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Messages - lue

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121
Redistricting is done at the state level.  How do you convince one political party to unilaterally disarm and make it certain their opposition will control the house?
"The direct count of votes says you don't deserve the House anyway (our party has the majority of House votes across the nation). If you agree with us to make districting fairer, not only will it help in the quest to repair your image, but I guarantee you that I will mention the bipartisan nature of this plan, all in the interest of fairness." I dunno, something like that?

Gerrymandering is illegal, that's why most states have committees of appointees who do the redistricting.

And they are appointed by the parties. Do you see the issue here?
Apparently not that illegal yet :)

And on a theoretical court ruling: I have yet to go over the Constitution to see what, if anything, it says about elections could possibly be applied to illegal-ifying gerrymandering. But I imagine the arguments against would go to various places such as "in particularly complexly drawn sections of the districting maps, voters may have a more difficult than usual time in discovering their proper district" and its effects on third parties, and so on.

122
And yes, the joke usually is that we would end up with at least a Dakota and a Carolina and a greater Virginia to balance the numbers.
You take that back right now. There's only one route to a unified Carolina, and it involves flying vampire squid.
I hereby strike from my statement the words "a Carolina" and put in its place "a larger North Carolina" ;) .

The thing that gets me is this: every political pundit (and many politicians) will admit that gerrymandering at both the state and Federal levels has just gotten ridiculous, and that's it contributed to the sort of shitstorms like we just went through.

So why the hell hasn't getting rid of that become a thing? Yes, yes, I know -- it's in the interest of currently elected officials to keep the districts heavily skewed to preserve their ability to get serially re-elected. But why hasn't there been a bigger popular outcry?
Ads. Seriously, I think if we have just the right amount of money pumped into GERRYMANDERING AND YOU advertisements, we just might get more of an outcry. "GERRYMANDERING ROBS YOU OF YOUR RIGHT TO A FREE AND FAIR ELECTION."

123
I should point out I don't buy the round numbers thing myself (though it is nice...), it's just something I know is on a lot of people's minds.

And yes, the joke usually is that we would end up with at least a Dakota and a Carolina and a greater Virginia to balance the numbers.

Aside from all that, usually those complaints arise from a feeling of lack of representation in the state government. In those situations, efforts would be potentially more worthwhile and certainly less expensive in getting better representation in the state gov't, or failing that, to get that gov't to listen to you anyway. It would take an absolutely massive amount of dissent for new state talks to happen seriously.

(Come to think of it, I'm surprised we don't hear of flag manufacturers organizing (Super)PACs to get people to want to form their own state more often.)

124
The Civil War says we don't want to deal with any of that secession or nullification BS again.

Counties breaking away to form new states is not impossible, just really difficult (and will, as I've always said, require one or more mergers of existing states, because 50 is a nice round number). I suspect this is caused by both the Civil War and there not being a well-defined procedure for this sort of thing in the Constitution.

125
Creative Projects / Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« on: October 24, 2013, 01:54:43 pm »
So, last night I decided to a stream of consciousness exercise because I was that desperate for ideas, and I accidentally a semi-coherent story:

Spoiler: "Thus The" (click to show/hide)
The "Green felt" sentence was one last stab at true stream of consciousness, but it failed immediately after.

Writing this poem-ish thing taught me something about what kind of story I should write. I may prefer to think of stories involving overarching plots and themes and organizations, but I care too much about my conspiratorial organizations to just use them without considering how the story I would write factors in to everything. So I don't want to end up spending weeks trying to work out not only a full plot involving such organizations (because I need to know ahead of time what effects that plot will have on it), but then also working out the future of the organization after the fact.

It seems I'd be better suited towards a Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett-y type novel. That is to say, very light and humorous, without sacrificing the story.

126
EDIT: News.
  • Obamacare continues it's long trek towards glitch-free status, with Sebelius of Health and Human Resources taking the fall so far. Obama says he is "outraged" and is calling for experts to fix it.
  • Obamacare approval has inched up to 45%, proving once and for all and we are all absolutely clueless as to how America decides it likes something.
I'm guessing the approval is still riding on the shutdown-and-default-fight (relative) high the Dems got, and also maybe that "tech surge" speech helped.

Dear Obama and the NSA,

    Too many cooks spoil the broth. Keep that in mind for next time.

