short takes

[cellio]

I have half a large cantaloupe and more than enough fruit salad. So far, it appears my other options are blender drinks and sweet cold soups. I guess that shouldn't surprise me too much, but I wonder if I can do better.

Today's mail brought a membership appeal from "Toys for Tots Christmas Club". Oh, let me count the ways in which they have missed their mark... no, on second thought, let's not. :-)

I've spent the last month being a registered Democrat for tax purposes. (I'll fix it after the mayoral election -- err, "primary".) It should be fascinating to see what that does to the makeup of my junk mail.

A question occurred to me while contemplating a conference in England that ends on a Friday (not that I'm expecting to be allowed to go, but): If I get onto a west-bound plane shortly before Shabbat, and at no point during the trip am I in an area where it is already Shabbat, is that kosher? (It might not be smart, of course, as one delayed connection can ruin one's whole day.)

Note to anonymous coworker: if you only get the error after you've edited the code, and you can't produce it from the checked-in version, it is not my bug. :-)

Comments

[cellio]

In this city Democrats outnumber Republicans 5 to 1 (and let's not even talk about minor parties like Libertarian), so the Democratic primary is the mayoral election. The current mayor drove the city into bankruptcy with a combination of reckless spending (he's in bed with too many special interests) and raised taxes (driving out the tax base), so the real question on the ballot is "who's going to fix this and how?". So I'm really spending a month as a Democrat for economic purposes, but "tax purposes" sounded better. :-)

You can change party registration at any time, but have to do it a month before an election if you want it to matter for that election. Tomorrow I'll re-register in my real party.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Virginia has open primaries (like Wisconsin used to have and maybe still does). When you register to vote, you are not asked to supply a party affiliation (and if you give one it is not recorded).

We have primaries coming up in VA next month. In our district most of the Democratic candidates are running for their nominations unopposed. I expect that, in this case, a ton of Democrats are going to vote for the most extreme right-wing Fundie-publican in each race. Of course, this sort of abuse is not unique to places with open primaries; in PA, all they have to do is switch parties a month beforehand. (Though in that case, there is a record of such an occurrence.) I wonder if the Louisiana system might work better -- one primary, everyone in one single pot, and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.

[cellio]

I don't normally cross party lines to vote in someone else's primary, as it feels wrong, but in this case the Democrats asked their party faithful to do exactly that last year, to influence which Republican they'd be running against in the senate, so there's that whole "sauce for the goose" thing. Not that there's been an organized campaign or that the few non-Democrats will really make a difference, but...

I like the Louisiana system. Even better, skip the primary and conduct an Australian ballot. It'd never fly, but it would be fascinating if it did -- for once people could vote their consciences without having to worry about the effects on the lesser of the two main evils.

[profane-stencil.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't have been so literal! Thanks.