All about yourself!

[Oak Hills]

Age: 17
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Northern European (English, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and German, as far as I know...)
Religion: Atheist
Height: Not exactly sure, but I'd guess around 6'5"
Weight: No idea
Place of Residence: Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Place of Birth: Wakefield, Rhode Island
Occupation: High school student
Most Admired Person: Daniel Schorr
Favorite Politicians (historical): Robert LaFollette, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale
Favorite Politicians (contemporary): Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Baldwin, Joe Biden
Favorite President: Probably FDR, but Lincoln and Truman are also contenders
Other Interests: History of broadcasting, issues related to news media, political history

[Oak Hills]

I'll try this again.

Age: 18
Gender: Male
Race/ethnic composition: White (English, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, German, and others, also a smidge of Seminole Indian)
Religion: Atheist
Height: About 6'3", I think, but I'm not sure
Weight: about 180 lb., but again I'm not sure
Location: Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Birthplace: Wakefield, Rhode Island
Occupation: High school student
Most admired person: I'm not even going to try to answer this.
Favorite Band: Don't really have one.
Favorite President: Lincoln, I guess.
Favorite Sports Team: I don't care about sports.
Other interests: History, Broadcasting, Newspapers, News media more broadly, Linguistics

[Oak Hills]

Age: 19

Sex/Gender: Cisgender Male

Height: 6'3"

Weight: c. 180 lb

Sexual orientation: Straight

Race: White

Ethnicity: Primarily English, but also Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, German, Seminole, and whatever else none of the genealogists in my family haven't managed to find yet...

Religion: Atheist

Mother Tongue: English

Other Languages Studied: I have made abortive attempts to learn German, Latin, Russian, and Esperanto throughout my childhood.  The only serious attempt to learn a foreign language I've made was the four years of German in I took in high school, but I'm not anywhere close to being fluent. 

Current Location: Oak Ridge, TN

Birthplace: Wakefield, RI, but only because Jamestown, RI, where my parents lived at the time, isn't large enough to have its own hospital.  My mother was born and raised in Independence, MO, and my father in Baytown, TX.

Occupation: Lazy bum.  I graduated from high school in May, and haven't really done anything since.  However, I intend to seriously seek a job after the holidays, and possibly begin college in the fall.

Favorite Politicians (contemporary) Russ Feingold, Bernie Sanders, Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley, Raúl Grijalva, Mark Begich, Jon Tester, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Baldwin, Sherrod Brown, Mark Udall, Keith Ellison

Favorite Politicians (historical) Robert LaFollette, Paul Wellstone, Wayne Morse, George McGovern, Frank Church, Walter Mondale, Clement Attlee, Kurt Schumacher

Favorite President: I suppose Lincoln is the least awful.

Political Orientation: I guess social democrat is the best description.

Favorite Foods: Corn chips, cornbread, french fries, cheeseburgers, sourdough bread, cheddar cheese, my dad's macaroni and cheese, turkey, oranges, spaghetti (with meatballs, meat sauce, or marinara - I don't really care.)

Favorite Books: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power by Robert Caro (I haven't gotten around to reading the rest of it yet), Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe

Favorite TV Shows: The West Wing, Community, Lateline, The Daily Show, Northern Exposure, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Democracy Now!

Favorite Radio Shows: A Prairie Home Companion, On the Media, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, The Thistle and Shamrock, Wait, Wait…Don't Tell Me, any of the classical shows on my local public radio station

Favorite Movie: Das Boot

Other Interests: History of broadcasting, linguistics, listening to the radio, reading newspapers, news media criticism

Favorite Color: I don't really have one anymore.

Favorite Sports Teams: I don't really follow sports, but I have some loyalty to my high school's teams (the ORHS Wildcats and Lady Wildcats), the Boston Red Sox (because of where I was born), and the Kansas City Royals (because of my mother)

Favorite Music Genres: Classical (especially baroque, and anything that prominently features harpsichords, guitars, or flutes), '50's/60's oldies, bluegrass, folk

Favorite Game: If this is talking about video games, I like Civilization III, Civilization IV, SimCity 2000, and Oregon Trail, although I don't play much anymore.
 
Do you live by yourself? No, I live with my parents.

Sibling: One sister, who lives in Boston, MA and is trying to be a science writer.

Do you have any nieces, nephews? I do not.

Have you ever been attracted to someone of the same sex? No.

Relationship status: Single, never been on a date in my life, never kissed a girl, etc...

What year did you join Atlas? 2012, though I lurked from about 2010.

If you could pick your own nationality, which would you pick? Probably Swedish or Norwegian, although I'm quite happy being American because I like our diverse immigrant culture.

News Sources: The Oak Ridger (hometown newspaper), the AP (via the aforementioned paper), NPR/WUOT, Humphrey on the Hill (TN politics blog connected to the Knoxville News-Sentinel), Ballot Access News, this forum.

[Oak Hills]

(Why are Democrats red and Republicans blue here?)

First of all, welcome to the Forum!

To answer your question, the standard red for Republicans and blue for Democrats did not become established until after the election of 2000.  Before then, some TV networks would use the current standard scheme, and others would use the reverse.  Dave Leip started this website in I think 1999, and chose to use red for Democrats and blue for Republicans.  It's also more in keeping with how parties are color-coded in most foreign countries, where center-left parties tend to be red and center-right parties tend to be blue (altho there are many exceptions).  I promise you if you spend enough time around here, the reverse color scheme will start to seem normal to you.