me.di.an 'me-d-e--*n n 1: a medial part 2: a value in an ordered set of values below and above which there are an equal number of values
mean 'me-n n 1a1: something intervening or intermediate 1a2: a middle point between extremes 1b1: a value that lies within a range of values, that is computed from the range according to a prescribed law, and that represents the range; specif : ARITHMETIC MEAN 1b2: the arithmetic mean of the two extremes of a range of values 1b3: either of the middle two terms of a proportion pl but sing or pl in constr
So saying that the median home price is $410K indicates that half of the houses are more expensive than $410K and the other half is below that price. Too bad they don't report the average and the standard deviation.
Memphis: Not a bad place. I pay $700/month for a nice 2000 sq ft victorian with hardwoods in a decent neighborhood. You can get a cable modem, ASDL, or cheap ISDN. Decent music scene (birthplace of the blues and R&R, or so they say) with a yearly large music festival and multiple smaller festivals, Beale Street, etc. Decent food, though a little heavy on the barbecue. Crime is not the best feature, but it seems somewhat compartmentalized. No strong tech oriented university though, and not really a "tech" city, though tech jobs exist.
You must live someplace in Midtown. While some of those houses can be nice and cheap, the problem that I have with them are they are right next to those 'compartmentalized crime' areas which are growing. I wouldn't say your case is typical though. I've seen listings in the CA for houses a little more than 1/2 the size of yours for the same rent in the UofM/EMemphis area. Just about anything of similar size in Bartlett, Germantown, Cordova, Collierville, etc. will be over $1k.
Saying that crime is not the best feature is an understatement. How many different crime rate categories is Memphis in the top 10? While some things may be 'compartmentalized', others such as car theft, are certainly not. The crime stats are usually published in the newspaper by zip code.
I guess I'll have to agree to disagree with you on this one. Given the crappy public schools, the crime rate, the large scummy and dirty areas, the constant racial bickering, the interstate highways that one must use off-ramps to stay on, etc. I would not consider it a good place to live. I suppose my first impression of it (driving into the bombed out section of Crump Ave because I missed the off ramp to stay on I-55) doesn't help much either.
He couldn't just pick up a phone, call the gas stations, and ask? Too bad I don't have the money, but I would like to get a VW diesel Jetta (or maybe a Bug). They get something like 48mpg and have an 800 mile range with one tank of fuel. It would be nice to visit my family and only have to fill up once. I tend to like smaller fuel efficient vehicles, not because I'm a tree hugger wanting to save the planet, but because I'm a cheapskate. I don't like paying much for anything. As a result, Linux appeals not only to my Unix geek side, but the skinflint side of my personallity.
I've read news stories about Atlanta becoming the LA of the East as far as traffic congestion is concerned. The EPA is also clamping down on road construction because of the air polution problems, making the traffic congestion worse. It's too bad that bus systems across the country all seem to have one thing in common: they have routes and schedules that seem to encourage people to drive instead of using the bus. A friend of mine in Phoenix said he checked into riding the bus to work, but because of the screwy schedule and the number of transfers involved, it would be faster for him to ride a bike.
Compared to CA real-estate prices, no it wouldn't be too bad. I'm sure prices in the sandhill section of the state is pretty cheap. But, just because land is cheap doesn't mean that everything else is cheap and you will be making a lot less than other places. Nebraska has a lot more people than say, Wyoming which has about 500,000 people.
I've heard of people from several places (Provo, SLC, Sioux Falls, Rodchester, etc.) that were initially pleased to be picked as #1 in the Money Magazine Best Places to live survey. Then people from CA and other places began moving in bringing all the social ills along with them, ruining all what was good with the place in the first place. The next year the city drops a large amount of the MM list. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the people who move and then go on public assistance as soon as they get there. A 2% unemployment rate doesn't always mean there are lots of new jobs.
Money Magazine doesn't rank the cities 1-300 anymore. It categorizes each city in specific groups: NE, South, Midwest, West, Big, medium, small. Maybe this was the result of cities complaining of the influx of rif-raf after each one of these surveys came out.
