  130. Bone Oboe says

    Yes 9%
    No 91%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 8525

    That’s looking a lot better now.

    Damn, I’m glad a scanned back up through the comments to see that Janine the OMnivore has already taken the high Waits road.

  131. Die Anyway says

    Growing like Topsy:
    Yes 9%
    No 92%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Pharyngulation 9149

  133. sammywol says

    Actually … does yelling ‘Jesus Fucking Christ the Traffic!’ count as prayer? Ah well, I doubt they’ll be after me for perjuring myself and I could always count it more of an involuntary invocation anyway.

  134. itzac says

    A bunch of us canucks in Edmonton are donating blood in solidarity with our secular neighbors to the south.

  135. Xenithrys says

    While you’re at Dobson’s crappy site, read (if you can bear it) the article “To kiss or not to kiss” and its comments. There’s a group called the “Virgin Lips” movement — seriously. They’ll be making women wear burkhas next.

  136. landrew says

    Since the poll recognizes 102% of the sample, is the goal now to have to 100% of respondents vote no?
    yes = 1%
    idk = 1%
    No = 100%

  137. Don says

    Of all the polls I have ever voted in, I enjoyed voting no in that one more than any other.

  138. Alex says

    And Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, did not have legs.

    Janine, I did not know that. How utterly sad. Poor gal.

  139. BKE says

    Our prayers have been answered:

    Yes 8%
    No 93%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 10737

  140. Alex says

    This all feels so sinister…I love it!

    *wrings hands while hunching with a sneering smile*

    Muahahahahahahaha

  142. sasqwatch says

    I think it’d be really nice if the sysadmin at Focus could see how many of the votes are coming out of his home town of Colo. Spgs. I think my one laptop is logging about 200 a minute (four Firefox windows voting like mad… took maybe a minute to set up), with minimal loss of performance on my DSL connection or CPU. I’ll have to help Pharyngulate more often. This is easier than I thought. And it’s the right thing to do, too.

  145. Ciara says

    Time to pray…pray for lower gas prices, pray for a good math score, pray that I get laid tonight, pray that pita jungle won’t be out of rice pudding, and the obligatory…world peace. Yep.

  146. Alex says

    Idea:

    PZ should have a gallery link here where all of the crashed polls can be showcased as screenshots. Kind of like mounting big-game trophies on the wall. Actually, it’s more like collecting useless chachkis from annoying vendors, but at least some are novel and fun to look at.

  147. Anonymous says

    So here are the latest numbers:
    Yes 8%
    No 93%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 10834
    And I told my colleagues over at Democratic Underground about the poll.
    They’re having fun too.

  149. says

    I’d planned on sacrificing a goat over an alter of fire while my satanic followers committed lewd acts of sexual deviancy around it.

  150. «bønez_brigade» says

    @mus [#125],

    So what is it, am I stupid and don’t understand math, or are THEY stupid and don’t understand how to round?

    C’mon, we’re talking about FotF, here. IOW, the latter.

  151. kamaka says

    Hahaha…

    For fun I went to vote and NO is just KILLING the poll!

    Very funny shit.

    Poor Dobson

    Poor he ain’t. Another Thief for Jesus™

  152. «bønez_brigade» says

    @landrew [#136],

    Since the poll recognizes 102% of the sample, is the goal now to have to 100% of respondents vote no?

    Hey, this is the chance for which we’ve waited. *blows Horn of Pharyngulor* To 100%!

  154. sasqwatch says

    I’m praying that Focus loses their tax-exempt status… and lying about it 40,000 times.

  155. Anonymous says

    Posted by: Elwood Herring | May 7, 2009 12:45 PM

    What would happen if I pray that my prayer is not granted?

    Lesson one in How to Confuse God With Logic.

    Thou shalt not divide by zero.

  157. Chuck says

    The MSNBC poll about God on the money should definately be crashed. This is an obscene violation of the Constitution. Once in a while, I pull all the bills out of my wallet, get a permanent marker, and black out the unconstitutional line, “In God We Trust.” It was put there simply for Christians to feel good about themselves. It says nothing of substance. It doesn’t say anything about morality, or theology, or even religion. It simply is an example of the government worshiping God for us; “acknowledging” Him. It is what theocons want to do all the time – it is why they put Ten Commandments monuments at courthouses. It is completely masturbatory.

    Join me in blotting the phrase off our paper money! Sometimes civil disobedience is called for. Yeah, I am breaking a federal statute in defacing money, but the government is breaking the federal Constitution. One crime is greater than the other.

  159. Tezcatlipoca says

    Hmmm, was it wrong to start giggling like a maniac when I clicked “no”?

