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My first labor day to actually celebrate. And I'd say I did it the right way, by doing not much at all.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@comcast.net]
Fair Haven, NJ
Monday, September 6, 2004 11:04:22 PM
IP: 69.141.212.54

DPH: <<I spent $493.02 on books for 5 classes or $493.02 on 7 books.>>
Bah. Child's play! I had to get four books, which happened to be my most expensive ones, AND an 8-CD set JUST for my Musicianship class. Three books for my music lessons. Three for Thinking/Writing. Two for Piano (one of my teachers happens to be a _psycho_). Two for Computers for Musicians. I could go on, but I wish I'd only spent $493, and that's after some upperclassmen saved my ass with used books. And I have to buy a new amp and a damn tux. Ooooh I'm gonna be poor forever.

Electoral College/Popular Vote:>> I was talking to my roommate about this, since he's a Poli. Sci. dude. It's a great topic for some really good debates. The way I see it is this: The system was put in place so candidates would have to go campaign in the less populated areas - it balanced things out so people in smaller areas had a bit more power in the elections. But now we have mass media, and anyone who wants to know about the candidates can. Therefore, for better or for worse, I'm a fan of the popular vote. Meh, I suck at politics.

"The lightning strikes, crack in the night - I'm not the same anymore. Thunder and spark, in the heart of the dark - I feel the rising force." - Yngwie Who?
Tharos
Monday, September 6, 2004 03:15:54 AM
IP: 69.40.137.63

Ed> <<the arguments are only tangentially about the role of government, seemingly>>: The arguments may not be much about government itself, the end result is either more or less government involvement.
<<Russia is more concerned with having a strong leader than necessarily a package of policies>>: And whichever package comes with that leader will have a certain amount of government involvement, probably more because an indicator of the strength of a person is how much they will do.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@comcast.net]
Fair Haven, NJ
Sunday, September 5, 2004 11:40:26 PM
IP: 69.141.212.54

Aaron: I don't believe it survived the death of Screaming Lord Sutch. I think there was a party in 2001 that wanted to get everyone doing yoga though...
Ed
Sunday, September 5, 2004 02:49:00 PM
IP: 213.187.39.172

Ed> But what about the Monster Raving Looney Party? What's become of them?
Aaron
Sunday, September 5, 2004 02:26:42 PM
IP: 172.208.144.237

Yes, but I can only really speak for the UK (minus Northern Ireland). America does seem to have a greater fixation on social issues like abortion issues, the death penalty, gun control, religious worship in schools and gay marriage. Although there are opinions on both sides here, there isn't real controversy about any of these laws at present and the arguments are only tangentially about the role of government, seemingly. I get the impression Russia is more concerned with having a strong leader than necessarily a package of policies, as well.
Ed
London, England
Sunday, September 5, 2004 07:01:31 AM
IP: 213.187.39.172

Teens casted: Now that's some interesting spam. And I probably made someone a couple cents by clicking on it.

Ed> <<I’m not sure letting the most partisan individuals in the population choose who goes before the nation is such a good idea>>: Some pleces do have open primaries, where anyone can vot in any party.
<<The vast majority of issues that affect Britons boil down to the central question: do you want bigger government or smaller government?>>: Just Britain? It seems to be the biggest question in any country (barring immediate disasters).

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@comcast.net]
Fair Haven, NJ
Sunday, September 5, 2004 12:40:47 AM
IP: 69.141.212.54

Todd, I'm very sorry to hear about Merlin. My best wishes to you.

As for the political discussion...

From this side of the pond, it seems that America’s problem isn’t the two parties, but the two candidates. Or perhaps the primary system of selecting candidates – I’m not sure letting the most partisan individuals in the population choose who goes before the nation is such a good idea. The British Conservatives tried a system similar to this in 2001 and it, er, went less than well.

Anyway, Taleweaver asked about the three party system. Firstly, some people might disagree with the notion that Britain has a three-party system at all. Traditionally, it’s been more of a two-party system – either with the Conservatives and Liberals or the Conservatives and Labour. Since 1979, a strong argument is that – for general elections at least – Britain has a one-party system. The Conservatives ran the country for fifty-four of the last seventy-eight years before Labour returned in 1997. Labour had never ruled for two full consecutive terms. The Tories were generally considered the ‘natural party of government’: I believe it’s the oldest political party in the world. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Between 1992 and 2003, the Conservatives almost always trailed Labour in the polls, and often by significant margins. Since 2003, they are still generally little more than neck and neck: hardly the kind of response an opposition party would want to a deeply unpopular government in the middle of its second term. Of course, although people enjoy speculating about the demise of the Tory party (much as people enjoyed speculating about the demise of Labour in the 1980s), it’s unlikely to follow the fate of the Liberals. Some would argue that problem is that they’ve stolen a lot of Conservative positions in an attempt to appeal to the middle classes – the New Labour machine is basically an elaborate confidence trick. So perhaps it’s just that Labour is now the dominant party in what’s essentially a one-party system. Anyway, let’s look at the other major parties.

