How to be Involved In Politics
In a discussion at God’s Politics:
DP wins NC by < LP Vote
As of 1 am, the tally at USA Today reads:
Obama: 2,102,175
McCain: 2,088,670
Barr: 25,172
That’s: 2,102,175 - 2,088,670 = 13,505 is less than 25,172.
The Libertarian vote stole NC from the GOP and gave it to the DP.
Let this be a lesson to you, GOP, and show your appreciation, DP. Believers in Liberty are still around.
How many other states were affected by the LP vote?
I hope to report in the am.
Update:
States where LP Vote was greater than DP - GOP difference.
Indiana
More on the division between Economics and Econometrics
Duke has a great MA program. It’s mostly econometrics:
The Duke Economics MA is designed to be one of the most quantitative of all North American masters’ programs. It aims for a narrow segment of the market:
- Students preparing for PhD programs, either by taking advanced mathematics, statistics, and theory, or gaining intuition and exposure to economic issues;
- Students preparing for careers in technical financial analysis;
- Mid-career research economists seeking to brush up on econometric and modeling skills, and to undertake a research sabbatical;
- Aspiring lawyers who want to gain a solid grounding in game theory, microeconomics, econometrics, and cost-benefit analysis; and
- Aspiring policy analysts seeking to gain modeling and econometric skills prior to embarking on a career in government, think-tanks, or consulting.
Read this: econometrics, econometrics, econometrics.
Which is great! If Duke can crank out batches of MA level econometricians, then it devalues the Ph.D. econometrician by crowding the market. Then ideas-guys like GMU folks will be more valuable for their work in economics. As a Ph.D. I will be able to hire all the MA econometricians I want to run any numbers I might need for me. And I will have tenure (not that that’s worth anything).
Gavel bang to Newmark’s Door
Update: Also from Newmark:
Johns Hopkins MA program is also an applied math degree.
Great Photo
Lifted from Community of the Risen:
It’s Called Fraud, Liver for Sale
From craigslist monitors:
It’s called fraud:
From http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/
cms/Voter_Information/Voter_ Rights_Responsibilities.html Acts of Election Fraud and Misrepresentation
- No person may procure or submit materially false, fraudulent or fictitious voter registration applications.
- No person may submit false information as to name, address, citizenship or period of residence in a voting district for the purpose of establishing eligibility to register or vote in any election.
- No person may intentionally register at more than one address at the same time, or vote more than once in the same election.
- No person may carry the official ballot furnished by the officers of election further than the voting booth, and should they decide not to vote after receiving the ballot, they shall immediately return the ballot to the officers.
- No person may procure, cast or tabulate materially false, fraudulent or fictitious ballots in any election.
- No person may pay, offer to pay or accept payment for voting, registering to vote, withholding their vote, or voting for or against any candidate.
- No person may intimidate, threaten or coerce any other person: for registering or voting; for urging or aiding persons in registering or voting; for purposes of interfering or influencing how a person chooses to vote or not vote; or for purposes of preventing a person from voting.
- No person may steal or willfully, fraudulently, or wrongfully tamper with any part of any ballot container, voting or registration equipment, records, or documents, which are used in any way within the registration or election process.
- No person may, by bribery, intimidation, or other means in violation of the election laws, willfully hinder or prevent, or attempt to hinder or prevent, the officers of election at any precinct from holding an election.
Note that the above statements are only a summary of U.S. and Virginia voting laws. They are not meant to amend or supplant those laws.
If you have any questions about your voter registration status or about elections in your locality, please contact your local voter registration office.
How to report violations of election laws & your Rights:
If you feel your voting rights have been violated or that you may have witnessed an election law being broken, contact the State Board of Elections at 1-800-552-9745, or via e-mail at info@sbe.virginia.gov.
Well, no wonder it doesn’t happen more often.
In that case, I’ve got half a liver I’d like to sell instead.
What If I Sold It Instead?
Could I get in trouble, like this guy? I hope not.
Would I have an opportunity to talk about ideas with people, or would they just all get mad at me? I’m guessing the latter.
Would it aptly demonstrate the flaws of commercialism by mocking both it and the political system? I would get it, but I doubt many others would.
Would anybody care? Probably just veterans.
In the meantime, you can look at my ad on Craigslist.
My polling place is set back and into one of the wealthiest communities around here. It might be worth it.
Nathan
Wednesday Ballot
Here’s a second attempt at my last post.
Lots of people are going to vote on Tuesday. I am not. I have decided to wait until Wednesday to “cast my ballot.”
Among the reasons people will cite for voting are concerns about particular issues, and how each candidate lines up with their own positions. Many will vote for McCain, based on their views of abortion. Some will vote for Obama, due to his stance on the war in Iraq. Individuals will vote for various senators or congressional representatives based on similar criteria, or more likely on name recognition, or how well an incumbent has brought home the bacon. The fight over the billy-club of the state, the privilege of employing force for one’s own interests, will commence relatively peacefully, through the voting process. While comparatively this process is to be commended, we could have warlords fighting in the streets over such power, yet the effectiveness of voting is also in question.
