The Yin Blog

I'm like Ike....?

According to this 50 question personality test, the U.S. President that I most resemble in personality is Dwight D. Eisenhower. Hmm. . . it turns out that I've been reading about Eisenhower lately because of the U-2 incident, and I do think that he's an underrated President, not unlike George H.W. Bush in many ways.

The test rates you on five categories: Extroversion, Openness, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism. It scored me as below average in extroversion, openness, and agreeableness; above average in conscientiousness; and low on neuroticism. That sounds about right, although I would've thought I'd be above average on agreeableness. Maybe I should go pick a fight with the test writers.

This is the really interesting part:

According to a study done by Jeffery J. Mondak, Ph.D., your scores indicate that you are:

• Likely to be skeptical of minorities and sexual deviants. [Not particularly accurate]

• More likely to be pro-life rather than pro-choice. [Complicated but inaccurate as a matter of policy]

• Likely to feel that any sensible person must start with the status quo.

• Likely to regard philosophical discussions a waste of time. [Um, hello, I work in the ivory tower!!!]

• Likely to pursue interests in the real world, rather than bury yourself in book knowledge. [Ditto]

• More likely to favor military intervention as a means of solving foreign policy problems. [I used to be partial to this view, but now I am a big fan of Star Trek's Prime Directive.]

• Less likely to think that international cooperation will solve foreign policy problems. [This is probably spot on.]

• More likely to take responsibility and to take an active interest in your community. [Somewhat right...]

• More likely to be patriotic and proud of your country. [Yeah, I guess so.]

• More likely to enjoy romantic fiction than the rest of the population. [WTF????]

• More likely to frequently change jobs and partners. [Nope]

• More likely to end up in jail or to get in trouble with the law. [Well, I got into the law, which is maybe close enough to in trouble with the law.]

• More likely to generally disagree with your immediate friends and family. [Am I disagreeable? I do seem to disagree with my dad's political views, which are best described as anti-libertarian.]

• More likely to stand your ground and push back against people who are hostile to you, or with whom you are in disagreement. [I'll blame law school for this.]

• More likely to support the use of capital punishment. [Only in two unique situations.]

• Less likely to take a favorable view of government welfare programs. [Possibly]

• More likely to enjoy fitness training and physical exercise. [BINGO!!!!]

• More likely to nurture a few select beliefs that you regard as settled in stone. [Yeah, I think this is right.]

• Less likely to flirt with harm and danger. [Um, yeah, this too.]

• Less likely to have insurance or to belong to a labor union. [I do have insurance, and not just employer-provided insurance.]

I'm in the MBA Middle (whatever that means)

Via Prof. Bainbridge is this political quiz, which rates me as:

Time for another of those "what political type are you?" quizzes

Via the Washington Post's The Fix, here's a Pew research quiz to identify your political type, with the categories of:

* Staunch Conservatives take extremely conservative positions on nearly all issues. They are highly engaged in politics and highly religious. (9%)

* Main Street Republicans are still conservative on most issues, but less so. They are less enamored of business than staunch conservatives and more supportive of government efforts to protect the environment. They also prefer a less aggressive foreign policy. (11%)

* Libertarians are secular and liberal on social issues but very critical of government and very supportive of business. They are more moderate on immigration than other Republican-oriented groups. (9%)

* Disaffecteds are financially stressed, pessimistic, and politically cynical. They lean Republican but break from the party on government support for the poor. They distrust both government and business and are skeptical about immigrants. (11%)

* Post-Moderns are very liberal on social issues and more supportive of government than libertarians. They support environmental and business regulations. They are more accepting of homosexuality than most Democrats and support immigration rights. However, they are conservative on racial issues and the social safety net. (13 %)

* New Coalition Democrats are highly religious and financially stressed. They support government generally but are divided on the size of the social safety net. They are racially diverse and pro-immigration, bu they are conservative on social issues. (10%)

* Hard-Pressed Democrats are blue-collar, financially stressed, and cynical about government but even more cynical about business. They are socially conservative, anti-immigration and very religious. They support environmental protection in general but fear the economic impact of new regulations. (13%)

* Solid Liberals are politically engaged, strongly pro-government and socially liberal. They support an expanded social safety net and are pro-immigration. They are not very religious. (14%)

* Bystanders are people who are ineligible to vote or uninterested in voting. They are racially diverse and lean Democratic in their views. (10%)

The quiz characterized me as Libertarian, which it describes as:

What They Believe

• Economically very conservative but moderate to liberal on social issues
• Highly critical of government
• Strongly pro-business
• Accepting of homosexuality
• Less religious than the average American
• Moderate views about immigrants compared to other GOP-oriented groups

Who They Are

• Strong Republican-orientation, though a majority identify as independents
• Affluent: 39% have incomes of $75,000 or more
• Two-thirds are male
• 85% are non-Hispanic whites
• About seven-in-ten (71%) have attended college
• About half as likely as the two strongest GOP groups to attend church weekly
• 56% use social networking sites
• 36% trade stocks

I don't know about "strong Republican-orientation . . . ." I did vote for my colleague Jim Huffman, who was the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Oregon in 2010, but the last Republican presidential candidate I voted for was George H.W. Bush in 1988 (my first Presidential election). There are a few other Republican candidates that I've thought highly of, like Tom Campbell (the incoming Dean of Chapman Law School), but for the most part, I'd say that as ridiculous as he is, Donald Trump would be less bad than most of the Republican presidential candidates like Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrinch, or Rick Santorum.