  160. ChrisKG says

    Reading that tripe over at FotF makes me wonder if they are actually insane. They have such nutty forum topics like
    “Son Hiding” (what the hell does that mean?), “Healthy Sexuality” and the “New Pastor’s Wife” (sounds like a porno).

    I was just waiting to find an article called “suck it for Jesus: a guide to a happy marriage”…maybe I should trademark that?

  161. SteveM says

    What a weird coincidence. On the Dobson site there is a thumbnail photo of a woman in the “Feedback” section. This is almost the same photo, and definitely the same woman (she’s even wearing the same clothes) as “Rachel Thompson” from that kook “Obama is the Antichrist” site http://www.antichristidentity.com/

  164. rhbourdeau says

    Anyone notice that the RaptureIndex is at 165? That’s the redzone, like Red Alert. I’m looking around at who all is missing……. This is terrifying.

  165. says

    It seems President Obama agrees with you. He’s not having a day of prayer at the whitehouse. See the poll about it.

    Should the president celebrate National Prayer Day?

    Yes, prayer should always be promoted and celebrated.
    74% 22609
    No, the government has no role discussing prayer.
    25% 7608
    As long as he’s praying about sports, it’s fine.
    1% 191
    Notes on Poll Results
    Total Votes:30,408

  168. landrew says

    @bønez_brigade #152

    “Hey, this is the chance for which we’ve waited. *blows Horn of Pharyngulor* To 100%!”

    I could be wrong but I think it will take a total of over 85,000 NO votes to get to 100%

    The following estimates are based no new yes and idk votes and reducing “yes” down to 1%, where the final result would read 1%=yes, 1%=idk and 100%=NO

    Yes….All Votes
    6%…..14,269
    5%…..17,123
    4%…..21,404
    3%…..28,538
    2%…..42,807
    1%…..85,614

    But I have noticed that this poll sometimes recognizes only 101% of the sample, so it’s still doable.

  169. bobxxxx says

    95% NO.

    focusonthefamily

    Christians have made the word “family” into another word for bullshit.

  171. Janine, OMnivore says

    Posted by: Bone Oboe | May 7, 2009

    Damn, I’m glad a scanned back up through the comments to see that Janine the OMnivore has already taken the high Waits road.

    By definition, all roads taken by Waits are low.

  172. sasqwatch says

    Thanks for the link to the asylum poll. How atrocious.

    Good thing it’s so easy to make a macro to vote a million times on this one, too. Also requires no cookie cleaning or cache dumping. With a single iMacros Firefox plug-in and this code you could… dare i say it… rule the world!

    VERSION BUILD=6210326 RECORDER=FX
    TAB T=1
    URL GOTO=http://www.asylum.com/2009/05/06/obama-nixes-national-prayer-day-event/?icid=main|main|dl5|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.asylum.com%2F2009%2F05%2F06%2Fobama-nixes-national-prayer-day-event%2F
    FRAME F=3
    TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:RADIO FORM=NAME:JPOLLFORM ATTR=NAME:vote261910&&VALUE:1022891

    heh, heh, heh…

  173. hje says

    An aside: The Burning Man 2009 art theme is “Evolution.” Woo hoo!

    “Nature never made a plan, nor does it seem to copy very well. No living thing is ever quite the same as others of its kind. Charles Darwin called this Natural Variation. There is a kind of subtle chaos, a supple element of chance and change, residing at the core of living things. Our theme this year prompts three related questions: What are we as human beings, where have we come from, and how may we adapt to meet an ever-changing world?”

    http://www.burningman.com/

  176. says

    Poll is the same as last reported two comments above mine, except the vote total now well over 17,000. Bahahahahaha!

  178. mfheadcase says

    May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. Will you join us in prayer on Thursday?

    Yes 5%
    No 96%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 18030

    Bwa ha ha! Gotta love their math skills.

  179. Jane says

    It’s finals week at the University of Georgia. I’m grading; the students might be praying. :-)

  180. Just Plain Cliff says

    The only thing worse than doing nothing is doing something that will result in nothing.

  182. says

    @#102: “Focus on the F@gg@ts” in Colorado Springs? or “Focus on the F@gg@ts” all over the world? Sounds like the atmosphere at your place of work is intolerable, intolerant…whatever. It’s bad. What do these guys do?

  183. Cerberus says

    But will there be cake?

    They might have cake and then I’d miss it.

    Seriously, though Dobson is one of the most loathsome creatures to have emerged from the swamp. Your tears taste like candy Dobby Boy, please let us have reason to cause more of them before your heart finally clogs.