Voting is hailed as the definitive political action for most individuals. It is the only time they participate in the political process, and they thus consider it an enormous responsibility. Unfortunately, the process of voting has the actual effect of making their voices meaningless. Due to the aggregation of votes, the bundling of issues by candidates, and the secrecy of ballots, voters communicate virtually nothing to the candidates they elect. First, due to the secrecy of the ballot, the elected candidate will never know how anyone voted. He will never have a reason to care what any particular voter thinks. Second, due to the bundling of issues by candidates, voters who favor one candidate on some issues but another candidate on other issues will not have a way to communicate their actual concerns. Successful candidates will merely throw all their votes in a bag together as supportive of their overall agenda. Finally, the calculus of large numbers in respect to voting renders each individual vote virtually meaningless. Gordon Tullock and Walter Williams, among economists, cite this as the reason they will not vote. They say that if no one else voted, they would, because then their vote would count.
So I have decided that I will instead spend the time I would have spent driving to my polling place, standing in line, and driving back to school again writing a few letters to the people who will be elected. Call this my Wednesday ballot.
I will make the letters generic enough to be applicable to whichever candidate is elected. I will write about the issues which I think are most important and most closely related to the office each politician is set to occupy, and I will be able to “unbundle” any set of those issues to particulars, demonstrating the relevance of each. My vote will be specific, personal, and intentional. The amount of information communicated in this way will far surpass even that of several hundred election-day ballots.
Finally, the chances that the elected candidate will read a hand written letter from me are much greater than the chances that they will consider my vote. I will have the opportunity to explain how I feel about things, what I think is rational, the unintended consequences of most political actions which concern me, and they will know who it came from.
The morning after election-day I will mail in my Wednesday ballot. Anytime we can communicate specifically and personally to people in positions of power, our voices will heard so much the louder. I find this a much more important way to be involved in the political process, and much more effective.
Don’t forget to vote – on Wednesday.
Politics Begins On Wednesday
Lots of people are going to vote on Tuesday. I am not. I will instead spend the time I would have spent driving to my polling place, standing in line, driving back to school, etc. writing a few letters to the people who will be elected.
I will make the letters generic enough to be applicable to whichever candidate is elected. I will write about the issues which I think are most important and most closely related to the office each politician is set to occupy.
This will be my political involvement.
The chances that any politician is going to note my vote, were I to vote, are miniscule. Actually, they are non-existent. Since it is a secret ballot, they cannot know how I voted, so they won’t give a damn how I marked my ballot.
But the chances that they will read a hand written letter from me are much greater. I will have the opportunity to explain how I feel about things, what I think is rational, the unintended consequences of most political action which concern me, and they will know who it came from.
I find this a much more important way to be involved in the political process, and much more effective. Will you join me?
Why Christians Might Want to Rethink Microfarming
Concern for long-run effects of behavior is almost as important as immediate concerns. I place imminent issues first. It is more important to rescue a child from getting hit by a car moments from now than to find a cure to the disease that will kill him when he is 45 years old. Concern for the long run is a luxury in comparison.
For most of human history people have been striving just to get by. This is still the case in many parts of the world, though I would argue fewer and fewer as time goes by. The industrial revolution increased human productivity by orders of magnitude. Where the prairies’ sod was impossible to penetrate with spade and pickaxe the invention of the steel-headed plow (in the 1800’s) along with the horse collar (in the 1600’s) made it possible to plant wheat in quantities never before imagined.
And this is just one example. Mechanization, specialization, division of labor, and gains from trade have moved us all further and further away from starvation and exposure.
To have any kind of romantic image of sustenance level farming is to ignore the hardship that went with it.
China’s modern move toward industrialization has resulted in heavy levels of pollution which we decry as an injustice. But that force of mechanization is rescuing untold millions from abject poverty. More than any government or subversive program ever could. Those who have been rescued are happy about the pollution. To them the alternative is starvation.
I said earlier that concern for the long run is a luxury. The same holds true for clean environments, back-to-nature movements, etc. They are luxuries.
Farmer’s markets, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, meat, and meat. These are all luxuries. Making your own soap, clothes, etc. are all luxuries. I think each and all of them are fine. It is okay to take some leisure time to garden. I love working in the soil, and watching things grow. I always plant some tomatoes, basil, and rosemary because they taste better fresh. But this is a luxury which I acknowledge.
We must always compare things to their alternatives. If we take large efforts to micro-farm we must ask what are we giving up? If we are giving up a job where we are more productive, purchasing food at the lowest available prices, thus increasing our income and power to consume, and our potential to share that money with those who are in need, we do so to our own self-indulgence and not for any imagined “wholistic lifestyle.”
I, too embrace the Hebraic understanding of the nature of man and reject the Gnostic and Manichean approaches. But this understanding should bring us to a heightened awareness of real and immediate needs and prevent us from romanticizing either the simple life or cosmopolitanism.
There are good reasons to micro-farm, but few of them have anything to do with global social justice issues or the peculiar Christian ethic.
If Ever I Go Missing
from blogging it is quite likely because I am busy over at Sojourner’s God’s Politics Blog. I have been busy on a couple of threads over there, and will post some of my comments here (before their moderator delets any more of them!) for safe-keeping.
I read and comment there because I like their focus on Social Justice, but am frustrated by their employment of state mechanisms to achieve what I believe to be the peculiar mandate to the church. I find it cowardly and irresponsible to say the poor or the needy, “Sorry but I gave at the (tax) office.” Look, I pay my taxes, Jesus commands me to do so, but I just don’t expect them to do any good, and I think that was His point.
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