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A combination of darts and a war game. It seems almost obvious in restrospect... almost. But it's not the first combination of dexterity game and board game: I have Cairo, an area majority game where you flick your cubes into the areas, but I've never found the right time to bring it out. What will they think of next? Billiards of Catan? Crokassonne? Loopin' Louis XIV?
Jill Stein is running for Massachusetts Secretary of State against incumbent Bill Galvin. She was the Green-Rainbow Party candidate for Governor in 2002. There is no Republican running for this office, so it's a one-on-one race between Democrat and Green. There will be a brief (5 minute!) debate on CBS4 evening news tonight at 6pm. Set your Tivo! I am voting for her because she supports instant runoff voting, clean elections, redistricting reform, and other related issues that I consider fundamental to the democratic process. I'm basically a single-issue voter, and I'm glad that she is putting the issue of electoral reform first and foremost in her campaign.
I'm also voting for James O'Keefe for Treasurer and Rand Wilson for Auditor. These are also one-on-one elections against Democrat incumbents, so there's no distracton of questions about splitting the vote. I have no idea how much attention these races have been getting—probably very little—but I hope these candidates can at least make some sort of non-trivial impact on the vote.
Wilson also supports Question 2, which allows multiple parties to nominate the same candidate for an elected position. I have mixed feelings about this one—it's a half-measure, and somewhat confusing—but I think it will do more good than harm, or at worst be a wash.
By the way, you can see a copy of your ballot online at wheredoivotema.com. Just enter your street address.
Oh yeah, and for Governor: I haven't really been following this race at all, but is there any reason to vote against Deval Patrick? My one Republican friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
muttstain (at least I think that's him?) says Patrick will raise everyone's taxes and release rapists from jail. I'm skeptical.
Edit: I almost forgot, I also ran across a FairVote article about choice voting in Cambridge.
I'm also voting for James O'Keefe for Treasurer and Rand Wilson for Auditor. These are also one-on-one elections against Democrat incumbents, so there's no distracton of questions about splitting the vote. I have no idea how much attention these races have been getting—probably very little—but I hope these candidates can at least make some sort of non-trivial impact on the vote.
Wilson also supports Question 2, which allows multiple parties to nominate the same candidate for an elected position. I have mixed feelings about this one—it's a half-measure, and somewhat confusing—but I think it will do more good than harm, or at worst be a wash.
By the way, you can see a copy of your ballot online at wheredoivotema.com. Just enter your street address.
Oh yeah, and for Governor: I haven't really been following this race at all, but is there any reason to vote against Deval Patrick? My one Republican friend
muttstain (at least I think that's him?) says Patrick will raise everyone's taxes and release rapists from jail. I'm skeptical.Edit: I almost forgot, I also ran across a FairVote article about choice voting in Cambridge.
The New York Times says that there's a glut of serialized dramas on TV (link from a comment on urbaniak's journal). I have to agree—I'm watching 12(!) of them currently: Studio 60, Heroes, What About Brian, The Unit, Lost, Jericho, The Nine, Survivor (yes, I think this counts), Six Degrees, Battlestar Galactica, Kidnapped, and Vanished. I was also watching Smith, but that got cancelled after 3 episodes. I used to watch 24, but I got tired of it in the middle of season 3 (but I've heard it's gotten better since then), and I would like to watch Prison Break but I missed the beginning of the series and haven't gotten around to catching up. These are all good shows (and Smith was not even the weakest), but the problem is that people don't have time to watch all of them, don't want to come in in the middle of the story, and don't want to commit to a show that might get cancelled without finishing the story. It's an embarrassment of riches, in some ways, but the way broadcast television works is just kind of a broken model for this sort of thing. I'm somewhat surprised that there hasn't been a series released direct to DVD (or download) yet, but it's not clear that that model is economically viable either. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, though I'm not optimistic.
urbaniak's journal). I have to agree—I'm watching 12(!) of them currently: Studio 60, Heroes, What About Brian, The Unit, Lost, Jericho, The Nine, Survivor (yes, I think this counts), Six Degrees, Battlestar Galactica, Kidnapped, and Vanished. I was also watching Smith, but that got cancelled after 3 episodes. I used to watch 24, but I got tired of it in the middle of season 3 (but I've heard it's gotten better since then), and I would like to watch Prison Break but I missed the beginning of the series and haven't gotten around to catching up. These are all good shows (and Smith was not even the weakest), but the problem is that people don't have time to watch all of them, don't want to come in in the middle of the story, and don't want to commit to a show that might get cancelled without finishing the story. It's an embarrassment of riches, in some ways, but the way broadcast television works is just kind of a broken model for this sort of thing. I'm somewhat surprised that there hasn't been a series released direct to DVD (or download) yet, but it's not clear that that model is economically viable either. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, though I'm not optimistic.Turns out they only showed a tiny excerpt of the "debate" (which was just one guy interviewing the two candidates standing out in the hall). But the full video is online.
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