  184. Alex says

    The only thing worse than doing nothing is praying. doing something that will result in nothing.

    Just to be crystal clear about it.

  186. says

    May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. Will you join us in prayer on Thursday?

    Yes 5%
    No 96%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 20294

    That kicks a$$!

  188. Derek says

    over 90% no… This is one of the many reasons I love this place. The internet poll jacking…

    We do it for the lulz.

  189. GLaDOS says

    There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I invited your best friend the companion cube. Of course, he couldn’t come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn’t come either because you don’t have any other friends, because of how unlikable you are. It says so here in your personnel file: Unlikable. Liked by no one. A bitter, unlikable loner whose passing shall not be mourned. ‘Shall not be mourned.’ That’s exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official. It also says you were adopted. So that’s funny, too.

    Have I lied to you?

    I mean, in this room?

  191. Jake says

    Silva #15 – I just passed the three gallon mark with the Red Cross. If some good O+ saves someone’s life, they can thank an atheist.

  192. MosesZD says

    May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. Will you join us in prayer on Thursday?

    Yes 4%
    No 97%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 21869

    Well and truly freeped.

  195. bunnycatch3r says

    @182 is the word F@gg@t even a pejorative anymore? Or is it a matter of tone?

  196. GeoffR says

    97%… Kewl! Dobson probably thinks Satan is voting down his poll.

    Hmmm in a way he’s right…. seeing as how they have the strange belief evident from that appalling video clip in an earlier item, that if someone is not worshipping God, they must be worshipping Satan.

  197. daveau says

    97%! We’re almost there!

    If we keep creeping half the distance to 100% every five minutes, how long will it take until we get there?

  198. shonny says

    May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. Will you join us in prayer on Thursday?
    Yes 4%
    No 97%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 23097

    Total 102%?
    But at least there is the occasional NO vote :^)

  199. says

    Still 97%, out of 23,086.

    Do we really have a 22,393 pharyngulation? Script base “vote” fraud? Excellent! Too much work for me, but I’ll add another one when I get home.

  200. 386sx says

    If we keep creeping half the distance to 100% every five minutes, how long will it take until we get there?

    This looks like one of those questions designed to make robot units self destruct or something.

  201. adobedragon says

    Mischief made.

    But, ugh. Now I need to scrub my browsers with bleach to rid them of the stench of Focus on the Anus.

  202. Brownian, OM says

    If we keep creeping half the distance to 100% every five minutes, how long will it take until we get there?

    I usually rely on our own Mollied commenter Zeno to answer questions like these, but it takes him forever to get to it.

  203. sasqwatch says

    F@gg@t is pejorative, but also a matter of tone… also one of context.

    The place where I worked, when it existed, had a massive
    case of gallows humor. The use of the word, in this context,
    was a parody of the mindset that exists at Focus. Using any
    other word wouldn’t really make sense, either
    as alliteration or as a parody of how these people think.

    Not a gay male, myself… but this was a common moniker
    applied to Focus by many in the gay scene here. They knew
    the background: that Focus was responsible for our hideous
    “Amendment 2” more than 10 years back… which caused a hell
    of a lot of backlash and boycotts of Colorado Ski areas.
    All that damage was caused by the twerps here in El Paso County Colorado, by Focus on the F@gg@ts. That’s what the
    focus of their legislation was on… gay rights.

    It’s also another reason why they should not get tax breaks: their political meddling. They also have a huge bookstore that sells a lot more than religious tracts – and at lower prices, because they don’t have to pay taxes. They are a blight on our community.

  205. Denis says

    Yes 4%
    No 97%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 25159

    Bwahahahahahahaha!!!

  206. brett says

    I know the people who run the website aren’t math geniuses, but the percentages add up to 102 percent.

    GOOD TIMES

  207. sangfroid says

    Aww, goddammit. Why does the National Day of Prayer have to be on my birthday?

  208. says

    “Attention:

    This poll is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those Internet users who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole.”
    At least they admit the poll is pointless

  209. sasqwatch says

    So… earlier today, I predicted that their pet-answer would end up in the low single-digits. And lo, it has come to pass. I guess that makes me a prophet?

  210. RMM Barrie says

    SteveM @161

    definitely the same woman (she’s even wearing the same clothes) as “Rachel Thompson”

    But did you see what she said: “there is so much information in the report that for nearly a week my husband got no attention”

  211. Primewonk says

    102%! WTF? I know fundies are pretty weak at the whole sciency thing, but wow!