While I understand how useful a SUV can be (a previous poster compaired them to a swiss army knife), I don't understand why people commute in them. Especially with the really big ones like a suburban. Why buy a $30K+ vehicle that gets maybe 10-15 mpg back and forth to work? You are risking it getting it hit by some idiot that doesn't know how to drive and putting more mileage on it driving down its value. I can understand why a friend of mine drives one. His Explorer is full of test equipment that he needs and he often has to go to construction sites that may or may not have decent access for his job. Seeing a 18ft SUV going down the road with just one person going to work in an office is crazy. Get a small Jeep or pick up all your buddies at work and carpool.
I would think a light rail system with park & ride lots near these housing developments would be very successful. A well designed bus system would help while still using the existing road system. There is a bus stop right in front of my work. I would much rather use it than driving, but I have to drop kids off at school so I could only use it for a few months of the year. It is nice to not have to worry about the traffic and I can read while going back and forth to work. I learned Java that way.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the big cities in Tennessee. The cost of living is about average or less than average and the weather is ok. Aparently the IT related job market in Nashville is pretty good. FedEx is Memphis is always griping that they can't hire enough IT staff. The area doesn't produce enough IT talent and they can't attract enough from out of state. But then again, a friend of mine has said the only reasons someone moves to Memphis are:
If this was an hourly position, I would like to know what loophole they found to get away with this. Every state has a set of minimum requirements for determining overtime pay. Off the top of my head, in TX, it's probably anything over 40hrs is 1.5x pay. I'm sure the Texas Dept of Labor would be interested in this formula too.
Uh, but I think someone in the legal department of your company had better check the laws in your state. I'm pretty sure that is illegal. Overtime calculations aren't arbitrary formulas that an employer can just make up. Every state has a set of mininum requirements that must be followed. So unless they want to keep themselves open to a lawsuit and/or a fine, they better check up on it.
For the reasons you mentioned, most engineers or software developers will not be subject to these overtime laws. These positions are are probably salaried and I would hope pay more than 2x minimum wage. This law is primarly aimed at hourly workers.
Remember, this is something that is not new. CA had a similar law just a couple years ago that was replaced with a more standard overtime definition (ie. anything over 40 is 1.5x the pay rate). It wasn't just anything over 8 hours a day either. If you worked for 6 days or more straight, anything over 30 hours for the entire week was overtime as long as one didn't work more than a certain amount in any one given day. This was just for hourly workers. However, CA is beginning to put a 40 hour restriction on salaried workers in some industries such as retail operations.
The other states that have similar but, not as strict laws are Nevada, Alaska, and Colorado. NV and AK start calculating OT after 8 hours and CO starts calculating it after 12 hrs for a single day. While I don't live in California, this irks me because I maintain the payroll software my company uses. Before we opened a CA location, I had to rework all the software to take advantage of this. Then the law as repealed, so my changes weren't needed. Now it looks like I'll have to fold those changes back in with the Y2K version. Thank you Dale R. Worley for the emerge functions in emacs!
The other wierd things about CA: If a person quits or is fired, they have to be paid on the spot what they are owed for the current payroll period including any vacation time. Also, the paycheck has to be drawn from an account in CA bank. I guess payback to the CA bankers lobby.
Re:How will this affect the parties in power?
on
Voting over the net?
·
· Score: 1
I'm not exactly sure how difficult it is compared to other areas, but I think it was rather easy to get registered to vote. I can't remember exactly what forms of documentation I had to bring, but it was something that took only a few minutes. I don't understand on how my use of the word 'welfare' would mean that voter registration is difficult here. The city in which I live unfortunately has 20-25% of its population illiterate, 'we take food stamps' signs are prominently displayed in just about every grocery and drug store, and the average household income is only about $2K above the poverty line, so I would guess the percentage of the citizens receiving some form of public assistance is not small. After each major election, the local newspaper prints a map showing the results by precinct. The only difference that I can see between the areas of the 'haves' and 'have-nots' is that the have-nots appear to vote heavily, if not exclusively, for one party.
Actually, I would think if elections were done only by electronic means, the biggest group to be excluded would be the technopobic elederly population. That would be significant, because from what I've read, the elderly are the most active voters. Not all elderly people are scared of computers, and apparently the biggest demographic group for WebTV is the 60+ bunch. Maybe electronic voting would spur the sales of WebTV units? Oh boy, yet another way to increase MS' grip on the public.
