Winston Churchhill said, "Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others". I believe in this idea very strongly.
I am a democrat with a lowercase d, and according to polls, I hold Democratic values on more issues than I do Libertarian or Green and I hold (strangely) zero values in common with Republicans (even though they pioneered the right to property, privacy etc.) Please do not argue with me on this point. I do not mean to condone slavery.
I am currently a high school student. I was Governor of Badger Boys State, which gave me some perspective on democracy and the military. (Badger Boys State is run by the American Legion.) I learned much, made many friends with veterans and other 'campers', and learned that I truly do love my country despite the news constantly advertising its faults.)
I am against what we call an end-to end solution for voting. This proposal which I will debunk involves using computers to:
1. Select the candidate you wish to vote for.
2. Computers will count the votes as they come in, and total them.
3. Computers will display the result, *or* print them.
Some people have claimed that if in this third step, there is a print out of the vote that the voter cast that this will solve the problems and make the existing machines ok (as there is already electronic voting in some states.)
This is in fact misguided.
Computers can print out anything, and display anything, they can record anything.
And what they print out can be exactly what you entered, and what they record can be different.
Your print-out can say your vote was recorded correctly, but the final total that is the result can still be faulty.
Keep in mind that the computer is most definite
Curses. at 2005-09-16 14:26:24I went to a sorority house (yeah, you heard me) for a get-together for the Daily Trojan film team. We watched "The Rundown" and played a movie trivia game. Everybody seemed pretty cool, except for this one guy who felt he was a master of all movie trivia, and had no compunction about berating people who knew less than he did.
Melissa kept making "kill him" gestures at me when he'd open his mouth.
I've gotta be careful, because she just keeps getting cooler and cooler. We even make the same kind of jokes, and I strangely don't feel at all self-conscious around her, even though I have every reason to.
There is definitely some kind of simpatico thing going on between us, as much as part of me had kind of hoped their wouldn't be. When I came in the room she moved from the other side of it and said she wanted to sit by me. And at the end of the night she asked to borrow my "Dead Alive" DVD because, you know, she's got good taste like that.
Ye
I usually don't do a cryptic, one-sentence, Pescante-style entry but... at 2005-09-16 14:26:24Things are getting trickier here.