Also, "strongly pro-business" and "highly critical of government" go too far. I'm not of those capital-L Libertarians who would like to abolish most of the government, though I'm quite concerned about our state and federal governments' inability to restrain their debt and/or unfunded future liabilities to manageable levels.

My guess is that if the questions had permitted more nuance to the answers, instead of forcing you to pick one of two choices, I might have come closer to straddling the line between Libertarian and Post-Moderns.

This may explain things

I found this site that analyzes your writing and tells you who you write like. So I plugged in a few different pieces of writing. A couple of paragraphs from a symposium article comparing the Obama and Bush Administrations' on counterterrorism got this:

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

The first four paragraphs of some fiction writing got:

I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

The instructions page for my Criminal Procedure I exam resulted in:

I write like
Daniel Defoe

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

The beginning of the first exam question got:

I write like
Ernest Hemingway

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

A recommendation letter that I wrote for a student who wanted to transfer got:

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

But a rec letter for a different student came up as Cory Doctorow. Finally, part of my annual faculty activity report:

I write like
Arthur C. Clarke

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Another political rating test

Via Prof. Althouse, the test is here.  It rates you from 0 to 40, with 0 being as liberal as Jesse Jackson and 40 as conservative as Ronald Reagan.  (I'm not sure that those political figures accurately define the endpoints of the political spectrum, but I'll leave it to the testmakers to defend their choices.)

I scored . . . well, what would you guess that I scored?

I'm not really from Fresno

Via Prof. Bainbridge, another stupid Internet quiz. . . .  I guess my results indicate that those five years at Berkeley really did make something of an impact on me, relative to a total of 24 years in Los Angeles/Orange County.

Are You a Northern Or Southern Californian Your Result: You're One Confused Californian   Okay, so maybe you've been transferred around the state, but most likely you're just from Fresno.  I mean black beans and pinto, really, both are good. All you know is that you are proud to be from the state of fruits AND nuts, and your a little of both. :)
You're a Southern Californian
You're a Northern Californian
You Don't Know Cali
Are You a Northern Or Southern Californian

What kind of sports car would I be?

Via Profs. Althouse and Bainbridge, there's this test that vaguely reminds me of "My Mother, The Car."  (Not that I've ever seen that show; it aired before I was born, and I don't think it was syndicated in reruns, at least not when I was a TV-watching youth.)  What kind of sports car would I be if I were one?  According to this:

I'm a Mazda RX-8!

You're sporty, yet practical, and you have a style of your own.  You like to have fun, and you like to bring friends along for the ride, but when it comes time for everyday chores, you're willing to do your part.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Well, that's probably not too far off, I suppose.  As fancy sports cars go, I've been kind of partial to another Japanese model, the Acura NSX.

"The name is Yin. Tung Yin."

Um, okay.  Note that I didn't score particularly close to any of the superheroes.  I guess I'm not really cut out to be a superhero.  (Via my cousin Kyle).  I do like the fact that it's the Pierce Brosnan version of Bond, though.

You scored as James Bond, Agent 007. James Bond is MI6's best agent, a suave, sophisticated super spy with charm, cunning, and a license's to kill. He doesn't care about rules or regulations and somewhat amoral. He does care about saving humanity though, as well as the beautiful women who fill his world. Bond has expensive tastes, a wide knowledge of many subjects, and his usually armed with a clever gadget and an appropriate one-liner. James Bond, Agent 007 58% The Amazing Spider-Man 54% Lara Croft 50% Maximus 46% Batman, the Dark Knight 46% Captain Jack Sparrow 42% Neo, the "One" 38% William Wallace 38% The Terminator 29% El Zorro 25% Indiana Jones 25% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

Test says my ideal S Ct nominee is Judge Karen Williams

(Via Baseball Crank, who ended up with Judge Alice Batchelder as his ideal nominee)

JUDGE KAREN WILLIAMS U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, appointed by
G.H.W. Bush, 54 years old Lots of recent buzz for Judge Williams, known best
in constitutional law circles for writing the
opinion that said the Miranda warnings are not
constitutional requirements.  The Supreme Court
reversed her.  If you can't beat em, join em!

New World Man presents: My favorite candidate for the Supreme Court
brought to you by Quizilla

Am I geeky? Normal?

I suppose some of this is expected. . . .

Your Geek Profile:

Academic Geekiness: Highest

Fashion Geekiness: Moderate

Movie Geekiness: Moderate

SciFi Geekiness: Moderate

Gamer Geekiness: Low

Geekiness in Love: Low

Internet Geekiness: Low

General Geekiness: None

Music Geekiness: None

How Geeky Are You?

But then, that seems consistent with this. . . .

You Are 50% Normal (Somewhat Normal)

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

Does it even make sense to say that I'm 50% normal?  Isn't that just kind of abnormal?