Re:How will this affect the parties in power?
on
Voting over the net?
·
· Score: 1
I'm not a legal scholar by any means, so I'm not exactly sure what the legal difference between a right and a privelege is. But given that federal and state legislatures can limit ones ability to vote, _I_ would still consider it a privelege. Check out Things that are not in the US Constitution:
The Right to Vote
The Constitution contains many phrases, clauses, and amendments detailing ways people cannot be denied the right to vote. You cannot deny the right to vote because of race or sex. Citizens of Washington DC can vote for President; 18-year-olds can vote; you can vote even if you fail to pay a poll tax. The Constitution also requires that anyone who can vote for the "most numerous branch" of their state legislature can vote for House members and Senate members. Note that in all of this, though, the Constitution never explicitly ensures the right to vote, as it does the right to speech, for example. This is precisely why so many amendments have been needed over time - the qualifications for voters are left to the states. And as long as the qualifications do not conflict with anything in the Constitution, that right can be withheld. For example, in Texas, persons declared mentally incompetent and felons currently in prison or on probation are denied the right to vote.
I agree, but it *is* our obligation to vote, it is just an obligation to vote informed. Those who aren't interested enough in their government to vote when they are eligible I don't consider real citizens.
I couldn't agree with you more. I've only missed one election in the past 13 years. That was due a mistake I made when I moved once. The polling place was literally right across the street from where I lived. So I just assumed that I would vote where I always had before. Wrong! The street was the precinct dividing line and I had to go someplace else and they didn't have me registered there and because the phone lines were jammed, they couldn't get my info from the election commission office. My wife had said that I shouldn't have been so honest and just gave them our old address. Oh well, I'll make sure I have everything in proper order next time.
There are a few sites on the web where US citizens can file their Federal tax returns in addition to using PC based packages such as TurboTax. I like it because I get an email from the IRS notifying me that they have received and processed my return. I've always worried that the wonderful US Postal Service would lose my tax return and I would get audited because of it.
Re:How will this affect the parties in power?
on
Voting over the net?
·
· Score: 1
I guess you can't tell the difference between a signature line and the main body of a post. The signature is a compressed version (to fit within the 120 char limit) of a quote from The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Soustroup(sp?). It describes the actions and attitudes of a former employer of mine towards all of its employees.
Voting is privelege and should be treated as such. Do you really want people who don't know anything about the issues/candidates (whether it because they are too lazy to investigate or unable to comprehend) making these decisions? While voting, I've actually seen the illiterate ask the people working at the polls to read their pre marked sample ballot given to them by candidate X and to show them which buttons to push. I agree that the public should be informed about the issues and that they are pretty much getting a biased opinion of those issues now.
The CC was trying to use a religious tax exempt status to hide behind while engaging in political activity full time. I believe I've read that such tax exempt organizations can only spend 5% of their income on political activity and the CC was devoting 100% of it.
Re:How will this affect the parties in power?
on
Voting over the net?
·
· Score: 1
No, what I'm saying is that the idea that the 'have-nots' don't vote is bullshit. There are many 'poverty pimps' (as a certain CO radio personality would say) elected to office now as evidence of this. The current system makes it very easy to vote as it is.
This sort of coersion(sp) already happens. I had an uncle who belonged to his local UAW union and he always got fliers showing how the union wanted its members to vote and was told he should vote that way if he knew what was good for him. Other relatives who unfortunately have to belong to unions to work at their job have said they get the same sort of stuff also. My grandfather-in-law said he always took the union premarked ballot and voted the opposite way the union bosses wanted him to.
It's pretty easy now. I just drive or walk to the polling place for my district and vote. If I can't do that, I go to one of the places where I can get an absentee balot beforehand, fill it out and send it in. I think low turnout is due to people being too lazy or not caring about their civic duty.
The reason why motor-voter law was opposed is because it opens the floodgates for voter fraud. Under the this law, there is hardly any form of checking to see that the person is elligible to vote. I've even read of people registering to vote in multiple districts in multiple states using this. Don't tell me that felons, illegal aliens, and anyone else who can't vote wouldn't think of trying to register when renewing their driver's license.
