Comments on: Who Ogles the Oglers?

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:02:16 +0000

I’m not an Obama supporter, and I still think this picture is awesome. My wife and I both agreed we would look, too. As long as he wasn’t staring, it’s a very natural thing to be distracted by beauty.

By: Ewe

Ewe — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:30:26 +0000

WF, sorry for being unclear. I read your comment to mean that the video is still indeterminate, rather than clearly absoloving Obama.

Sorry if that’s not what you meant either.

By: WF

WF — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:59:03 +0000

Wait, I didn’t mean to say that it’s clear that Obama is ogling there.

By: Ewe

Ewe — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:30:28 +0000

WF is completely right about this.

First of all, the picture is better than the video in this one respect: it clearly show the feet of both Obama and the woman behind him that he’s theoretically helping with her footing. All feet are planted.

Second, this doesn’t even rise the level of a faux pas. If a large, nice-looking bottom comes through your field of vision, your eyes will naturally track the “object” unless you specifically make an effort to control the reflex. Even the right-wing press isn’t outraged about this one. Hell, they think it makes him seem less effete and metrosexual.

Third, still photographs can be especially deceiving. This is a strange case in that the still shows one thing (the position of the feet) better than the video.

Finally, a sad little comment on human nature: this little non-controversy turns out to be an excellent projective test of people’s feelings about Obama. Despite point #2, it seems to be the case that Obama critics think he’s an ass-ogler (not that there’s anything wrong with that) while his legion of worshipful disciples are pretty sure he’s never had an impure thought in his life.

By: Sexy Time With Our Pundits and Political Figures Has Never Been So Bizarre « Around The Sphere

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:50:26 +0000

[...] #3: Julian Sanchez on Obama: A big part of the value of privacy is that it creates a space in which we’re not called [...]

By: Blar

Blar — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:26:32 +0000

This is similar to your concept of one-way hash arguments. In this case, it only takes a snippet of behavior to cast doubt on a person, while dispelling that doubt can require a much more extensive disclosure, with plenty of background information.

By: WF

WF — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:08:58 +0000

Unfortunately, the video doesn’t quite support the hypothesis that Obama is too busy grabbing the hand of another woman to check out this one. Otherwise it would be a pretty nice Gettier example.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:31:57 +0000

I’m with Sarko on this one.