A Minor Case of the Mondays

I was draggin a bit this morning, coming off an enjoyable weekend to find myself back in the laborious data mines.

Thankfully, Brent Rinehart’s campaign comics have brought a smile to my face and many stifled laughs to my dreary cubicle. Thank you, Brent.

Red State Cultural Planning Bureau

Notice how the awning is eerily unfamiliar to those used to seeing Falcone's in its original undomesticated state? There is a reason for this, and you can read all about it at The Mattatarian and Selfish Reasons. The best part is where our homegrown kultur polizei (Suzy Thrash, Ingrid Young, and Lydia Lee) are banned from the premises for legally enforcing their own xenophobia down the throats of all Edmondites. Well, maybe some of the locals were more than happy to swallow their drivel, but its too revolting for me to stomach.

How is it that these hardcore GOP'ers are all about free enterprise and competition until it waves the wrong flag? You can bet your sweet peppers that had the restaurant requested red, white, and blue (instead of green) colours they'd have gotten it through the central bureaucracy no problem. Of course, then the cuisine would suck wildly (hot dogs and hamburgers) but at least they would have the decor right.

All that aside, I would encourage pizza lovers everywhere to be true patriots and fight hometown fascism by patronizing this establishment. Your taste buds will love you for it!

His Panic is Manic

My father (and his fellow Birchers and Minutemen) warns that the Mexicans are swarming through the Rio Grande and bringing an inevitable wave of Hispanic culture and cuisine with them. I was skeptical of such claims until just now...

Here they come - speeding on I-35N - with TX plates! How many illegals do you suppose they fit in a van like this?

¡Dios mio! Hopefully the GOP will find a way to send these huddled masses back. We can't just be giving away freedom to everyone, it's a limited commodity - like real estate and heiresses.

Happy Flag Day!

I almost never post merely to refer to other people’s posts, but this takedown piece on The Pledge of Allegiance is truly and utterly priceless. One people, one country, one flag!

ACLU vs. BSA

Why is the ACLU "attacking" the Boy Scouts? Simply put, because they believe the American government (at every level) ought to cease subsidizing the BSA's longstanding pratice of religious and sexual discrimination against minority groups such as homosexuals and infidels. As ACLU Executive Director Linda Hills put it, "The Boy Scouts can't have it both ways. If they truly are a private religious organization, free to engage in any form of discrimination they choose, then they are not entitled to a government subsidy. Tax dollars should not be spent to promote intolerance."

Perhaps conservatives such as Steve Boggess would like to make the case for having substantial federal, state, and municipal subsidies to private religious groups, but it will be difficult to square such an argument either with existing federal, state, and municipal antidiscrimination laws or with the traditional conservative vision of minimal government in general and highly circumscribed government interference in the marketplace in particular.

Far from being "adamant in their goal of erasing God from not only this privately funded organization" the ACLU is trying to ensure that truly religious organizations remain truly private and hence free from both government subsidy and interference. The BSA is quasi-private and quasi-religious, yet they expect the American government to continue publicly funding their activities despite their flagrant disregard of uncounted civil rights laws. You can have the cake or you can eat it, folks. Take your pick.

: ACLU, Church & State

When politics, religion, and science collide...

You end up with codswallop like disclaimers on evolution textbooks in Oklahoma public schools. The original evolution disclaimer has once again reared its ugly head in the Oklahoma legislature, and this time it is up to the state senate to pass it along to the Governor or allow it to once again recede into the fevered imagination of its creationist sponsors.

A scathing yet scientific critique of said disclaimer may be found at Dr. Kenneth R. Miller’s website. If you want the politicians to stick to politics and leave science to the scientists, probably you should click here.

Electoral reform

As I walked about this past week trying to harvest my fair share of the +50k sigs needed to get the Libertarian party recognized in the great state of Oklahoma, I found myself rebuffed in rather interesting ways.  Many folks admitted outright (and with minimal prompting) that they had no desire for more than two choices on the ballot -- and some laughed out loud at themselves for doing so.  This naturally set me to wondering -- why is it so damnably difficult to get third-parties noticed in this nation?

In my deepening frustration and profound ignorance I turned to the internet to learn what the political scientists had to say and I found the following thoughts and references courtesy of the folks at Janda.org

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For almost 150 years, the U.S. has maintained a two-party system, which itself is rather unique among democratic party systems--as Jean Blondel shows in his classification of electoral systems. Why have we had only two dominant parties for so long when most other nations have a multiparty system? Our electoral system is the leading suspect. The French political scientist, Maurice Duverger, explained the influence of electoral laws on party systems in the late 1940s. One of his articles appears on our web site.

• Jean Blondel, "Types of Party Systems," in Peter Mair (ed.) The West European Party System (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 302-310.
• Duverger, "Factors in a Two-Party and Multiparty System," Party Politics and Pressure Groups (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1972), pp. 23-32.
• Farrell, Ch. 1: "The Study of Electoral Systems," 1-11.

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I found the Duverger article particularly straightforward and insightful.  All this time I thought the major parties had consolidated their hold on power gradually by adding statues to the books (e.g. restrictive ballot access) when the real culprit was the winner-take-all electoral scheme put into place at the founding of the republic.  Alas and alack.

Turns out there are loads of ways around this problem, such as proportional representation in the legislature and alternative election methods for the executive branch.