The polls on election day are usually open from 7am to 7 or 8pm. If you can't find the time to vote during that block of time, get an absentee balot. In my city alone, there are several locations where one can go for early voting via absentee balots. Seems to me if you can't make the time to do either of these, then you are too lazy to vote. And yes, campaign finance laws should be changed to index the contribution limits to inflation.
Re:How will this affect the parties in power?
on
Voting over the net?
·
· Score: 1
The have-nots don't vote enough as it is.
You apparently don't live in or near an area with a lot of these 'have-nots'. There are politicians that suck up to these groups like crazy. Half of their platform is telling them that their opponent will take away their Social Security/welfare/insert your favorite subsidy here. The other half is about how they will bring more money to the impoverished. These people are given pre marked sample ballots and then given rides to the polls.
In my opinion, it should be harder to get registered to vote. We need to cut down on fraud and make sure that the people who are voting are informed. I don't want some idiot voting who doesn't have a clue what he's voting for.
That's an interesting view. I've heard several y2k 'experts' fear that NYC may become like Beruit if there is a major power grid/communications failure in the NorthEast.
Whether there is a power failure or not, I wouldn't be surprised if some of 'celebration' of the end of 1999 includes a few riots and looting sprees. Hey, it happens when the Bulls win the NBA finals, why not with Y2K?
I went to a local Chinese restaurant a couple nights ago and my bank card was denied. This was odd, given I had plenty to cover the bill. So I went to one of my bank's ATMs. It didn't work either because it said the bank network was down. Luckily, I was a somewhat regular customer, so the owner took a check.
It was an eyeopener to how dependent I had become on a bank debit card. The owner of the restaurant said that all Chinese (or at least the Chinese he knows) do not trust banks, so they use cash as much as possible. Aparently in his Tiawan there have been some bank failures or mergers where the depositors only get a fraction of their money out of the bank and that is one reason he uses cash (having the IRS tracking your income is another). He said it was not uncommon for some of his wealthy friends in California to have 1/2 a mil in cash hidden away in their homes (a real bummer if there is a wildfire and the house goes up in smoke). That attitude doesn't sound that much different from those who lived through the Great Depression.
Also note that the Federal Reserve is increasing the amount of cash in circulation because of the demand to have cash for y2k purposes.
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From Gdict:
me.di.an 'me-d-e--*n n 1: a medial part 2: a value in an ordered set of values below and above which there are an equal number of values
mean 'me-n n 1a1: something intervening or intermediate 1a2: a middle point between extremes 1b1: a value that lies within a range of values, that is computed from the range according to a prescribed law, and that represents the range; specif : ARITHMETIC MEAN 1b2: the arithmetic mean of the two extremes of a range of values 1b3: either of the middle two terms of a proportion pl but sing or pl in constr
So saying that the median home price is $410K indicates that half of the houses are more expensive than $410K and the other half is below that price. Too bad they don't report the average and the standard deviation.
Memphis: Not a bad place. I pay $700/month for a nice 2000 sq ft victorian with hardwoods in a decent neighborhood. You can get a cable modem, ASDL, or cheap ISDN. Decent music scene (birthplace of the blues and R&R, or so they say) with a yearly large music festival and multiple smaller festivals, Beale Street, etc. Decent food, though a little heavy on the barbecue. Crime is not the best feature, but it seems somewhat compartmentalized. No strong tech oriented university though, and not really a "tech" city, though tech jobs exist.
You must live someplace in Midtown. While some of those houses can be nice and cheap, the problem that I have with them are they are right next to those 'compartmentalized crime' areas which are growing. I wouldn't say your case is typical though. I've seen listings in the CA for houses a little more than 1/2 the size of yours for the same rent in the UofM/EMemphis area. Just about anything of similar size in Bartlett, Germantown, Cordova, Collierville, etc. will be over $1k.
Saying that crime is not the best feature is an understatement. How many different crime rate categories is Memphis in the top 10? While some things may be 'compartmentalized', others such as car theft, are certainly not. The crime stats are usually published in the newspaper by zip code.
