Strategery

So i saw some political commericials today, and they reminded me of the last commercial i saw from Ned Lamont's campaign. For anyone who is unaware, Ned Lamont is challenging Joseph Libierman as a connecticut senator. Libierman has been a democratic senator from ct for the past 18 years, and the vice presidential candidate along with gore, which means within a few hundred votes in florida of being vice president. As it turns out this was not enough for democrats, so they decided to run a campaign against him, and in fact beat him in the primary. He is now running as an independant.

Remember those shows where they would go on the streets ask people simple questions and film how dumb they are. Well that's what ned lamont did. He had a commercial about how dumb people in connecticut are. He went out and asked people what they knew about libierman. In the commercials most of the people asked have never heard of him, some have some vague idea that he is involved in politics, but not anything beyond that, and one actually says he's a republican right? If libierman was a first time senator, than something like this might be done to demonstrate that he had done very little during his time in the senate. but seeing as how libierman has been a senator for 18 years and within a few hundred votes of vice president, any connecticutian who doesn't know joe libierman, is quite simply an idiot. So this is Ned lamont's campaign strategy, to broadcast commercials about how ignorant the people of connecticut are, this is supposed to win him votes. I feel like that campaign could use a few northwestern graduates, to help guide them. Hell even a few highschool graduate could do wonders.

Twinning

So for everyone who has read through the ender series of books, there is an idea that people are connected through some philoctic strings or something, i don't remember the exact name, anyway, the point is that people are connected to each other, and especially strongly connected to people who are especially close to each other, like friends and family. So wednesday i show up to the one class i have with liepa, which meets twice a week. We sit next to each other, and then we realize that we are both wearing the same shirt. We are both wearing our erasmus shirts from lietuva from last year, and we are both wearing that shirt for the first time in chicago.

Coincidence? Impossible, when you consider the wonders that exist all around us... voodoo priests of Haiti, the Tibetan numerologists of Appalachia, the unsolved mysteries of Unsolved Mysteries... The truth is out there.

Ummm, yeah, it's october

Yeah so thursday i wake up and look out the window, cause my bed faces the window, and i think man, it's raining again. Damnation. It had been raining like everyday, and i have ultimate frisbee practice thursdays. I was concerned that they might cancel practice because the fields were too muddy. The university doesn't want people running on muddy fields, because they get torn up. Anyway, i look out the window, and i think man it's raining really hard, it's like a freaken sheet, i see rain everywhere. So then i put on my glasses, and look and the window. And i realize, no, it's not raining, it's snowing. On october the 12. And i just sit up in bed, and say to myself "Ummm, yeah, it's october"

100

So i haven't posted in a while, because i've been busy. After a year abroad, lots to do before i graduate. I will try to go over some of the stuff that happened over the summer, later, but for now i'm just going to put up some recent occurance so i don't fall further behind.

So without further delay, on to new bussiness. Back when i was a sophomore there was an election for the local alderman, this election involved both local people, and students. The candidate favored by most students won, and her opponent tried to have all the student ballots thrown out, because the university offered priority housing to people who registered to vote in the elections, and also threw a party for people who could prove that they voted. This attempt was rejected in court, and the school paper published a short bit in the opinion pages about how the woman was a doof for trying to get the votes thrown out. A local resident at that point took up the banner of doof woman, proclaiming it was northwestern's fault and all student votes should be thrown out. Doof woman was fighting for all her constituents, including the students who she was disenfranchising. So i sent this piece to the paper, and it was published in the opinion section. (originally it was longer, and more convincing, but there is a 300 word limit so i had to trim it.)

This is a response to the woman who gave Fiske a thumbs up for her attempt to throw out all the students votes. I voted in the 2005 elections that elected Cheryl Wollin. I didn’t partake in the party for voters or use housing points, and yet apparently my vote should still be nullified, simply because those “bribes” were offered.
Lets play devils advocate, grant Fiske’s premise, and see what happens at the next election. Northwestern officials and students would scheme up ways to unseat Judy Fiske, and they are pretty clever so they’d come up with one. At the next election university officials will offer parking privileges to all non-student residents who register to vote as well as a party for non-student residents who voted. After the election Wollin would of course sue to throw out all non-student votes, and she would win using identical logic to that Fiske used. Of course it doesn’t matter whether or not anyone accepts any kind of bribe, once the bribes are offered the voters are guilty. Then students alone would decide the outcome of the election.
Luckily in this country we have a justice system that recognizes individuals rights. A justice system that recognizes that you cannot strip a person of the right to vote based entirely on the actions of someone else. If in fact what University officials did was illegal, there was voter fraud, and Fiske was fighting for her constituents, then she would go after the people who committed said crimes, the perpetrators of this “second Watergate.” Instead she attacks me, an innocent student who committed no voter fraud, nor any crime of any kind. It’s clear to me she in fact was fighting not for her constituents, but for one person, herself.

For anyone who is a robert heinlein fan, i can't help but think to his plan for voting. He had 2 options for voting. Basically you put a price on voting, say 10 dollars, you go into the voting booth, and before you vote, you have to answer a question. In his version it was find the answer to a quadratic equation, but it doesn't really matter what the question is, it could be about politics if that is preferable. If you answer correctly, you get to vote, and you get your money back. If you answer incorrectly, you forfeit the money, and don't get to vote. The other version was that instead of risking 10 dollars, which might skew the vote in the direction of the rich who don't mind losing money, you have to risk your life. Then you'll only have people who really care voting. As well as people who are intelligent and or well educated.

Me

Ok. So I'm in Savannah, GA! Historic Savannah is super gorgeous, but when you get out of the small area it turns ghetto. Five people got shot last week on the same day in Savannah. It's warm though and I got a kick ass tan already, so I love it. My group of friends is awesome/crazy, so I lucked out. I got two good roommates, not that I hang out with them much outside our room, but they aren't sucky by any means. I'm taking 2-D Design, Drawing I and Survey of Western Art and my major is Interactive Game Design & Development. I told myself I'd come here to study and not to try to party, except I've partied every weekend, and this past wknd we threw a hotel party for our friend in South Carolina cuz she turned 18 (facebook photo's to follow). So far, everything is awesome with me. Also, I'm skipping my one 11-1:30 class today. And everyone here gets Friday's off. Buahaha

-Vytenis