  214. Olowkow says

    P.Z. rules! First the Tancredo/Matthews fiasco, now this.
    That made my day. Dobson is all “huh? WTF? devil? oh, I need to pray harder…oh my god…my followers??? where are you?”

  215. Olowkow says

    I helped them with their survey also. (!) Maybe someone else might want to enlighten them with their thoughts.

  216. icusmiling says

    I’m focusing on the Asylum poll, it needs a lot more help.
    BTW, the iMacros program rocks!!! Thanks!!!

  217. David Marjanović, OM says

    Yes 3%
    No 97%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 29648

    No idea why they made that poll in the first place. ~:-|

  218. Shel says

    Asylum poll definitely needs more help!

    Tip: Go here http://tinyurl.com/cju8qw
    Now just choose the “No” option and just click like mad; each time apparently counts, and you don’t have to refresh because the results load in a separate window.

  219. sasqwatch says

    You’re quite welcome. It’s a really sweet add-on. iMacros can have a bit of a learning curve, but for really simple tasks like this, it’s the way to go. Set it and forget it.

    Time to set a bunch of process up to zap the two other hideous polls… should only take a minute. Thnicker, thnicker.

  221. says

    98% at 30,237 votes!

    And internet polling is not pointless – it provides an opportunity for interest groups to have pissing contests.

    Where are all the fucking prayermongers? I mean, Jesus fucking Mohammed, d’you think that maybe FOTF just sits there not getting any cuckoo traffic? 600 fucking dimwits is all they’ve gotten all day?

  222. sasqwatch says

    that’s dangerous posting a tinyurl (without a preview) and asking others to click on it like mad. Not sound advice methinks.

    No need… also no need to click like mad. Just use software
    to automate the clicking. Web browser automation. It can click
    a lot faster than you can, anyway.

    …and pretty soon they’ll be… ( *gasp!* ) using countermeasures. Another prophecy. We have been warned… all web polls belong to robots.

  225. sasqwatch says

    Thanks Shel — I followed the tinyurl, which was a brilliant way to load only the poll frame. Makes it LOTS faster in an iMacro macro, which I post, for all who want to crash the Asylum poll efficiently (Shel’s URL is in the code below)

    VERSION BUILD=6210326 RECORDER=FX
    TAB T=1
    TAB CLOSEALLOTHERS
    URL GOTO=http://webcenter.polls.aol.com/modular.jsp?template=1721&view=167890&pollId=168177&channel=aol_us_asylum&popup=yes
    TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:RADIO FORM=NAME:JPOLLFORM ATTR=NAME:vote261910&&VALUE:1022891
    TAG POS=1 TYPE=A ATTR=TXT:Vote

    That bit of code seems to work fine in my Firefox,
    set to repeat as fast as it can. It just boogies.
    And it’s possible to run about 4-5 of these things
    in the background easily.

  227. Chris says

    Right now it’s 98% NO, 3% YES, and 1% at I don’t know…that’s 102% voting? Math fail

  230. David Marjanović, OM says

    Here is another classic “In God We Trust” poll at msnbc.com:

    Should the motto “In God We Trust” be removed from U.S. currency?

    Every few weeks, some moron comes and posts a link to that poll. It’s got fourteen million three hundred fifty-five thousand eight hundred fifty-three votes as of this writing (not submitting).

    Forget about it already!!!

    Sorry for going all nothing’s sacred over this, but the first thing to do when you see a stupid poll is to have a look at the number of votes so you can see if it’s pharyngulatable. Yes, I know that number is in light gray in this case and may therefore be poorly visible on your screen. Boo-fucking-hoo. You still had to expect that number to be shown somewhere somehow, so you still had to look for it, and then you’d have found it.

    (If you feel like programming a votebot that adds twice the population of the USA to that poll, fine, but then why post a link for manual pharyngulation?)

    ========================

    Back to the topics.

    Yes 3%
    No 98%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 33497

    Should the president celebrate National Prayer Day?
    Yes, prayer should always be promoted and celebrated.
    63% 40678
    No, the government has no role discussing prayer.
    36% 23102
    As long as he’s praying about sports, it’s fine.
    1% 550
    Total Votes:64,330

  231. David Marjanović, OM says

    Lets see if it goes all the way to 102% NO.

    It can’t, because they only round up. Nothing can get below 1 %, which means that nothing can go above 100 % either.

  232. xog457 says

    May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. Will you join us in prayer on Thursday?
    Yes 3%
    No 98%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 33781

    You think they’ll notice soon?

  233. David Marjanović, OM says

    Where are all the fucking prayermongers? I mean, Jesus fucking Mohammed,

    :-D :-D :-D

    d’you think that maybe FOTF just sits there not getting any cuckoo traffic? 600 fucking dimwits is all they’ve gotten all day?