The Liberal party was extremely minor for much of the last century, not fielding candidates for many of the seats quite often. Their greatest moment was probably nearly drawing level with Labour in the popular vote in 1983; Labour adopted an extreme socialist agenda their opponents dubbed ‘the longest suicide note in history’. The Liberals were the obvious centre-left alternative and once they allied with a centre-left Labour splinter party, it became somewhat more powerful – although still marginal. The Liberal Democrats, as they now call themselves, are now in fact to the left of Labour in many ways. They have particularly strong support in recent years because they have consistently opposed the war in Iraq, and generally do quite well in local government elections where people are more inclined to protest vote. The Lib Dems, you see, basically act as a permanent party of protest. In strongly Conservative areas, they’re the alternative party. In strongly Labour areas, they’re the alternative party. In the Celtic fringes, they’re quite dominant but now the SNP and Plaid Cymru are stealing their thunder in that respect. Since they’re most successful at local government, they obviously try to pass themselves off as the party of local government even though they’re basically Eurofederalists. They can be all things to all people and unlike other political parties, are unlikely to be caught out because they’re seldom, if ever, in a position of power. Charles Kennedy, the current Lib Dem leader, is granted two questions at Prime Minister’s Questions every Wednesday (Michael Howard gets six). They also have a high media profile. But they won’t gain power in the foreseeable future and many see it as a wasted vote in a General Election: you might get a Liberal Democrat MP to represent you, but it will still not represent a majority of the votes.

The trouble is, Britain is far from homogenous in terms of its electoral systems. Under Blair, regional assemblies in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London now all need to be elected, as well as a London Mayor and MEPs (Members of the European Parliament). Labour loves trying out different voting systems for size – I think we currently have about five different ones in operation if memory serves (STV in Northern Ireland, FPTP in general elections, AMS in Scotland and Wales, Alternative Vote for the London Mayoral Elections and strict PR in the Euro elections). As a consequence, the results are very different depending on the elections, and each flatter or suppress the support for minor parties. To give a complete picture of how multi-party systems could work out, you could do worse than just taking a tour of the different elections in the UK.

For the General Election, Labour has stuck with the First Past the Post system. 657 constituencies each produce one candidate elected by 70,000 people (55,000 in Scotland, apparently. Since Blair, Brown and half the Cabinet are Scottish, it’s probably no surprise that just about everything that could favour Scotland does favour Scotland). As a result, the ruling party generally has about 40-45% of the popular vote but has edged past its rivals on more constituencies to get a larger proportion of the seats – usually around 60% for successful Prime Ministers like Thatcher and Blair. The Liberal Democrats don’t do as badly as they might out of this arrangement because of their Celtic heartland, but they obviously want to push for a system of proportional representation because they’d get more seats out of it.

Remember that there isn’t the distinction between the executive and the legislature in Britain as in America. Out of the elected legislators, a number of the majority party form a Cabinet. It means that even the Prime Minister could be outed by his constituency of 70,000, and in the past some very powerful ministers have been removed by their consistuencies (notably Tory leadership hopeful Michael Portillo who lost his seat in 1997 during the first Labour landslide. Because he had a seat, he couldn’t run in 1997, even though he was probably the favourite at the time.) As far as the Liberal Democrats are concerned, this is great: their favourite talk is of ‘beheading’ games. If you know you won’t get a majority of the votes outright, the next best thing is to run strong candidates against prominent enemy MPs with marginal constituencies: thereby effectively ‘beheading’ the party. In practice, this almost always works against the Conservatives. If Labour or the Liberal Democrats feel that a Conservative is weak, often one or other will deliberately support a single candidate to try and ‘behead’ the opposition. Currently, potential victims of ‘beheading’ include Michael Howard, the Conservative Leader. Since parties generally place their top brass in safe seats, it’s unlikely that a third party could completely decimate one of the parties by this tactic, but long-standing MPs may find the make-up of their constituencies changing in ways that prove unfavourable to them over time.

Recently, a new player in the beheading game is the UK Independence Party, a group of hardline Eurosceptics both from the left (who take the Bennite view that it’s a ‘capitalist club’) and the right, who wish for immediate withdrawal from the European Union. In effect, though, this mostly hurts the Conservatives because it’s the most eurosceptic party and stands to lose the eurosceptic vote. Europe has traditionally been extremely divisive for the Tories and although they campaigned on ‘Save the Pound’ in 2001, since then they’ve been trying to distance themselves from the issue simply because they were preaching to the choir: most Britons are Eurosceptic (actually, most Europeans are Eurosceptic) but still didn’t vote Tory. UKIP can’t win an election outright, and are unlikely to win any seats, but they can employ tactics to throw the election off. By threatening to ‘behead’ prominent Tories (the most recent target is the Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin), they can push the Conservatives into adopting a more eurosceptic position still.