Love, Tarn Adams' Development Methodology

127
I hope it's OK to post if I've never even so much as sought a diagnosis for anything...
Spoiler: Itnetlolor (click to show/hide)
Sounds a lot like me, though fortunately I never felt like I had to shield myself from people who'd bully smart types. I've never been good with doing work that doesn't interest me in some way, so in retrospect it's no surprise that I miserably failed at the IB program.* I just have an extremely hard time doing boring stuff, no matter how important it is I do it. If I can't muster up some personal interest, it's only getting done poorly, if at all. (It's why I eventually failed English in the second-to-last semester of high school, and had to make up for it with two English classes next semester. Thanks, overly-ridiculous credit requirements for a subject that means jack outside the world of literature!)

Strangely, although I always feel incredibly nervous about any public event, whenever I had to give a presentation in school I always turned out far, far better than i hoped. So acting probably would be fun for me, after I get past the stage fright :) .

Let's see... socially, my general lack of motivation, esp. towards the end, prevented me from making many or close friends. Also, in middle school I had issues with reading when people didn't want to converse with me anymore, in part because I rarely talked with anyone. I'd say that's a classic sign of Asperger's, were it not for the fact that I've since learned to pick up on those cues. I also still find it physically impossible to purposefully look someone in the eye for any reason ever. If/when I notice it, I just have to look elsewhere. I know it'll make me look disinterested, but it just can't be done.

So, I guess I'm being weird then :P . I've found a total of three mental issues that I've oh so reliably self-diagnosed myself with, because they explain various annoying quirks of mine. You should know though that I'm suspicious of magically having three disorders, so I only keep them in mind as another way of describing what I see myself having problems with.

I do wonder why Bay 12 has so many people with disorders, though.
You won't get an unbiased answer in this thread :) .

Me aside, this looks to be an interesting topic of conversation and I hope it goes beyond "here's what's wrong with me." PTW, if you will.
Me too, I think it's just natural for everyone to start with their issues in this type of thread. I'm certainly up for non-personally discussing various issues.

*For you who know about the IB program, read below
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

128
General Discussion / Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« on: October 23, 2013, 06:55:44 pm »
As long as you get an Actual Black Guy™ and not that physically-painful-to-look-at blackface makeup (like you see in that HuffPo article linked earlier), I really don't care. Just because it has racist roots doesn't mean it's invariably a symbol of racism. You could easily turn Zwarte Piet from "racism" to "diversity" with the snap of your fingers.

That's what Another was getting at. Some will inevitably look at such a ban as "apparently they don't like diversity", regardless of the actual history and reasonings. (That's not to say you couldn't have elves traveling with Santa who just so happen to be of African descent, but it won't look good in some circles to get banned the only explicitly black role in most, if not all, Christmas traditions.)

And yes, please, UN, focus more efforts on Syria and things of that nature if you could, thanks.

129
General Discussion / Re: [ლ( ლ)] He comes (Happy thread)
« on: October 23, 2013, 05:45:30 pm »
More true than you know.

Look at the things around you. Chances are that most of those things had a truck involved at some point, and each of those trucks was driven by a trucker.
What drives the truckers? Rousing socialistic determination?

130
Creative Projects / Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« on: October 23, 2013, 04:38:05 pm »
So how worried should I be about historical accuracy in a novel featuring Romans in Space? Not aliens with a culture similar to the Romans, mind, but the actual Ancient Roman Empire in space.

The easy way out we be to say: towards the end of the Roman Empire, there was the original Western Empire, the Eastern Empire, and a Spacebound Empire. Then any inaccuracies can be chalked up to "it's a different sect of the empire" :P

The problem there is that I'm thinking too much about the secret organization, and I have no idea which story about it to tell. (And, because it'll be the first story I concretely set down about it, it would also irreversibly shape how future stories with that organization involved turn out. No pressure.)
Just think about them doing normal stuff and what would happen from there. That's generally the smoothest transition for new readers.

If there's something about the story that you'd prefer went a different way, or didn't happen at all, just change it later. Continuity is overrated.
After all, Douglas Adams transitioned from "dead in space" to "miraculous rescue". :) I'll be sure to take that "normal stuff and see what happens" advice into account when sorting out my idea center later.