    Of course.

    Remember the first poll that was ever pharyngulated? Turned out there are only nine hundred cdesign proponentsists on teh whole wide intarwebz.

    Sorry, full URL was [deleted to avoid moderation] which seemed a bit unwieldy.

    You can use HTML here, you know. <a href=”complete URL here, http and all“>This</a> translates into this.

  234. Anonymous says

    Shel @ 218 said “Tip: Go here http://tinyurl.com/cju8qw
    Now just choose the “No” option and just click like mad; each time apparently counts, and you don’t have to refresh because the results load in a separate window.”

    So, do I send the bill for a new mouse to you? Never blown a clicker before!

  235. says

    Here are two reasons why the big sky daddy is not answering prayers…

    I heard he just didn’t want any more of the the tin horn ones.

    (But then, I expect that covers most of ’em, at least.)

  236. David Marjanović, OM says

    It starts working.

    Should the president celebrate National Prayer Day?
    Yes, prayer should always be promoted and celebrated.
    60% 42000
    No, the government has no role discussing prayer.
    39% 27207
    As long as he’s praying about sports, it’s fine.
    1% 568
    Total Votes:69,775

  237. David Marjanović, OM says

    Actually, that should be “it starts to work”… stupidsuperfluous gerund…

    Yes 3%
    No 98%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 34479

  238. DethB4DCaf says

    Current statistics:

    May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. Will you join us in prayer on Thursday?
    Yes 3%
    No 98%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 34610

    Come on now — you can help drop those last 3%! Vote now! Vote often!

  239. Crudely Wrott says

    Whoooa! I just voted NO and was informed that I was with 98% of respondents.

    Holy Mutthead, Mackerel! We not only Pharyngulated the poll, we everted it!

  240. Heather says

    While I certainly appreciate the direction the poll has gone in, methinks FotF cannot add:

    Yes 3%
    No 98%
    I don’t know. 1%

    So…102%?

  241. Leander says

    What does prayer mean ? Does it mean that you have to believe, against what your common sense tells you, in things that are not proven true ? No. Prayer is a

    form of expressing thought, emotions, desires etc. Now some people who do so believe in spite of absent evidence that some deity is gonna hear that prayer

    and answer it. Some people just don’t give a damn about that and are okay with the fact that they might be a bundle of materialistic processes which are not

    relating in any way to anything that could be dubbed supernatural. Yet they choose, in the face of the suffering and misery that pervades our world, to

    express the wish that things might get better. It doesn’t have anything to do with irrational beliefs that you dread like a Christian priest does the devil,

    but simply acting in accordance with what human creatures are…beings who express their fears and dreams, and them trying to make them reality.

    Being someone who doesn’t subscribe to believe in any deity, I can see and support the belief in rationality that underlies your post, yet I can also see the

    power of poetic expression that underlies prayer, and that it doesn’t necessarily imply irrationality – but rather the ability to empathize with billions of

    genetically related organisms, and the ability to not just function, but to hope beyond mere function. This is what kept us and will keep us going. a post

    like yours is just a sad display of a complete lack of understanding of the difference between irrationality and the way human beings deal, perfectly healthy, with the world.

  244. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    Leander, 1) show physical evidence your imaginary god exists, and 2) show prayer is statistically helpful compared to nothing with proper double blind studies.

  247. Badger3k says

    If it wasn’t for the FFRF podcast, I wouldn’t have known that today was the national day of superstitious utterances to nonexistent beings. They did play a clip of someone saying that Obama didn’t invite the evangelical fundie crowd to the whitehouse. Did he have the usual prayer meeting that Bush (and all the rest) did?

  248. Bone Oboe says

    Off topic, but I couldn’t wait for the next “open thread.”

    Just found this:

    An orchestra playing Metallica’s “Orion” from “Master of Puppets.”

    I’ve wanted to hear something like this for years.

  249. nick nick bobick says

    And tomorrow is the 69th of March, AKA National Outdoor Intercourse Day, or my favorite, “Why don’t we do it in the road Day”. Think Dobson will have another poll?

    I have found this site to be almost impossibly slow this week; anyone else having the same problem?

  250. strange gods before me says

    What the fuck is this?

    http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/effective_biblical_discipline/creative_discipline_ideas/messiness.aspx

    “Creative biblical discipline?!”

    These people are complete fucking fruitloops. They are stark raving insane. They’re not only a few sandwiches short of a picnic, they forgot the picnic basket as well.

