A Green Wants to Reduce the Numbr of Humans on Earth

[MSimon]

One of the things our system does is: preventing corruption in one state from unduly affecting an election.

i.e. it matters not if Illinois delivers 51% of the vote for candidate x or 99.9% of the vote. The electoral vote is the same. Why did I pick Illinois? I live here for one. And something like 3 of our last 5 governors have gone to jail for corruption.

Plus winner take all tends to drive the results to the center. That gives stability. And the guys on the edges always say: We should have run a real yyy then we would have won. Right.

[MSimon]

I tend to look towards private enterprize as the driving force for change and development and goverment as just something that gets in the way and is a drain on resources for no particularly purpose than jobs for the boys..

Welcome to Illinois. ;-)

[djolds1]

But under the electoral system, the smallest states get 3/535, almost 2.5 times the voting power of their raw numbers alone.

Im guessing the smaller states;

- have a less learned populous (because the "cream" naturally migrates to bigger better things)

- would have a much higher television(hypnobox) to internet connection ratio. (free thinking ratio)

- would be possibly more religious (hence influence through church)

- would be much more easier to economically manipulate/control/corrupt

........So lets give them 2.5 X voting power !

Actually, no. Many of the smallest states are the old Atlantic colonies, New England, Delaware, etc. Highly educated and very liberal. These days they are essentially the suburban sprawl for New York City and Baltimore- Washington.

Alaska and a few of the states in the Great Plains region fall into your assumed category.

And there is no way that small states of either political persuasion give up the power to hit above their weight. The electoral college keeps them at least marginally relevant.

Duane

[djolds1]

Im not picking fights or anything.

Nor I.

It just seems the talk-polywell has spawned some of the most enlightened conversation on the net. Its nice to see how you guys think and

Gracias.

its amazing how the Pacific Ocean can alter ones perception so wildly. Peace.

CONUS (Continental US) is an island fortress much like Australia. Similar traditions of self-reliance and militant independence. Tho we kicked the crown in the 'nads whereas you were slightly better behaved and adopted the Parliamentary system. Perhaps to be expected. The US was founded by religious zealots and libertines, whereas the first Australians merely had impulse control problems.

British North America does have the advantage over Australia of a nearly 200 year head start in colonization and a population more than an order of magnitude larger. OTOH, as the saying goes, British courage hasn't died, its just emigrated to Down Under.

Duane

[djolds1]

I'm a big fan of enlightened conversation myself too.

At the moment locally I'm puzzled whether me making lots of noise in the local media has changed a policy for the better, or whether my input had no effect at all..

As the politicians/etc. involved very quickly refused to debate with me, or otherwise engage me in conversation (ignoring emails/etc.) it would appear I'll never know if I had any effect or not as they won't speak to me now!

The reported near non-enforcement of criminal law in the UK (theft, assault calls never responded to, not even recorded to keep statistics "good") but overboard enforcement of speech laws has me very concerned.

The public is very isolated here from dealing with authority (Perhaps the only way to get answers is to sleep with people..) and knowing just what is happening and why.

Dalrymple would assert that that non-involvement is a direct result of the infantile dependence fostered by the British welfare state. He is at least partially right IMO, and that state of unmotivated dependency definitely keeps the population out of the bureaucracy's way. Not a bad thing for government functionaries.

Even so, I don't hold up any real hope that any politician anytime in the next few hundred years will do much at all to help people in a realistic way, looking at the last 40 years I've been here, nothing much has changed for the better..

That which has decayed in 40 years can recover in 40 years or less, provided the rot hasn't destroyed too much of the social underpinnings.

I tend to look towards private enterprise as the driving force for change and development and government as just something that gets in the way and is a drain on resources for no particularly purpose than jobs for the boys..

Not entirely true, but extreme counter-perspectives are often needed to address extreme status quo situations.

What interests me the most is practical solutions I can action which make a real difference, whoever comes up with them is of little relevance to me, I just want to make the world a better place!

Admirable.

Duane

[Keegan]

I just foundthis and thought this would be a very fitting place for it.

Some of you may have read that it just passed 6666666666.

Nice

[djolds1]

My Grandparents Russian - Russian Romanian - Romanian
Dad Mom
Me

Wife's Grandparents Finnish - Finnish Italian - Italian
Wife

Our Kids Russian Romanian Finnish Italian

The nationality you're looking for is "American."

I really dislike the attempts to highlight old country ethnic background over the primacy of American identity. Hyphenated Americans are a tool to break down a unitary national culture via balkanization. Useful for the would-be Mandarins who want to divide and conquer tho.

[MSimon]

Duane,

That is the point I was making without explicitness.

Of my current family none speak Italian, Finnish, or Romanian. One speaks Russian and he learned it from college and trips to Russia. I can't think of any old country customs we carry except maybe eating spaghetti and corned beef on rye. Plus bagels. But that is all American now anyway. The food is the last to go.

[djolds1]

Latest on Anthropogenic Global Warming.

Sources with Good to Impeccable Credentials.

American Physical Society admits dissension in the ranks regarding Anthropogenic Global Warming:
http://www.dailytech.com/Myth+of+Consen ... e12403.htm

Viscount Monckton's paper:
http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletter ... nckton.cfm

APS backtracks:
http://www.aps.org/

"APS Position Remains Unchanged

The American Physical Society reaffirms the following position on climate change, adopted by its governing body, the APS Council, on November 18, 2007:

"Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate."

An article at odds with this statement recently appeared in an online newsletter of the APS Forum on Physics and Society, one of 39 units of APS. The header of this newsletter carries the statement that "Opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the APS or of the Forum." This newsletter is not a journal of the APS and it is not peer reviewed."

Lord Monckton responds to apparent abuse of peer review:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/? ... M0NjQyMWU=
http://www.transterrestrial.com/archive ... ot_th.html

Duane