I guess I'll have to agree to disagree with you on this one. Given the crappy public schools, the crime rate, the large scummy and dirty areas, the constant racial bickering, the interstate highways that one must use off-ramps to stay on, etc. I would not consider it a good place to live. I suppose my first impression of it (driving into the bombed out section of Crump Ave because I missed the off ramp to stay on I-55) doesn't help much either.
He couldn't just pick up a phone, call the gas stations, and ask? Too bad I don't have the money, but I would like to get a VW diesel Jetta (or maybe a Bug). They get something like 48mpg and have an 800 mile range with one tank of fuel. It would be nice to visit my family and only have to fill up once. I tend to like smaller fuel efficient vehicles, not because I'm a tree hugger wanting to save the planet, but because I'm a cheapskate. I don't like paying much for anything. As a result, Linux appeals not only to my Unix geek side, but the skinflint side of my personallity.
I've read news stories about Atlanta becoming the LA of the East as far as traffic congestion is concerned. The EPA is also clamping down on road construction because of the air polution problems, making the traffic congestion worse. It's too bad that bus systems across the country all seem to have one thing in common: they have routes and schedules that seem to encourage people to drive instead of using the bus. A friend of mine in Phoenix said he checked into riding the bus to work, but because of the screwy schedule and the number of transfers involved, it would be faster for him to ride a bike.
Compared to CA real-estate prices, no it wouldn't be too bad. I'm sure prices in the sandhill section of the state is pretty cheap. But, just because land is cheap doesn't mean that everything else is cheap and you will be making a lot less than other places. Nebraska has a lot more people than say, Wyoming which has about 500,000 people.
I've heard of people from several places (Provo, SLC, Sioux Falls, Rodchester, etc.) that were initially pleased to be picked as #1 in the Money Magazine Best Places to live survey. Then people from CA and other places began moving in bringing all the social ills along with them, ruining all what was good with the place in the first place. The next year the city drops a large amount of the MM list. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the people who move and then go on public assistance as soon as they get there. A 2% unemployment rate doesn't always mean there are lots of new jobs.
Money Magazine doesn't rank the cities 1-300 anymore. It categorizes each city in specific groups: NE, South, Midwest, West, Big, medium, small. Maybe this was the result of cities complaining of the influx of rif-raf after each one of these surveys came out.
While I understand how useful a SUV can be (a previous poster compaired them to a swiss army knife), I don't understand why people commute in them. Especially with the really big ones like a suburban. Why buy a $30K+ vehicle that gets maybe 10-15 mpg back and forth to work? You are risking it getting it hit by some idiot that doesn't know how to drive and putting more mileage on it driving down its value. I can understand why a friend of mine drives one. His Explorer is full of test equipment that he needs and he often has to go to construction sites that may or may not have decent access for his job. Seeing a 18ft SUV going down the road with just one person going to work in an office is crazy. Get a small Jeep or pick up all your buddies at work and carpool.
I would think a light rail system with park & ride lots near these housing developments would be very successful. A well designed bus system would help while still using the existing road system. There is a bus stop right in front of my work. I would much rather use it than driving, but I have to drop kids off at school so I could only use it for a few months of the year. It is nice to not have to worry about the traffic and I can read while going back and forth to work. I learned Java that way.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the big cities in Tennessee. The cost of living is about average or less than average and the weather is ok. Aparently the IT related job market in Nashville is pretty good. FedEx is Memphis is always griping that they can't hire enough IT staff. The area doesn't produce enough IT talent and they can't attract enough from out of state. But then again, a friend of mine has said the only reasons someone moves to Memphis are:
If this was an hourly position, I would like to know what loophole they found to get away with this. Every state has a set of minimum requirements for determining overtime pay. Off the top of my head, in TX, it's probably anything over 40hrs is 1.5x pay. I'm sure the Texas Dept of Labor would be interested in this formula too.
Uh, but I think someone in the legal department of your company had better check the laws in your state. I'm pretty sure that is illegal. Overtime calculations aren't arbitrary formulas that an employer can just make up. Every state has a set of mininum requirements that must be followed. So unless they want to keep themselves open to a lawsuit and/or a fine, they better check up on it.
For the reasons you mentioned, most engineers or software developers will not be subject to these overtime laws. These positions are are probably salaried and I would hope pay more than 2x minimum wage. This law is primarly aimed at hourly workers.