Scotland and Wales use proportional representation systems. The Liberal Democrats love this, of course, because although they don’t win outright in Wales and Scotland, they can generally get away with being in coalition with Labour. Proportional Representation was a big cry for the left during the 80s. They figured that the Tories would never get back into power if the ‘Lib/Lab pact’ could ensure rule by coalition. (It would be almost inconceivable to have a Lib/Tory pact). In 1997, part of ‘the New Labour project’ was to bring the Liberal Democrats and Labour back together into one lean, mean centre-left machine. It didn’t work, of course. Too much disagreement, even though politically they were probably as close as they ever had been with Blair having broken away from the unions that gave birth to Labour.

But these systems also promote the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalists. The regional assemblies, therefore, are basically four-party systems, but run by almost permanent coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats (although at first Labour ran the Welsh assembly outright). Ironically, in this case, more parties means less choice, because the politicians can decide to form groups among themselves after the votes have been cast, and the coalitions are inevitably going to end up compromising the positions the parties were elected for. A lot of European countries with multi-party systems have certain parties in power almost all the time. Even in Germany, where there’s a four-party system, there’s concern that the ‘tail wags the dog’ – the smaller parties can basically choose who to buddy up to, because they’re the ones with the critical votes. It’s a really terrible breech of democracy, it seems to me – and over there it’s not as though each representative has a specific group of people to look after, either, since the appropriate proportion of members are taken off a list prepared carefully by the party, always favouring the leadership’s darlings of course (the Scotland and Wales elections have a ‘top up’ list of second-string MPs who don’t have a constituency, there to make up the right proportions). A big reason that the German political parties are Europhiles when a much smaller proportion of the German people are is that the parties simply don’t select Eurosceptic candidates.

The London Mayoral race is interesting, because the first victory was by an Independent – maverick socialist Ken Livingstone, who fell out with Blair’s Labour party and ran against his candidate, Frank Dobson. This election is decided by the Additional Vote: you have a first choice and a second choice. There, the second-choice votes are usually crucial in determining the margin of victory, and since the Liberal Democrats and Labour frequently vote each other as their second choices, it boosts their tallies.

A word about the assembly elections in Northern Ireland, which use the ridiculously complicated – but allegedly very fair – Single Transferable Vote: this takes days to count but since there are so many splinter parties and the region is so volatile, they need that election system to avoid controversy.

The European elections employ a different form of PR. This generally flatters very minor parties since they might be able to get enough votes together to get a representative. This draws support to the Green party and the xenophobic British National Party, but the big winners in the European elections earlier this year was the UK Independence party with 8% of the vote. Whether this trend continues in the General Election, which won’t focus on Europe so much, remains to be seen.

Basically, it’s pretty difficult to come to a firm conclusion about what kind of party system Britain has. Labour is currently dominant, despite being incredibly unpopular (a trend that’s often blamed for plummeting turnout figures). The Conservatives are as weak as Labour was in the 1980s but will doubtless be back. The Liberal Democrats will probably continue to exist influencing the political scenery and having small successes outside national government, but aren’t likely to break through in the House of Commons. The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru are quite successful in their own back yards. The UK Independence Party, the Green Party and the British National Party are still small parties, but over the last few years have been able to have a much greater impact on British politics than they would have before.

Liberal Democrats are probably most influential, nationally, in the House of Lords, since there they really can tip the balance from Tories to Labour there. But the Lords are notoriously independent (less so since Blair flooded it with ‘cronies’, but still). Since they aren’t elected and their parties can’t do a tremendous amount to discipline them once they’re there for life, party politics doesn’t figure so much. Even though, and perhaps because, it’s never elected, the Lords is probably the British political institution that’s most responsible in government. Needless to say, Blair has been trying to destroy it. If it doesn’t favour Labour all the time, it can’t be good news.

All in all, there currently seems to be a trend away from two-party politics in the UK and I must say: I hate it. I can’t stand seeing nasty little parties like the BNP getting a national platform with the new election systems, nor the electoral deal-making between Labour and the Liberal Democrats that threatens to take decision-making powers away from the electors. It irks me that the UK Independence Party is probably going to do more harm than good to representation of Eurosceptics in British government at a time when the Europe Union is more dangerous to the interests of its member nations and consistently in breech of the democratic wishes of the member populations. Politics is complicated, but it’s not that complicated. The vast majority of issues that affect Britons boil down to the central question: do you want bigger government or smaller government? That question will effectively dictate the broad direction of any party with respect to Europe, tax, public service management, the environment, the immigration system and almost all the other issues that the smaller parties campaign on. (With a few exceptions, such as the Iraq war, I guess). Parties are broad churches, but if you have fewer at least you’re electing a complete package. The more parties you have, the more you give credit to radical points of view, and the more you take the responsibility for government out of the grasp of the people and into the hands of political deal-makers so that what you ended up with might not represent what you voted for at all.
Ed
London, England
Saturday, September 4, 2004 03:40:02 PM
IP: 213.187.39.172

<a href=http://xxxxx-casted-teens.da.ru>casted teens</a>
teens-casted - [teens-casted1513@hotmail.com]
Saturday, September 4, 2004 03:12:28 PM
IP: 66.98.226.51

Todd, my condolences on your loss. Proxy, my orange tabby, died suddenly just before the Gathering, and I miss him every day. Good luck with the kitten search.
Aaron
Saturday, September 4, 2004 02:29:46 PM
IP: 172.201.146.208

Wow it's really beinging to pick up down here.