    *gasp* Walton! These people are your coalition allies! How can you speak so dismissively of them?

    James Dobson is the foremost theocrat in the Republican party. They can’t win without him.

  251. strange gods before me says

    yet I can also see the power of poetic expression that underlies prayer,

    Yeah, because there’s never been a poet who was an atheist.

    What a righteous asshole you are.

  254. Craig E. says

    9:52 eastern:

    Yes 3%
    No 98%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 37680

    Wait… that’s 102% !?!?

  255. says

    I can see and support the belief in rationality that underlies your post, yet I can also see the

    power of poetic expression that underlies prayer, and that it doesn’t necessarily imply irrationality – but rather the ability to empathize with billions of

    genetically related organisms, and the ability to not just function, but to hope beyond mere function.

    Sure poetry is one thing. Believing that poetry has some ability to affect the world beyond an appreciation of poetry, is another. A very irrational and unsupported by anything “other”.

  257. 'Tis Himself says

    Don’t hold back, Rev BDC, tell us how you really feel about the great thing that the Science Blog techies have done for us.

  258. says

    Hang on, be specific — what do you hate? We just had this system wide clean up of the templates, and a bunch of server problems, and I was waiting for everything to settle down before digging into my custom templates and restoring a bunch of stuff.

    So lay it on the line — I may actually have some time this weekend to clean up the differences.

  261. MadScientist says

    OK, so far it’s something like:

    3% Yes
    88% No

    on over 33000 votes.

    I was just thinking about methods for un-Pharyngulating a poll. The best I can come up with is that Church X would have to say “Hey, you know all those other hellbound satanic xian cults I tell you about every sunday? Well, they’re really not so bad; we need to be nice to them so they’ll join our internet polls and click on the answers we’d like to hear”. Another option of course is to make the script so that it takes all unwanted votes and allocates, say, 99% of those votes to the favored response.

  263. says

    I don’t like the way it does block quoting mainly.

    See how it indented some of my blockquote above and not all?

    Then up above that ‘Tis’ block quoting is not indented, just with the bar.

    Some times it will indent the bar and blockquote and the next non-blockquoted text is pushed far to the left. Farther than if you just had regular text. Check comment #150

    It seems to apply indention in what seems like an arbitrary way… constantly, when blockquoting.

    Now if is it something that I’m doing then I’ll direct my hate inwards, but it seems to be an issue that pops up fairly frequently since the change.

    I was going to complain about how slow it was running but that seems to be cleared up.

    ok rant off.

  265. 386sx says

    Test…

    This line should be okay.

    This line is supposed to be okay, but it isn’t because it gets indented and the font gets bigger.

    That’s what happens if you put empty lines inside blockquote tags for some reason.

  266. Sven DiMilo says

    Sample block-quote

    Return before text following block-quote.

    Sample block-quote

    Text follows block-quote on same line, without space or return.

    Sample block-quote

    Double return–blank line between block-quote and following text

    Sample block-quote

    Text follows block-quote on same line but with a space between.

  268. 386sx says

    Test…

    This line should be okay.

    This line is supposed to be okay, but it isn’t because it gets indented and the font gets bigger.

    That’s what happens if you put empty lines inside blockquote tags for some reason.

  270. 386sx says

    On that first test I had a blank empty line right after the blockquote tag. On the second one I didn’t.

    Even if they fixed that, I still liked it the old way. The way it used to be…

    back in teh oldie days…

  271. says

    Sven’s post demonstrates the issues quite well.

    But even if the strange indentions were fixed, I just don’t like the way that the blockquoted text isn’t set in more like it used to be.

  275. MaleficVTwin says

    Yes: 3%

    No: 98%

    Don’t know: 1%

    Still adds to 102%, but this poll is finished. Stick a fork in it. :)

  276. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    I would like to see the names a little bigger, like it was, which would make it easier to avoid certain posters.

  277. Owlmirror says

    As I pointed out before (PZ, did you see my e-mail?), the alignment problem arises because of two things:

    The new core.css has this line:

    div#comments p {margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 28px;}

    So that all comments that are in <p> tags are indented (unless an explicit “margin-left:0px” is given, which we can do, and PZ could put into his custom css file) such that the text lines up to the same degree as blockquoted text (this is ugly and confusing).

    The other part of the problem, though, is that not all text is placed into <p> tags — it’s just text within the comment <div> container itself. This results in inconsistent indentation, and sometimes looks like following text that is indented is blockquoted, when it’s not — it’s just text within a <p> tag, with the 28px indentation.

