The Butt Ugly Weblog

Don't read the newspapers (except the wall street journal) and don't watch/listen to the news (unless you can get the BBC or NPR). Broadcast news is <ahem> sadly lacking in the US; sorry; lowest common denominator and all that. Foreign folks take the US (and our politicians) much too seriously; most US citizens don't (sad to say) take them seriously at all. I figure our low voter turn out is not so much a sign of apathy, ignorance, or just-plain-old-don't care, as it is "the system is broken, and now one quite knows how to fix it". Sadly, I'm starting to wonder if it won't take a Nehemiah Scudder event. <shudder/> -JohnV (feeling especially apathetic this local election day.)

--JohnVolkar, 09-Nov-2005

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Dallas is, well... interesting. The Sixth Floor Museum with all the conspiracy theories is interesting, but other than that (and the occasional rodeos) there's not much anything. If you have the time, drive down to Austin. That's a somewhat nicer city than Dallas. A lot of live music and stuff.

--Mikko, 09-Nov-2005

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I hope you didn't order a pizza ;)

--kolibri, 09-Nov-2005

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Kolibri: well, ordering a pizza and then not answering the door would, well, make me look pretty stupid, wouldn't it? Which is why I am not confessing to anything. No sirree-bob.

Unfortunately I have no time to travel anywhere - all work and no play.

And John: I think we kinda take your politicians seriously - they have a nasty habit to invade other countries on a whim. Trust me, if we could, we would vote a lot in your elections...

--JanneJalkanen, 09-Nov-2005

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Janne, I forgot to checkback for a reply to my comment.

> if we could we would vote a lot in your elections

You know that might not be a bad idea... Not for the general world population at large maybe; but how about a Population/GNP/something weighted World Electorial College wherein your elected leaders get a vote? Hmm... Even if it was non-binding it would give direct visible world-opinion feedback on US politician suitability; but it feels like a cop-out forcing others to police our own politicial process.

Hey, How about a new blog feature for JSPWiki, "Comment Notifications", when you comment on an entry in addition to "Your Name, Homepage or email and remember me" how about a checkbox for "Notify me of further comments"? <sheepish> Or does RSS get generated for comment traffic? I wouldn't know, I don't do RSS.</sheepish>

BTW, thanks for all your work on JSPWiki, and for running such a nice blog.

--JohnVolkar, 16-Nov-2005

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