Todd>>> HUG. I'm sorry to hear what happene to Merlin. I lost a dog nearly a year ago and another dog in 2002. Mix herself isn't a spring kitten.

Politics>>> I saw a great siggy the other day. Kerry verses Bush. Whoever wins we all loose. Good point since we know what Monkey man had done and the Nokkar clone wants to raise the national minimum wage to seven dollars.

Electoral college>>>It's needs to be tweaked out, not obilerated.
Spacebabie
Saturday, September 4, 2004 10:21:01 AM
IP: 12.78.45.180

DPH, GSIDE - Thank you for your condolences. That really means a lot to me.
Todd Jensen
St. Louis, MO
Saturday, September 4, 2004 07:04:28 AM
IP: 63.186.1.156

Crzy> <<This system allows the smaller states to have as much sayso as the larger states and makes their concerns as important as the others>>: Do states even really matter anymore? Yeah, certain states help give identity to the residents (Texas, Jersey), but nowadays it's more general area unity (New England, etc.).
<<it's never been "one man, one vote">>: I think in Rome it was "one (established) man (but definitely not any women) one vote", which might be close enough.
<<if the electoral vote doesn't have one majority to choose the President, then the House of Representatives then votes for the President>>: A bit more like the popular vote, since there aren't any senators skewing things towards the smaller states.
<<So then the candidates only travel and campaign in the most densely populated states>>: Nah, not states, cities. Or anywhere they can get a large enough crowd or a good enough photo opportunity to get on the news.

Taleweaver> <<Splitting the EC votes by the popular makes every state a battle ground state. What do you think?>>: The rounding's going to get you in the end.

DPH> <<I'm worried that it would lead to the candidates not paying as much attention to the states with smaller populations>>: The votes from smaller states would still count more. Let's say you have two states with populations of 1000 and 5000 and you get one electoral vote for each 1000 people, plus two votes per sate (so we have easy numbers). We get 3 electoral votes in the small state and 7 in the larger. But since we're spliting the votes, you only need to convince 333 people in the small state for one electoral vote, as opposed to 714 in the large state.
<<BUT the requirement of letting people know who gave you how much money within 24-28 hours of making a contribution?>>: Who'd bother to read through the giant lists?

Todd> My condolences.

DPH> <<HOw do you explain to people the difference between anime and cartoons?>>: Style mostly. There's plenty of anime that's no better than what we put out here, it's just that they also put out better stuff.
<<we're going through the Greek play, Oedipus the King>>: I've only heard it called Oedipus Rex. Has a better ring to it.
<<forced me to figure out which books I need to carry to class>>: I never carried any books to class. Unless I knew we were doing problems in a recitation.
<<where right-clicking on the mouse . . . does absolutely nothing>>: Letting random users have access to the context menu is dangerous, and they don't want to have to reinstall a couple computers every day.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@comcast.net]
Fair Haven, NJ
Saturday, September 4, 2004 12:40:27 AM
IP: 69.141.212.54

Todd - My condolences on your lost. My favorite dog was Samburg and I think very fondly of all our fun times together. My favorite cat, Hunter, . . well if any animal messes with her, . . . I wouldn't want to be in that animal's shoes.

I recently watched Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. I really enjoyed and liked how they made it work as either stand-alone movie or part of the series. HOw do you explain to people the difference between anime and cartoons? My sister-in-law asked if I liked it because of the violence. My response is no, I liked it because of the plot and good story-telling ability.

Why am I writing this long post? Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm downloading a big file from the internet (Windows Media Player 9 series) and I don't want to be incredibly mad when my computer decides to go offline halfway through the download.

**College Life**

I just finished my 2nd full week of college. I'm really loving my Philosophy of Critical Thinking class (which should come as no suprise to some of you). World History I is ok, for now. Cobol I [back in 1994, I remember a certain computer science teacher in high school saying Cobol is dead/dying] is ok. I'm wondering about the teacher's ability to teach the class. It's the same teacher I have a lot in common with, but, thankfully, through this class, I'm finding differences. I don't really like the approach that is being taken so far. And worse, I've been told throughout the whole semester the only real thing we'll be working on is reports, much to my disdain. You can only go so far on formatting output and batch processing data files. The teacher said that it would take Cobol 3 (class not offered; there already is a Cobol 2) just to get into Object Oriented Cobol. Joy. World Lit 1 - if you've been keeping track of my comments in both crs you can guess what I'm studying. Just got through Gilgamesh and now we're going through the Greek play, Oedipus the King. Yea, really fun stuff. Oh yea, I have a class in Legal Environment of Business. :/ The guy is going through our rights (and some responsibilities) under the law.

My prize project, Jsse (ok, can anyone come up with an alternative way to pronounce Jsse other than Jesse? Just checking.) has been put on hold to handle college life. If I can get ahead, . .