    And I repeat my suggestion from my e-mail: I think it would be a good idea if the default CSS for Scienceblogs was the same as PZ’s Pharyngula CSS. The default font is small and can be irritating to read, and I think the way Pharyngula does numbering, on the right, looks better than the light gray numbers that they have added for comments on the left as the default. I also think that name-before signing of comments is better than name-after.

    Oh, and as I suggested: We could have a poll as to what people thinks looks best! Win-win-win!!

    (*evil grin*)

  279. Physicalist says

    FWIW: I also find it mildly irksome that the shading of the even-numbered posts extends beyond the text to the left. It gives a zig-zaggy feel to the comments, and I’m a linear sort of guy.

  280. 386sx says

    So the first paragraph in a blockquote doesn’t get a <p> tag, but the other paragraphs do. Unless you put a newline before the first paragrah, then it gets a <p> tag too. (Anything after a newline gets a <p> tag.)

  281. 386sx says

    386sx wrote:

    So the first paragraph in a blockquote doesn’t get a

    tag, but the other paragraphs do. Unless you put a newline before the first paragrah, then it gets a

    tag too. (Anything after a newline gets a

    tag.)

    Anything after an empty line, that is. If it’s in a blockquote.

  283. Physicalist says 

    I guess my complaint about the even-number shading for the comments is
     related to the general indenting problem.

    If everything were shifted to the left, the text would be in line with
     the shading, and would scan more easily.

  285. Owlmirror says

    To not indent your text, use this:

    <p style="margin-left:0px">Unindented text

    should appear as:

    Unindented text

    Yes, it’s a pain.

  286. Physicalist says

    blockquote

    So, after a blockquote, you get all the way to the left margin, where you belong.

    But then with a couple returns, you’re indented again (I’m guessing). (Probably this is what owlmirror was saying, but I was too lazy to read his post . . .)

  287. Physicalist says

    Let’s give it a try (not that I doubt the wisdom of the owl, or of the mirror).

    Now we just have to get all commenters to include the tag, and we’re golden!

  294. sasqwatch says

    The Asylum poll is now neck and neck… I threw a shitload more NOs at that one, putting the good guys over. Good show folks… another poll got to 50/50, and the volume is some 90,000 votes. You’ve all added about 30,000 votes in maybe 6 hours or so.

    I think I’ll let the robots go all night and see if this sucker can’t get pushed into reality-land.

    No, the government has no role discussing prayer.
    50%
    48119

    Yes, prayer should always be promoted and celebrated.
    49%
    48093

    As long as he’s praying about sports, it’s fine.
    1%
    962

    Total Votes: 97,174

  295. axeonos says

    I find it funny that I can’t even vote no anymore. it just keeps refreshing the page. Even when requesting results.

    Lol.

  297. sasqwatch says

    Can’t get a fix on the Asylum poll, because I have way too many processes slamming it at the same time. 10 at the moment, each of which is cranking about 2 votes per second.

    iMacros is cool.

    Anyway, time to get some sleep… but if this thread hasn’t dried up by tomorrow am, someone please check the Asylum poll bright and early, just to see what kind of damage we’re talking about. A rough guess says a couple hours of this should add another 100,000-150,000 votes, making the estimated tally by 6:30am about… oh…
    350,000 nays to 50,000 yays. (about 86% No, 14% Yes).

    If only popular opinion was this easy to change.

    again… the macro I’m using, which is kicking butt fast:

    VERSION BUILD=6210326 RECORDER=FX
    TAB T=1
    URL GOTO=http://webcenter.polls.aol.com/modular.jsp?template=1721&view=167890&pollId=168177&channel=aol_us_asylum&popup=yes
    TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:RADIO FORM=NAME:JPOLLFORM ATTR=NAME:vote261910&&VALUE:1022891
    TAG POS=1 TYPE=A ATTR=TXT:Vote

  298. marki says

    As above commented, iMacro is good for this. Takes 2 mins to install and it’s easy to record a macro then replay. I’ve set my browser to cycle 99,999 times in the background. It takes 3 seconds to cycle through a vote.

    Hoping we can nudge it to 99% before they realize what’s going on.

    Infantile but curiously funny.

  299. Anonymous says

    #298

    Hoping we can nudge it to 99% before they realize what’s going on.

    Infantile but curiously funny.

    99% No
    2% yes
    1% dont know!

    Certainly infantile glee…but I would love to see Dobson’s pout when he sees it!

  301. Steve Jeffers says

    Am I the only person wondering how this poll started with a total of 101% and is now at 103%?

  302. says

    And, as EVERYONE knows, women do not fart. Ever. It does not happen.

    I would have to agree with this statement.