Remember, this is something that is not new. CA had a similar law just a couple years ago that was replaced with a more standard overtime definition (ie. anything over 40 is 1.5x the pay rate). It wasn't just anything over 8 hours a day either. If you worked for 6 days or more straight, anything over 30 hours for the entire week was overtime as long as one didn't work more than a certain amount in any one given day. This was just for hourly workers. However, CA is beginning to put a 40 hour restriction on salaried workers in some industries such as retail operations.
The other states that have similar but, not as strict laws are Nevada, Alaska, and Colorado. NV and AK start calculating OT after 8 hours and CO starts calculating it after 12 hrs for a single day. While I don't live in California, this irks me because I maintain the payroll software my company uses. Before we opened a CA location, I had to rework all the software to take advantage of this. Then the law as repealed, so my changes weren't needed. Now it looks like I'll have to fold those changes back in with the Y2K version. Thank you Dale R. Worley for the emerge functions in emacs!
The other wierd things about CA: If a person quits or is fired, they have to be paid on the spot what they are owed for the current payroll period including any vacation time. Also, the paycheck has to be drawn from an account in CA bank. I guess payback to the CA bankers lobby.
I'm not exactly sure how difficult it is compared to other areas, but I think it was rather easy to get registered to vote. I can't remember exactly what forms of documentation I had to bring, but it was something that took only a few minutes. I don't understand on how my use of the word 'welfare' would mean that voter registration is difficult here. The city in which I live unfortunately has 20-25% of its population illiterate, 'we take food stamps' signs are prominently displayed in just about every grocery and drug store, and the average household income is only about $2K above the poverty line, so I would guess the percentage of the citizens receiving some form of public assistance is not small. After each major election, the local newspaper prints a map showing the results by precinct. The only difference that I can see between the areas of the 'haves' and 'have-nots' is that the have-nots appear to vote heavily, if not exclusively, for one party.
Actually, I would think if elections were done only by electronic means, the biggest group to be excluded would be the technopobic elederly population. That would be significant, because from what I've read, the elderly are the most active voters. Not all elderly people are scared of computers, and apparently the biggest demographic group for WebTV is the 60+ bunch. Maybe electronic voting would spur the sales of WebTV units? Oh boy, yet another way to increase MS' grip on the public.
I'm not a legal scholar by any means, so I'm not exactly sure what the legal difference between a right and a privelege is. But given that federal and state legislatures can limit ones ability to vote, _I_ would still consider it a privelege. Check out Things that are not in the US Constitution:
The Right to Vote
The Constitution contains many phrases, clauses, and amendments detailing ways people cannot be denied the right to vote. You cannot deny the right to vote because of race or sex. Citizens of Washington DC can vote for President; 18-year-olds can vote; you can vote even if you fail to pay a poll tax. The Constitution also requires that anyone who can vote for the "most numerous branch" of their state legislature can vote for House members and Senate members. Note that in all of this, though, the Constitution never explicitly ensures the right to vote, as it does the right to speech, for example. This is precisely why so many amendments have been needed over time - the qualifications for voters are left to the states. And as long as the qualifications do not conflict with anything in the Constitution, that right can be withheld. For example, in Texas, persons declared mentally incompetent and felons currently in prison or on probation are denied the right to vote.
I agree, but it *is* our obligation to vote, it is just an obligation to vote informed. Those who aren't interested enough in their government to vote when they are eligible I don't consider real citizens.
I couldn't agree with you more. I've only missed one election in the past 13 years. That was due a mistake I made when I moved once. The polling place was literally right across the street from where I lived. So I just assumed that I would vote where I always had before. Wrong! The street was the precinct dividing line and I had to go someplace else and they didn't have me registered there and because the phone lines were jammed, they couldn't get my info from the election commission office. My wife had said that I shouldn't have been so honest and just gave them our old address. Oh well, I'll make sure I have everything in proper order next time.
There are a few sites on the web where US citizens can file their Federal tax returns in addition to using PC based packages such as TurboTax. I like it because I get an email from the IRS notifying me that they have received and processed my return. I've always worried that the wonderful US Postal Service would lose my tax return and I would get audited because of it.
