60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll: September Edition

September has arrived and it's time to return to the more normal pace of living that summer so beautifully manages to mess up. The kids are back to school, Americans are back to the grindstone, and the "60 Minutes"/Vanity Fair Poll is back with another set of intriguing questions designed to challenge and illuminate your mind.

And now the questions please:

Thirty five percent of Americans think removing the Taliban and leaving behind a stable government in Afghanistan would signify victory. Thirty percent think that withdrawal of U. S. troops would be enough. Twenty percent say capturing Osama bin Laden would constitute a victory and eight percent say the removal of the Taliban alone would signify victory. If you told all this to the men and women fighting there right now, what do you think they'd say?

Forty six percent say "no" to the sin tax, while 41 percent say yes. More older people and men say no (probably because they don't like taxes in the first place). Younger people and women are more likely to favor a tax. They were probably wondering who's going to pick up the bill for all those future skin cancer treatments? Now that really burns, doesn't it?

It's like awesome to Tweet isn't it? Sixty five percent of Americans think the words "like," "awesome" and "tweet" are overused. "Organic" and "hope" fare better with 16 percent and 14 percent respectively. We'll pick the least overused word to say that we hope everybody will work harder to improve their verbal skills.

Only 26 percent think that Sarah Palin could have an effective presidency; 59 percent say no and 15 percent don't know. Even 40 percent of her Republican base have their doubts, not the best vote of confidence she could have received.

(CBS)

(CBS)

Who is Emily Post? Your grandmother probably would have known but each successive generation since then tends to forget about the lady etiquette expert who reminded us to mind our manners. Bravo to the 37 percent who still remember her noble cause of elevating and educating people toward a higher sense of civility and decorum.

Even with the deck stacked against him, more than three out of four Americans would still go to one of Mel's movies. Twenty four percent of women say they would be less likely to go one as a result of the latest scandal. But that number could be reduced by a number of factors such as, if the movie were really good. If Americans judged artists and performers based on the way they conducted their personal lives how many less people would be attending tonight's Yankee game or Picasso exhibit?

In a heavyweight match Casper the friendly ghost beats out E.T. the extraterrestrial on points 33 percent to 30 percent. Eleven percent say none of them are likely to exist and the remaining three get seven percent each. By the way, last week there wasn't a single sighting of either Nessie or Sasquatch. Do you think something might have happened to them?

(CBS)

Almost all Americans (94 percent) know their Social Security number by heart. Eighty one percent know their exact weight, 60 percent know their blood type, 37 percent know their license plate number and only 17 percent know their I.Q. (no jokes please). Let's hope that when some of the younger respondents to this question turn 70, that the Social Security number they worked so hard to memorize will still be worth something.

A resounding 88 percent of Americans would just say no and that is laudable. But if there were absolutely no down side wouldn't you be curious to find out what Timothy Leary found so intoxicating (or trippy) about LSD? A rare occurrence also happened, not one person polled on this question would take a crack at crack, hopefully a harbinger of better things to come.

Only six percent of respondents have experienced and reported sexual harassment at work. Eleven percent saw it but didn't report it and 82 percent have never experienced it. With the help of increased social awareness and punitive consequences, these percentages should continue to improve towards having far fewer incidences of sexual harassment in the workplace.