  303. Brian says

    May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. Will you join us in prayer on Thursday?
    Yes 2%
    No 99%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 54737

    AWESOME!

  304. says

    It looks like the voting is finally closed:

    May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. Will you join us in prayer on Thursday?
    Yes 2%
    No 99%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 54841

    Nice.

  307. Matthew B says

    Still open:

    Yes 2%
    No 99%
    I don’t know. 1%
    Total Votes 56226

    But, um: 99 + 2 + 1 = ?

  309. The obvious says

    So everybody knows what’s going on with the 102% thing, right? I am probably saying what everybody already knows, but just in case: They are just rounding everything up, no matter what. So something like 0.1% said “I don’t know” (rounded up to 1%), something like 98.4% said “No” (rounded up to 99%) and something like 1.5% said “Yes” (rounded up to 2%).

  310. bastion of sass says

    Walton @ #94

    What the fuck is this?

    ….

    “Creative biblical discipline?!”

    It’s kinky sex play involving enactment of some of the biblical scenes of God’s rules and punishments. Only for the not-faint-of-heart.

  311. says

    Holy shit that Virgin Lips thing is totally freaking me out. I love kissing! And I am perfectly happy with my life and relationship. I don’t regret anything I did previously with other men.

  312. BGT says

    What I find amusing is that they evidently haven’t noticed the poll crash yet. I was hoping they would do the usual posting of over the top outrage against their perceived persecution.

  314. sasqwatch says

    …just shut my widdle macrobots down & took a look at the damage on the Asylum poll. Only got about 100,000 votes in since sleepsy-byes.

    No, the government has no role discussing prayer.
    71% 131115

    Yes, prayer should always be promoted and celebrated.
    29% 53551

    As long as he’s praying about sports, it’s fine.
    0% 1032

    Total Votes: 185,698

    Not quite as devastating as I thought. I bet the process slowed as the eastern seaboard of the USA woke up and traffic increased. Still pretty impressive.
    I could tell I was the only Pharyngulator late last night, and not sure what help I had in the wee hours after that. No way to tell for sure how many votes I tallied (I forgot to jot down the counter values before putting the bots to bed), but am guessing I put on a good 95,000 over the course of about 6 hours.

    This means, even the stupid aforementioned poll with a denominator of 14 million could be Pharyngulated with a bit of coordinated effort. A rough calculation estimates about 150x last night’s personal effort could double that denominator.

    For it is written:

    No man will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.

    Deuteronomy 11:25

  316. marki says

    The “Focus on Phobias” poll has been pulled so I’m running a macro on the asylum link above ^^

  318. sasqwatch says

    71% 137031
    29% 56135
    0% 1069
    100% 194,235

    not running any bots myself, at the moment… a bit busy… will join the fray soon.

  319. Christi says

    I wonder how many kid raised on the parental advice in “The Strong-Willed Child” are praying that their parents will quit beating them?

  320. Thunderbird5 says

    I asked my dear neighbour and friend (a socialist Quaker who drove ambulances through the London Blitz) about Prayer Day. She’d never heard of it but when I asked for an example of her subjects for godly entreaty she did let on that – on the (now rare) occasions she does pray – they invariably consist of pleas that xtians like Dobson and his ilk would STFU and GTFO.
    Then we went to the pub.

  321. shonny says

    Leander #241

    Why did Tim Minchin’s Storm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB_htqDCP-s come to mind reading your ‘thoughts’ on prayers?

    I’m becoming aware,
    That I’m staring,
    I’m like a rabbit suddenly trapped,
    In the headlights
    of vacuous crap.

    Storm. to her credit,
    Despite my derision,
    Keeps firing off clichés
    With startling precision,
    like a sniper using
    Bollocks for ammunition.

    —
    Getting my drift?

  322. James Sweet says

    New poll is up. Darn, we’ll never see the fabled 100%. heh…

    I happened to catch this article:

    http://www.focusonthefamily.com/midlife/adult_children/adult_children_and_parent_relationships/responding_in_love_to_an_adult_gay_child.aspx

    It all seems almost semi-reasonable, except that it occasionally throws in an assertion that homosexuality is immoral and/or dangerous. Still, for several paragraphs, I can say that if most anti-gay parents behaved like this, it would be a big improvement over the present circumstances.

    Then you get to the last paragraph where it tells you to call Love Won Out. Oops… Yeah, good idea, send your kids to a special camp where they can be taught whole new levels of shame, and emerge with a lifelong self-loathing and a newfound ability to lie (that is, if they don’t kill themselves first…)

    So yeah, FoF is still wholeheartedly evil.