I guess you can't tell the difference between a signature line and the main body of a post. The signature is a compressed version (to fit within the 120 char limit) of a quote from The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Soustroup(sp?). It describes the actions and attitudes of a former employer of mine towards all of its employees.
Voting is privelege and should be treated as such. Do you really want people who don't know anything about the issues/candidates (whether it because they are too lazy to investigate or unable to comprehend) making these decisions? While voting, I've actually seen the illiterate ask the people working at the polls to read their pre marked sample ballot given to them by candidate X and to show them which buttons to push. I agree that the public should be informed about the issues and that they are pretty much getting a biased opinion of those issues now.
The CC was trying to use a religious tax exempt status to hide behind while engaging in political activity full time. I believe I've read that such tax exempt organizations can only spend 5% of their income on political activity and the CC was devoting 100% of it.
No, what I'm saying is that the idea that the 'have-nots' don't vote is bullshit. There are many 'poverty pimps' (as a certain CO radio personality would say) elected to office now as evidence of this. The current system makes it very easy to vote as it is.
This sort of coersion(sp) already happens. I had an uncle who belonged to his local UAW union and he always got fliers showing how the union wanted its members to vote and was told he should vote that way if he knew what was good for him. Other relatives who unfortunately have to belong to unions to work at their job have said they get the same sort of stuff also. My grandfather-in-law said he always took the union premarked ballot and voted the opposite way the union bosses wanted him to.
It's pretty easy now. I just drive or walk to the polling place for my district and vote. If I can't do that, I go to one of the places where I can get an absentee balot beforehand, fill it out and send it in. I think low turnout is due to people being too lazy or not caring about their civic duty.
The reason why motor-voter law was opposed is because it opens the floodgates for voter fraud. Under the this law, there is hardly any form of checking to see that the person is elligible to vote. I've even read of people registering to vote in multiple districts in multiple states using this. Don't tell me that felons, illegal aliens, and anyone else who can't vote wouldn't think of trying to register when renewing their driver's license.
The polls on election day are usually open from 7am to 7 or 8pm. If you can't find the time to vote during that block of time, get an absentee balot. In my city alone, there are several locations where one can go for early voting via absentee balots. Seems to me if you can't make the time to do either of these, then you are too lazy to vote. And yes, campaign finance laws should be changed to index the contribution limits to inflation.
The have-nots don't vote enough as it is.
You apparently don't live in or near an area with a lot of these 'have-nots'. There are politicians that suck up to these groups like crazy. Half of their platform is telling them that their opponent will take away their Social Security/welfare/insert your favorite subsidy here. The other half is about how they will bring more money to the impoverished. These people are given pre marked sample ballots and then given rides to the polls.
In my opinion, it should be harder to get registered to vote. We need to cut down on fraud and make sure that the people who are voting are informed. I don't want some idiot voting who doesn't have a clue what he's voting for.
That's an interesting view. I've heard several y2k 'experts' fear that NYC may become like Beruit if there is a major power grid/communications failure in the NorthEast.
Whether there is a power failure or not, I wouldn't be surprised if some of 'celebration' of the end of 1999 includes a few riots and looting sprees. Hey, it happens when the Bulls win the NBA finals, why not with Y2K?
I went to a local Chinese restaurant a couple nights ago and my bank card was denied. This was odd, given I had plenty to cover the bill. So I went to one of my bank's ATMs. It didn't work either because it said the bank network was down. Luckily, I was a somewhat regular customer, so the owner took a check.
It was an eyeopener to how dependent I had become on a bank debit card. The owner of the restaurant said that all Chinese (or at least the Chinese he knows) do not trust banks, so they use cash as much as possible. Aparently in his Tiawan there have been some bank failures or mergers where the depositors only get a fraction of their money out of the bank and that is one reason he uses cash (having the IRS tracking your income is another). He said it was not uncommon for some of his wealthy friends in California to have 1/2 a mil in cash hidden away in their homes (a real bummer if there is a wildfire and the house goes up in smoke). That attitude doesn't sound that much different from those who lived through the Great Depression.
Also note that the Federal Reserve is increasing the amount of cash in circulation because of the demand to have cash for y2k purposes.