I spent $493.02 on books for 5 classes or $493.02 on 7 books. Thinking of it in the later way helps.
**END COLLEGE LIFE**

I visited a religious conselor during semesters and he suggested I read a book called "Happiness is a Choice". My first gut thought was "Yea, right". One of the things I've noticed is that both conselors I'm seeing wanted to question why they think I'm depressed. Ok, here's my mean response (I haven't said it yet to any conselor): Ever seen those commercials where they say if you have one or more of the following symptoms, you might be depressed. It's easier for me to count the number of the symptoms on said list that I either haven't had or don't have.

I accused my sister-in-law of being overly paranoid and she asked why I thought so. Let's see. Paranoia and I are old friends; I've been steadily working to make more like old acquitances.

Damn it, I miss either Lain or Gunjack making posts in here. They had this way of lighting up the room, even if the remarks made were something to disagree with.

The weight of my textbooks . . has forced me to figure out which books I need to carry to class because I don't have enough time between classes to take a few off of my hands.

I didn't want to watch either the Republican or Democratic party conventions. Why? All they are is giant infomercials for each party's candidate for president.

While I'm on this subject, I'll be running my local precint area on Election Day. Since it's a small precint, I won't have to worry about tv crews visiting my precint. FYI, at least in Arkansas, both parties have to APPROVE the way the ballots are laid out. With less than 60 days left, I better start working on getting my 2 other people lined up to work in the precint. Anyways, that's going to be a rough 4 days in a row. 1st, Sunday, 2nd, Monday morning class, 3rd, Monitoring the elections, 4th Wednesday class. I better make sure there are no tests on that Wednesday. I'll probably be mostly on auto-pilot that Wednesday, at best. I'll probably be posting about the highlights of election day - notable quotes from voters (especially the stupid ones). You know what's scarier - beyond the presidential choice and a few other choices, I have no idea who I will/should be voting for.

Here's more food for thought. On my college campus, there's a computer lab where right-clicking on the mouse . . . does absolutely nothing. At least they installed NC 4.7, but I would rather have my Mozilla.
DPH
AR, USA
Friday, September 3, 2004 11:40:18 PM
IP: 67.14.195.40

IN MEMORIAM.

My beloved grey cat, Merlin, passed on this evening. He was close to 16 years old, and will be greatly missed.

R.I.P. - MERLIN - 1988 - September 3, 2004
Todd Jensen
St. Louis, MO
Friday, September 3, 2004 10:10:37 PM
IP: 63.186.2.247

Taleweaver - In theory, I like the idea of splitting the votes in the electoral college based on percentage of the vote in the state, BUT I'm worried that it would lead to the candidates not paying as much attention to the states with smaller populations. It boils down to this: I can't win California, but a bigger dent of the population's vote means more votes. Hmm. Should I visit a smaller populated state, where I'm likely to lose about 1/2 the electoral college votes or visit a big state and hope to pick up a larger turn-out and more votes.

That's why I like the electoral college: it keeps the candidates from ignoring states with small populations. I'm dead set against anything that changes that.

I'd also like true campaign finance reform: instead of limits on how much you can give, why not no limits BUT the requirement of letting people know who gave you how much money within 24-28 hours of making a contribution? That would eliminate the 'need' for all these indepent ads and let the candidates themselves control the ads more directly.
DPH
AR, USA
Friday, September 3, 2004 04:47:57 PM
IP: 67.14.195.22

What's everyone's opinion on the middle-of-the-road option of splitting the electoral votes by percentage for each state?

Under the current system its an all or nothing game for each state. But technology has advanced that we can find out the percentage break down of the elections by the time the EC votes in December. Splitting the EC votes by the popular makes every state a battle ground state. What do you think?
Taleweaver
Friday, September 3, 2004 02:30:12 PM
IP: 66.81.254.232

JEN> We have televisions and newspapers, so the people in these states could still make an informed choice.

And it's not like the candidates campaign in every under this system anyway. Bush doesn't campaign in New York or Massaschusets (I can't spell it), Kerry doesn't campaign in Texas or Alabama for example.

And, also as the popular vote showed in 2000, a few hundred or a few thousand votes can make a difference as well.

I just think it's a really sad state of affairs when the guy who gets more votes doesn't get to be President because of the damn, out-of-date electoral college.
Greg Bishansky
Friday, September 3, 2004 02:00:21 PM
IP: 162.84.164.187

Greg - it's never been "one man, one vote" So you can't go "Back" to that. Even George Washington was elected by Electoral Vote. Of course, it was a bit different back then, only the politically elite were in the college, until Andrew Jackson stepped up to implement the system we use today. ... if the electoral vote doesn't have one majority to choose the President, then the House of Representatives then votes for the President.

Patrick - So then the candidates only travel and campaign in the most densely populated states. They can skip those tiny states that don't have a lot of people, because those don't matter, just the mass amounts of people matter. The total of people in the smaller states would be far less than the population in just a few bigger states.

... and as we saw in 2000... even a small state with only 3 electoral votes was extremely important.
Jennifer "CrzyDemona" Anderson - [crzydemona@gmail.com]
Friday, September 3, 2004 01:40:05 PM
IP: 207.178.216.226

<< Without the EC then people who live in small or sparcely populated states shouldn't even bother to vote. >>

Why not? The vote of the man from Rhode Island would then count just as much as the vote of the man from California. And the vote for Kerry from the man in Texas would count just as much as the vote for Bush from the man in Massachusetts. As opposed to how it works with the EC, where neither of those votes will count at all if more than half of the people in Texas vote for Bush and more than half of the people in Massachusetts vote for Kerry.
Patrick
Friday, September 3, 2004 12:47:59 PM
IP: 66.93.14.153

I say let's go back to "One Man: One Vote". Equal and fair.
Greg Bishansky
Friday, September 3, 2004 12:28:31 PM
IP: 162.84.164.187

Patrick, Revel - There is a reason for the electoral college, you know. There is a lot of history behind it. I wish more people would actually look it up to better understand it.

Without the EC then people who live in small or sparcely populated states shouldn't even both to vote. They would immediately be cancelled out by the bigger populated states, candidates would only cater to the larger populations and those states would have all the power. This system allows the smaller states to have as much sayso as the larger states and makes their concerns as important as the others.
Jennifer "CrzyDemona" Anderson - [crzydemona@gmail.com]
Friday, September 3, 2004 11:33:53 AM
IP: 207.178.216.226

My biggest beef with the Presidential ELection is why they have not voted out the Electoral college system. They campain all this money to try to get people to go out and vote and many won't, knowing their choice will not win because the state is always to one side. So in actuallity, their vote means nothing. Bush has Texas by the balls, even if I don't want Kerry, many others might, but Bush will get the 32 electoral votes and Kerry knows it, why he didn't even bother to campaign here. It's very discouraging.
Revel - [samrx5@msn.com]
I wish I were registered somewhere else, Tx
Friday, September 3, 2004 10:58:08 AM
IP: 68.119.237.207

Patrick> Getting things done is important, but I think a benefit would be a drastic cut in corruption, both in soliciting it and consumption of it. With a two party system, corruption is high because even if you aren't the party in power, you might be in power someday so there's less incentive to tackle things like Campaign financing. If it looks like you might not be the party in power for some time, doubtful any party would feel okay letting another have the largess.

Dragon-Con> I've heard its a bonza smash. But for us So Cali with few means and fewer dollars we have to console ourselves with Comic-Con and the AX if its in the area. Question: Does Dragon Con put a ban on bladed weapons? They were incredibly uptight about it at Comic con. To a degree it makes sense. With thousands of people swarming and milling about, a Ba'tleh to the femoral artery because the Klingon in front of you can't keep his eyes off of FFX2 Rikku can really ruin your weekend, but they seemed a little too aggressive.
Taleweaver
Friday, September 3, 2004 09:52:52 AM
IP: 66.81.250.11

I did take a 3 day writer's workshop from A C Crispin once.

Dragon*Con is many things to many people. When they talk fantasy it's lots more than just Tolkein and Marion Zimmer Bradley.That's for certain. You wouldn't believe some of the "costumes" people wear there.

Pretty much every aspect of Sci Fi, Fantasy, Gaming, is represented, although I'm not entirely sure where the midget wrestling fits in...and yes, there is lots of music. It seems like more every year, but then again, when you have something on the order of ten thousand people show up you want to keep them contained and entertained some how.

Dragon*Con is a convention for those with extreme stamina and endurance. Sadly, that's not me any more. The last one I went to I nearly fainted at John Rhys Davies feet and had to run away to keep from embarassing myself.

But if you can ever make one you should do it once. I guarantee you'll come out of it with at least one good story.

kathy
Friday, September 3, 2004 08:33:42 AM
IP: 66.82.9.23

They call them political parties, but there's always far too much talking and not enough drinking and dancing.

The problem with a three-party system is then nothing would ever get done, because no one would ever be able to get a clear majority. As it is, we have a two party system and somehow the guy who got less than half of the popular vote last time around is still taking up space in the White House.

95 days left until the Gargoyles DVD is released on December 7, 2004!
Patrick
Friday, September 3, 2004 07:01:51 AM
IP: 68.170.199.45

Dragon Con - a fantasy writing convention?

I don't know whether to puke or try to look up laws to ban this sort of thing... clicky link.
Mecord's Cat - [<- click me!]
Friday, September 3, 2004 12:20:46 AM
IP: 63.230.11.250

DPH> <<a certain Greek figure whom "I'm my own grandpa" sounds relatively simple>>: Nah, Oeddie's much simpler than being your own grandpa (as outlined in the song).

Todd> <<For Antigone to be Oedipus's aunt, she'd have to be the sister of either Laius or Jocasta>>: Antigone might actually be his aunt in law (she's Jocasta's sister in law because she's Oeddie's sister), but that probably doesn't count for much.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@comcast.net]
Fair Haven, NJ
Thursday, September 2, 2004 11:25:25 PM
IP: 69.141.212.54

Just alittle self-promotion..."Blame Gargoyles" (the filk) is now poasted in the GFA.
Lynati
Thursday, September 2, 2004 11:14:09 PM
IP: 4.139.18.134

Kathy: Weird, I just heard about DragonCon today from a friend of mine. I guess they get some pretty good fantasy/power metal bands sometimes. If it wasn't so far, I'd go just to see Chick Corea. Mark my words - Rhapsody, Symphony X, Blind Guardian, or Freedom Call will be there some day. :) And there goes my 'no one cares' comment of the week.
Tharos
Thursday, September 2, 2004 10:15:48 PM
IP: 165.190.89.139

DPH - No, actually, she'd be both his daughter and his half-sister. For Antigone to be Oedipus's aunt, she'd have to be the sister of either Laius or Jocasta.
Todd Jensen
St. Louis, MO
Thursday, September 2, 2004 06:42:44 AM
IP: 63.186.0.144

In my World Lit 1 class, we're getting ready to study a certain Greek figure whom "I'm my own grandpa" sounds relatively simple.

Now, to get the complex/whacky relationships straight, Antigone is Oedipus's aunt, right? Because if Antigone is Oedipus's sister, then she's also his Aunt.
DPH
AR, USA
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 11:24:12 PM
IP: 67.14.195.48

Taleweaver> <<What are the perks and pitfalls of a three party system?>>: Lots more fun with the deal making, I'd assume.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@comcast.net]
Fair Haven, NJ
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 10:49:10 PM
IP: 69.141.212.54

Ed> George the Third? *ROFL* What can I say I love history humor. Remind me to tell you about the one the the vandals and the visigoths.

Two party system> Yeah it stinks to high heaven. I'm most disappointed in the democrats this season. They seem most aggressive when Ralph Nader's name is mentioned. When its Republicans its a lot of me-too, me-too. Are there more dynamic people who could be candidates? Absolutely. But the two party system and the Primary/Caucus system is structured to weed those folks out.

Though a question to you Ed? What are the perks and pitfalls of a three party system? Here it's a political pipedream, but I'd love to know how it works in reality.
Taleweaver
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 04:12:55 PM
IP: 209.179.168.32

Niahmgold > I've e-mailed you.

Greg > Just carry some porn with you at all times this week. Right after free thought and the Bill Clinton biography, it's the next best thing for repelling Republicans.

97 days left until the Gargoyles DVD is released on December 7, 2004!
Patrick
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 06:52:32 AM
IP: 68.170.199.45

GXB - I'll be fair and say that the Democrats reaffirmed their ownership of Boston during their convention.

I think watching either convention is just a waste of time; both conventions are carefully scripted PR events designed to send whatever message the party nominee wants to send.

Besides, I believe Wilek would say that it doesn't really matter who wins, the I Society gets/maintains control of the White House.
DPH
AR, USA
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 11:22:50 PM
IP: 67.14.195.14

Ed> <<Probably more than outweighed by the vast costs that would be incurred policing the thing>>: But then there's also the number of delegates who will like it, and come back to visit with their families, and also having the city be in mind for smaller, more easily guarded conventions.
<<America has 300 million residents and the Tin Man from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is Bush’s main rival? What’s up with that?>>: Blame the two party system where bothparties try to be liked by everyone.

Niamhgold> <<moose>>: Squirrel.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@comcast.net]
Fair Haven, NJ
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 10:40:05 PM
IP: 69.141.212.54

Is anybody going to DragonCon in Atlanta this weekend? Email me kapogge@yahoo.com Thanks!
kathy
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 07:37:17 PM
IP: 66.82.9.44

yo ho ho. New York is certainly someplace I'm glad I'm not going to be right now ;) Can't we just fast-forward to the end of the November and get this election over with already?

Neh, darn it. Still can't get my toaster-and-microwave time machine to work yet.

I wanted to drop by and say that I'd be happy to print out 8.5 X 11 copies of those Gargoyles face playing cards that I showed at Gathering 2003 to anyone who may be interested in one or more. They would be printed on matte heavyweight paper. Get in touch with my via email (fluff_astrid@yahoo.com or click my link) to let me know if you'd like one. Danke!

moose.
Niamhgold - [fluff_astrid@yahoo.com]
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 06:16:12 PM
IP: 69.106.224.159

DPH> <<Don't you mean your city has been liberated from the Democrats?>>

Don't make me hit you ;)
Greg Bishansky
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 02:57:54 PM
IP: 162.84.164.187

Taleweaver: Bush II? I’m surprised he hasn’t been dubbed George III over there.

DPH: Probably more than outweighed by the vast costs that would be incurred policing the thing.

It emerges that Karl Rove has had a big spat with the Conservative leader Michael Howard and claims there’s no way Howard will now be granted access to Bush. He’s peeved by Howard’s criticism of Blair: the Conservatives supported regime change at the time, but criticise the way Blair chose to lie and manipulate evidence to manufacture a quite different threat. I can’t imagine what gives the Americans the idea that being snubbed by America is going to hurt Howard at all (quite the opposite I’d imagine), but perhaps that was the intent. I hope so, anyway, because Bush just looks like a total loser (more than usual) for trying to prop up a corrupt socialist regime for his own political convenience. That's it, I want transatlantic regime change! (But honestly... America has 300 million residents and the Tin Man from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is Bush’s main rival? What’s up with that?)
Ed
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 12:33:32 PM
IP: 213.187.39.172

Only have time this morning for a drive-by countdown...

98 days left until the Gargoyles DVD is released on December 7, 2004!

1 day left (today) to get your Gathering Diaries posted to Ask Greg!
Patrick - [<-- please post Gathering Diaries to ask Greg before midnight!]
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 06:51:24 AM
IP: 68.170.199.45

GXB - What about all the $$$$ being spent in your city by the Republicans while they're staying there? <HELP!!!!! My city is under siege by Republicans!!!!! > Don't you mean your city has been liberated from the Democrats?
DPH
AR, USA
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 06:23:25 AM
IP: 67.14.195.40

Patrick> I've seen the Sky city concept photos back when I was in high school, back when Bush the First was in office. And I've seen how phenomenally fast buildings are put up in Hong Kong. If they haven't built it by now, it probably isn't going to happen. Pity though, it has an elegant design. Those space plateus would cut down on the shear forces from the winds.
Taleweaver
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 12:03:44 AM
IP: 209.179.168.30

Revel> <<The CD-ROM is the big mouth to eat the data, the chip is how well it chews it up and the RAM is how fast it can swallow it>>: I'd say it's more the CD drive is the big mouth, the chip is the teeth, but the hard drive is the esophagus (how fast you can swallow) and stomach (where it rests for a while).

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@comcast.net]
Fair Haven, NJ
Monday, August 30, 2004 11:43:17 PM
IP: 69.141.212.54

HELP!!!!! My city is under siege by Republicans!!!!!
Greg Bishansky
New York, New York
Monday, August 30, 2004 07:28:48 PM
IP: 162.84.164.187

TEN
silvadel
Monday, August 30, 2004 05:27:10 PM
IP: 24.225.221.135

9 with a vengence!
Damien
Monday, August 30, 2004 04:41:08 PM
IP: 205.250.224.113

8 or 9 with a vengeance!
Vinnie - [tpeano29@hotmail.com]
Marquette, Michigan, USA
Monday, August 30, 2004 03:43:18 PM
IP: 216.234.125.198

...8?

I think I have a stalker. Kinda scary.
Tharos
Monday, August 30, 2004 01:45:35 PM
IP: 165.190.89.139

Yeah, there's probably no such thing as a 500 HP Chevy. I was watching "American Hot Rod" at the time, so it must have just been wishful thinking.

The future of high-rise construction, or even more wishful thinking? Click my name to see the Sky City concept that a group of Japanese architects and engineers are working on. If they build it, the U.S. can say goodbye to the world's tallest title again, since the Freedom Tower tops out at only a measely 1,776 feet.

99 days left until the Gargoyles DVD is released on December 7, 2004!

2 days left (today and tomorrow) to get your Gathering Diaries posted to Ask Greg!
Patrick
Monday, August 30, 2004 12:25:21 PM
IP: 66.93.14.153

Post your con journals!

Even if it's a blurb saying you don't have time to post a large detailed journal and you did have fun please post them now.
Spacebabie
Monday, August 30, 2004 11:52:32 AM
IP: 12.78.47.81

hello all ..

wow i think i may make the countdown.. or is that still going on .. i dont see it from anyone else .. but if so i guess im what ... 5555555.... hehe made it at least once .. horay for me

later yall.. *glides out of window*
Brute - [creature_of_the_night_20042004@yahoo.com]
hammond, la, usa
Monday, August 30, 2004 11:09:48 AM
IP: 206.218.147.2

Oh oops. I stand corrected! :)

Now I'm off to lunch, to see if anything interesting happening worth commenting about *stumbles off like Kramer*
Deja Vu Hellcat
Monday, August 30, 2004 10:52:11 AM
IP: 205.251.135.66

My computer is now behaving...but this room is blank.

*goofy Seinfield voice* hellllllloooooooooooooooooooooooo
Lost Hellcat
Monday, August 30, 2004 10:48:47 AM
IP: 205.251.135.66

*goes into hick mode*

Camero with 500 HP?

shooo' boy, if we got one of dem I'da xpect to at least get that baby up 'round 200 miles an hour. We can putta a lowered suspension on the front and some micky thompsons on the back that'll make that baby fly down the straitaway.

*ahem*

FS- I think the best way to look at it is The CD-ROM is the big mouth to eat the data, the chip is how well it chews it up and the RAM is how fast it can swallow it... though I may have one of those backwards, I kida tweaked the analogy.

Mandi- I think an apology can qualify as a con journal, I saw you, I can confirm you were there :)


Revel - [samrx5@msn.com]
Monday, August 30, 2004 10:48:19 AM
IP: 68.119.237.207

#1!!!!!
DPH
AR, USA
Monday, August 30, 2004 10:45:18 AM
IP: 161.31.67.52