With Christmas cheer warming up and possibly even some chestnuts roasting over open fires, it seems like time for a little lite stuff.
(Cheerfully stolen from furrydoc)
A song for politicians and v*ters everywhere
(Source; per Laird in comments)
And a modern freedomista Christmas classic from Neema Vedadi and FreedomFeens (with Ben Stone aka Bad Quaker as Santa).
(Source)
And finally …
Decorating with Canine from Brigid at Home on the Range.
Some bad news: http://www.wired.com/2015/12/congress-slips-cisa-into-omnibus-bill-thats-sure-to-pass/
Yep, that’s not lite stuff, jc2k. But glad to know it.
Though I long ago gave up any fantasies of reforming Congress, still, if I could wave a magic wand and change just one thing (short of abolishing Congress and sowing salt in the earth where it once stood), it would be to impose a three-part rule about how legislation is made: a) require that every bill deal with only one subject b) allow no bill to be longer than 10 pages in standard 12-point type, and c) require all provisions of the bill to be spelled out (none of this “the word ‘and’ shall be added to section 666” of some law passed five years ago) in language comprehensible to eighth graders.
Ah well. That’s abysmal news about CISA, but unsurprising.
There should be a fourth rule – In order to pass a new bill, a previous law must be repealed to make room for it.
Bob — Yes. And all bills should be easily available for public inspection for at least 10 days before being v*ted on.
Ah … if wishes were horses (we’d have Libertopia)!
🙂
Fifth rule: “Every provision in this law shall apply to all elected officials and government employees.”
Want to be bejeweled? Another way to share your data.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/12/10/gene-gems-ultrapersonalized-jewelry-encapsulates-your-dna.html
And what happens if the ring is lost or stolen? Or the Alphabet Gang has a “need to know”?
Oooooh, good one, LarryA.
And since those who make and enforce laws should be considered to be more knowledgeable about laws and regulations than the general population, all criminal penalties for elected officials and enforcers of laws and regulations shall be doubled.
Pat — damn, that’s pretty creepy. What happens if somebody decides to clone you? Ick.
” What happens if somebody decides to clone you?”
That’s alright — one more gun-totin’ rebel in the world. 🙂
Want real changes in Congress?
o- Bring back 1 Representative per 100k people, and limit them to 1 taxpayer-paid staff member each. If they want more, they pay for them. This would give much better representation – after all, if there are 300m people in the US (roughly), that’s 3000 Representatives. If we have to build a small stadium for them to come together to vote once in a while, that’s just fine. Just don’t give them offices anywhere except in their district.
o- Make it so that both Representatives and Senators have to reside in their districts for 80% or more of the year. After all, we’re in the 21st century – online meetings (archived and available for viewing by all) are now pretty darn easy.
The above changes have many benefits, but I’ll name just two:
o- It will ensure that Representatives are close to, and available to, their constituents
o- It’s a lot harder to lobby (bribe) that many people who are scattered across the country
Kurt
Hi Claire – you were wondering about Giant Puppy – here’s a photo of the guy at two months. I’ll let you extrapolate (now 6 months and 80 pounds):
https://akazip.com/~akazipco/images/DSCF0231.JPG
Or you could go the other way. Leave the 435 Representatives in D.C. Eliminate districts. In order to be elected they have to have a minimum of 500,000 voters from anywhere in the U.S. enroll as their individual constituents. Voters can withdraw their support at any time.
Then they would know exactly who they represented.
Fleng Shu – amazing… now I have a name for my life long decorating tendencies. I remember once when the in laws made a surprise visit. Our two very young sons were sleeping curled up on the rug with a big, hairy dog and the play pen was in front of the fire place, filled with newborn baby goats. She didn’t like me anyway, but Grandpa had a sneaky smile on his face when she wasn’t looking.
Unclezip — That’s a two-month-old puppy? Shazam! I used to have Great Danes and I don’t remember them being that huge. Must be the fur. In any case, very impressive!
I like LarryA’s proposal for “virtual” electoral districts. Membership would be self-selecting, so the representatives know exactly who they’re representing. And the problem of gerrymandered electoral districts would be completely eliminated. I actually wrote a short position paper on this about 5 years ago, if anyone is interested. https://www.dropbox.com/s/7um77bcnsiulua8/Nongeographic%20Voting%20Districts.pdf?dl=0
I love that Freedom Feens video. That did a lot of other things that left me cold, being rather younger and hipper than I ever was in my life. But I never get tired of “A Gun for Everyone.”
“If we have to build a small stadium for them to come together to vote once in a while, that’s just fine.”
Rent one. They do it for campaigns anyway. And that way, it can be used for other things when Congress is out.