I voted yesterday; absentee voting here in Texas was all this last week and I wanted to make sure I got mine in just in case I couldn't vote next Tuesday, March 4th.
I don't mind announcing to the world for whom I cast my vote: I registered as a Republican so I could proudly select Ron Paul, even though I'd bet a thousand dollars (more if I had it) that he'll not come remotely close to securing the party's nomination.
It was also important to me (and my fellow Texans) that I vote on the three Ballot Initiatives; two were concerning illegal immigration * (I voted "Sí " ) and the other concerned limiting govt. agencies and their budgets. (nutshell synopsis, sorry. Again, a "yes" vote from me)
*Actually, only the first specifically targets IA; the second was about requiring ID in order to vote. To me, the two are closely interconnected. The third was also couched in such language "except in case of emergency" and I figure it won't have much "tooth" to it.
I left every state race "blank", that is, I cast no vote on them. It's my own form of term limits initiative / protest vote and I've never liked seeing anyone run unopposed. I generally vote for the Libertarian candidate in the state races in the General Election. (Railroad Commission, elected judges, offices like that.)
I voted against the incumbent in the senatorial race, and that is one I wish I had researched more (read: some, any) before I went and voted. Be that as it may, both were Republicans so there surely wasn't but a nickle's difference - or less - between the two.
It's been a while, but I have been known to register as a Democrat in order to vote for a particular local candidate running for city or county office. I did that several times in order to help out someone I knew who held county office and was doing a good job.
Being a rare exception of not voting for incumbents, I voted for a friend of mine in a county race even though she was the only one running for the office; she's doing a great job and is honest to the utmost. She and I spoke a couple of years ago about not voting for certain offices and she agreed with me it sent a message to candidates running unopposed.
For example, if a thousand votes are cast in the election and the candidate had no opposition and received only something like 400 votes in the primary, it showed that even the candidate's own party base was dissatisfied. I can only hope that state and national politicians can see the same thing.
I do not reside in the precinct, or I'd have liked to have voted in a local constable race. One man, Don Fletcher, is running in order to help abolish the office; he won the election last time on that platform and as soon as he was elected, he resigned the office. If the post isn't filled for seven consecutive years it's permanently abolished and would save local taxpayers the sum of $42k annually, the budget for the position. Fletcher wouldn't have run for office this time, but another man, Curtis Broaddus, filed and he was forced to file again.
Read more at the Pampa News website
(I have some opinions about that, and the doofus who is trying to milk the taxpayers for a cushy job, but will withhold them for now. I'll update after the election in another post. )
The funny thing was when I went to the Courthouse to vote, there were two tables, Dem. and Repub. and the latter's line stretched all the way out into the hallway and there was no one at the former. In fact, the election officials, four nice older ladies, switched right in the middle of my registering because the Republican table had been so busy the women needed a break.
A man right behind me and I had been chatting a little bit while waiting in line, and he asked if I had ever voted with the new electronic machines they were using. I told him I had once, but didn't like it, we needed a "paper trail", hanging chads and all. He agreed, and when it came time to vote, I asked for a paper ballot. The woman looked a "little" perturbed, but complied with my request. Immediately, the guy behind me chimed in "I want one, too!"
Within seconds, the same refrain went all the way back down the line, at least to the ones in earshot. "Me, too!" "Yeah, I don't like them machines, either." People coming from already voting were clamoring "Hey, I didn't know we had a choice!"
Now the look towards me was a bit more than a "little"perturbed.
That's OK; I've seen that look on women's faces before: my ex-wife's, my mom and sister's, various girlfriends, sales clerks and waitresses, etc. I'm really not a perturbing sort of guy, but it's my delivery, I'm afraid. I start off being super-nice and cordial, polite to the nth degree, then I screw up their expectations by insisting upon something that is going to cause them some grief and/or extra work.
Doesn't help much even if you keep smiling at them; you've done screwed up with them, horsefly.
March 1, 2008
No Vote IS a Vote!
We've Lept the Leap
Leap Year/Day was almost over before I noticed the date and I wouldn't have noticed except I got my cable and gas bills a day "earlier" than expected and that Carol Paul (Dr. Paul's wife) was celebrating her b-day yesterday.
It reminded me of one of my best friends; his granddad was born on Leap Year and I remember his family getting together to celebrate his 21st birthday. Now, the man was turning 85 years old, but he had only celebrated 20 "real birthdays" in the past, that is, the day on which he had been born had only "come around" every four years.
I once dated a woman who had a delightful little girl and she too had been born on Feb. 29th. I helped her mother with a birthday party, the girl's "second" birthday. (she was turning nine)
Being born on Leap Year would be much better than being born on Christmas Day, I think. No parents are going to deny their child a birthday except for every four years, but being born on a major holiday would be a bummer, what with one's birthday being pushed to the side in favor of Christmas.
At least you could save on candles.
I remember a time when I was in the third grade (I think) It was a leap year and one of the guys in the class ahead of me stopped me in the hallway and asked me what was 8 times 8.
Was this some sort of hazing? I started to panic. Was he trying to trip me up, make me look foolish? (he wouldn't have had to asked a question, just hung around me for a day, he'd seen plenty of foolish stuff)
"Uh....sixty-four?" I answered tentatively. I wasn't for sure; math never was my strong suit.
"Nope." he said, while unwrapping a piece of hard candy. (Jolly Ranchers, remember them?) I waited, figuring the punchline would involve some sort of upperclassman oneupmanship on me. Rolling the candy around in his mouth, he replied with a cinnamon-scented rejoinder:
"Nope." he repeated "Eight times eight is 65."
"It's leap year, after all."
I would've guessed "Jr. Hi."
TV Reviews
I ran across this sticky in another Blogger site while researching a local news story. I was suprised to see it at such an advanced level. (I had another similar sticky a few months back; it showed the "worth" of one's blog and mine never got above $0.00)
After submitting this site's URL, I got the code, then decided I'd go back to looking at the other websites that referenced the story of which I was wanting to learn more. I found a website that had some information that pertained to what I was seeking, then noticed that it linked to the one I had just visited.
Seems that the two sites have been fighting; one is a left-wing nutjob and the other is a right-wing wacko
Drama, don'tcha just love it?
February 28, 2008
The Brightest of Stars
Another beautiful wallpaper or printable poster from the NASA website:
Swirls of gas and dust reside in this ethereal-looking region of star formation seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. This majestic view, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), reveals a region where low-mass, infant stars and their much more massive stellar neighbors reside. A shroud of blue haze gently lingers amid the stars.
Known as LH 95, this is just one of the hundreds of star-forming systems, called associations, located in the LMC some 160,000 light-years distant. Earlier ground-based observations of such systems had only allowed astronomers to study the bright blue giant stars present in these regions. With Hubble's resolution, the low-mass stars can now be analyzed, which will allow for a more accurate calculation of their ages and masses.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
February 25, 2008
Cat Vid
Mischievous feline shenanigans are underscored by the whimsical "La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie)," by Italian composer Gioacchino Antonio Rossini.