131
Creative Projects / Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« on: October 23, 2013, 04:11:43 pm »
Wow, if I can't come up with a good novel idea soon, I won't be doing much NaNoWriMo! :) The novel synopsis I currently have up is one variant of a collection of similar ideas I have. The problem there is that I'm thinking too much about the secret organization, and I have no idea which story about it to tell. (And, because it'll be the first story I concretely set down about it, it would also irreversibly shape how future stories with that organization involved turn out. No pressure.)

I think I might have to walk away from that organization for this novel, but then I have no clue what else to do. I think I may need to sit down tonight, type out every single story idea and fragment and secret cabal and who-knows-what is floating around in my brain, and then sort it all out.

Grr.

132
Well, that's the second time I've introduced a poll to these forums that's been derided for its inaccuracies. Guess I won't be doing that again... *sniffle*
 :)

A internet poll does not a world standard make. Personally, I prefer that one poll that was like this in graph, but separated certain things into their own 1D graph, with a scale of where you were on the US culture war, and where you stand on military intervention.
Ooh, sounds interesting. Do you remember anything about it? It's name, or something?

In any case, I suddenly feel like maybe I could create a political test myself if I really wanted; seems the best way would be a "stack" of 1D graphs on various subject matter, because since first seeing that site, I've wondered if social/economic is a granular enough division of political feelings. Things like "US Culture War" obviously jumps into more regional questions, which a first version of the poll might not address.

I think it probably makes sense to think of "liberalism" as the ideology of the (not particularly religious) middle class. In the 19th century, that's the bourgeoisie, who own and manage factories and businesses. Come the 20s and beyond, it was most of society, so things like the welfare state and universal healthcare are adopted into the liberal fold. The stagnation on economic but progression on social issues since 1980 makes sense: the economy was still strong, so the middle class still had its position, even if the fringes were getting squeezed, but the Inevitable March of Progress string that binds liberalism together inspired movement on issues like gay rights. Post-2008, economic issues have started to become more important, because the downturn really squeezed the middle of society.
That's a good explanation for the divergence in the meaning of "liberalism", the rise of plutocracy in the '80s, and so on. I'll be sure to remember it :) .

133
are we making this a thing?
Sure, as long as we don't hold the results against each other in our more spirited discussions :) . Although, it feels just as appropriate in the Shit, let's be ... thread. Maybe we could post it over there too? Obviously, since this would be considered a crossover, The Crossover Thread would then also be involved. Are there any more threads this falls under?...

Australia's Latest Elections Liberal/National coalition won (note that this is a center-right coalition, one of the places where Liberal means right, apparently. (Like it also does in France.)) Labour is the center-left party.
Labor... Center left? Huehuehuehue. I don't think even they call themselves that anymore.
Eh, I just did a quick check on Wikipedia :P . Germany's the only foreign country I have any appreciable knowledge of, concerning its bundestagwahlen and politics in general. Notably when we had some of the German election debates on TV, my dad commented on how similar the positions of the SPD and the CDU/CSU are to the US Dems and GOP, respectively, at least upon explaining them in a debate format.

134
Germany's Latest Elections CDU/CSU won (they act as one party, CSU is the CDU of Bavaria), it's the major "Republican"-ish party. SPD is the major "Democrat"-ish party.
America 2012 You are reading that right, our "liberal" candidate is essentially conservative by global definitions.
Romney and the CDU have the exact same position?
With varying degrees of success in promoting it though. ;)

135
Thinking about the leaning-liberal nature of this board, I'm reminded of politicalcompass.org, which both provides a "what's your political persuasion" test (separating economic and social issues for a nifty 2D graph) and some information on various regions.

For our International Audiences
Here's what the American definition of "liberal" means to you!

Germany's Latest Elections CDU/CSU won (they act as one party, CSU is the CDU of Bavaria), it's the major "Republican"-ish party. SPD is the major "Democrat"-ish party.
Australia's Latest Elections Liberal/National coalition won (note that this is a center-right coalition, one of the places where Liberal means right, apparently. (Like it also does in France.)) Labour is the center-left party.
Canada's 2011 Elections Conservative party (right, clearly) won. New Dem. Party was 2nd place.

America 2012 You are reading that right, our "liberal" candidate is essentially conservative by global definitions. (Interestingly Obama was more left in '08.) The point I'm trying to make here is that our left-wing guys are usually still very conservative in relation to some other liberal parties worldwide.


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