It’s Friday and that means it is time for Caught My Eye! Here are the topics for today’s column:

• AARP Montana Poll
• Georgia School Shooting
• Spiritual Activism
• Roundabouts
• Comments and Comments
• One More Thing

AARP Montana Poll:

Thursday, AARP Montana released a 2024 statewide election survey revealing that candidates for president, U.S. Senate, and state races should pay close attention to Montanans ages 50 and older, who make up an outsized portion of the electorate.

The survey found that in the U.S. Senate race, Tim Sheehy (R) leads Senator Jon Tester (D) by 49% – 41% on the full ballot, with 5% of voters supporting a third-party candidate and 4% undecided; Sheehy’s lead widens among older voters, 55% to 39%. In the head-to-head ballot, Sheehy leads Tester among voters overall, 51% – 45% and even more among older voters, 57% – 40%.

AARP commissioned the bipartisan polling team of Fabrizio Ward (R) & David Binder Research (D) to conduct a survey of voters in Montana. The firms interviewed 1,064 likely voters, which includes a statewide representative sample of 600 likely voters, and an oversample of 464 likely voters 50 and older. The survey was conducted August 25–29, 2024 via live interviewer on landline (25%) and cellphone (35%), as well as SMS to web (40%). The sample was randomly drawn from the Montana voter list.

It’s hard for me to believe that Sheehy is up on Tester by that much. A few Republicans are starting to spike the ball, but I would hold off. Sheehy is racking up some negative press in recent days that has probably changed some minds. We’ll see what happens when a nonpartisan survey is released that was conducted in September. 

See the complete poll HERE. 

Georgia School Shooting:

Reuters and other sources are reporting that Georgia state officials on Thursday arrested the father of the 14-year-old suspected in a school shooting that killed four people and wounded nine others on Wednesday, saying the father knowingly allowed his son to have the murder weapon. 

Reuters reports that Colin Gray, 54, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

This is not the first case where parents were charged. It may help stem some of the mass shootings. Anything that can stop the senseless shootings is welcome.

Read the full report from Reuters HERE.

Spiritual Activism:

CBS News reported this past week on a movement by evangelicals led by Lance Wallnau who leads the so-called “Courage Tour,” a roving event that targets key battleground counties across the country with a blend of religious and political activism. The events encourage attendees not only to get out the vote, but to sign up to be election workers and poll watchers. 

CBS News says Wallnau is trying to recruit pro-Trump evangelicals willing to look beyond the former president’s past conduct and instead focus on his views about abortion, gender issues and Israel.

I believe that Trump is using Christians and does not believe as they do. I hope that Trump has a real relationship with God, but I have not seen any indication that he does. 

Check out the article HERE. 

Roundabouts:

During my recent road trip, I encountered several roundabouts. I started thinking about Clark Griswold in the movie “European Vacation” getting stuck on a roundabout. (Watch). 

While I did spend some time going around in circles, I did not spend as much time as the Griswold family. 

One person falsely claimed that roundabouts cause tornadoes. Politifact reports:

“We didn’t have tornadoes here until we started putting in the traffic circles,” a man says in the video. “Cause on account of you wanna know why? When people go round and round in circles, it causes disturbance in the atmosphere and causes tornadoes.” 

Sounds pretty reasonable, huh?  Politifact says it’s false. (Source)

Comments and Comments:

Every so often I like to remind readers and people who comment about the rules. As I state on my “About” page:

I enjoy comments, but I don’t allow much vulgarity and I don’t allow nasty name-calling. These things will get your comment deleted. I screen and approve all comments to keep this site at least rated PG.

Since we are in the heart of campaign season I have been getting more comments than usual. That is great – keep them coming. Please try to keep your comments about something that I wrote about in the latest column. I don’t mind a comment from left field once in a while, but several in a row get old, and I often delete them because they have nothing to do with anything. 

I love the back-and-forth debates between the readers, and I don’t mind multiple comments as long as they are about the subject. 

I hope this clarifies some of the rules. 

One More Thing:

My Kansas City Chiefs are 1-0 after beating the Baltimore Ravens last night in Kansas City. The final score was 27-20.  

Enjoy your football this weekend! 

## HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ##