mdk

so this is probably as good a time as any

Raxacoricofallapatorius said
Looks like a softball.

..... how did I not see that?

so this is probably as good a time as any

barf

In a week the stitches come out and I can start trying to do some more shit (slowly at first)..... but dudes, you don't even know. I went out on crutches yesterday to get my dogs, because I can already do that. This is gonna be awesome.

United States Government can pretend to be you.

Rtron said How is choosing one better than being able to choose both?

It's probably not. But federal voting leads the focus away from local politics. I'm thinking that if your federal voice was the same as your local voice, then you'd use your local voice more (which is fitting, because local elections take place much more often than federal ones), leading to a more involved and better-represented populace (and better governance on local levels, too), while generally de-centralizing the power structure.

edit: clarity

Idle, let me fix that for you

]

United States Government can pretend to be you.

Vortex said
Although this has greatly derailed from the original topic, nobody here is flaming and therefore no reason to shut this down.

Give it a minute....

United States Government can pretend to be you.

annnnnd we're arguing about how we're arguing about how we're arguing (it's CG's fault). This is what gets OT threads shut down -- not bringing up politics, but being insensible about it.

Illuminati Symbols in Washington

The Freemasons certainly DO exist -- it's not a secret. They have club buildings and everything. It's like a church that never passes out fliers or preaches to anyone or rallies or talks about their teachings. That's all it is. No more an international conspiracy group than Oprah Winfrey's book club. If there are Freemason symbols in DC, then it's because freemason city planners thought it would be cool. That's really about it.

Illuminati, idunno, their existence is plausible but not demonstrable the way the Masons are. And in terms of what they could actually DO, or what their real-world role is, fuck man, idunno, global domination seems like quite the overstatement, but it's not like we don't have an oil lobby. Surely there are plenty of private parties out there acting in their own best interest in the political theater -- is that, in any way, unlikely? No. The only question is how far back could such a group go, and how much success could they really have -- not very far and not much success.

Shower thoughts

If you draw a line that goes directly east, you just drew a curved line.

How Dare Rob Cantor Improve His Masterpiece

The Nexerus said
Could that be considered defamation?

More generally no. Satire and education are safe from nearly every kind of lawsuit..... I mean not that he couldn't sue you anyway, he could TRY, but the only things that count as actual defamation are like.... running to CNN and reporting that someone raped you, that kind of thing. Not making fun.

United States Government can pretend to be you.

Rtron said
Fair enough. But you can vote for the person who you think will either support your views the most or you think will screw you over the least. You want more gun control? Vote for whoever supports that. You feel abortion should be legal in all 50 states? Vote for whoever supports that. And so on so forth. As for the people around you, yeah, you can affect local decisions easily. To affect federal decisions, however little, you need to vote.

Currently true. In a primal USA, the early constitution set it up so that you voted for your local reps, and *they* picked your senators. That was changed in the 17th amendment. Which is a mistake, because like you said, that isolates all your participation in DC to simply voting each November -- rather than being able to effect changes locally which will later impact federal representation.