Hello, Strangers!
Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2019 8:13 pmHi, y'all. It's been a while. Hope things are going well for you all.
As for myself, I remain in a perpetual state of aggravation, embarrassment, disappointment, and bewilderment at my elected leaders. For example, my extremely vain and thin-skinned governor just had a Girls State attendee removed because the young girl cheekily posted a picture of the governor along with a water bottle with the message "Let's party like it's Trump's impeachment day" to an obscure Instagram-like sharing app.
http://dakotafreepress.com/2019/06/16/g ... p-message/
Some background:
Girls State and Boys State are civics programs sponsored by the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary. The idea is to have the 'best and brightest' of tomorrow convene and simulate the political experience. Attendees can run for any number of offices: governor, congressman, alderman, sheriff, etc. In theory, there is some merit for it. In practice, though, it falls well short of intentions. Since there are no real issues to campaign on, office-seekers tend to appeal to popular-ism, even if it was impractical or nonsensical: "Vote for me, and I'll give you free beer!" Since the convention only lasts for a week, the election cycle lasts something like a day. During the rest of the week, attendees play-act through meetings to propose and enact policy, through the usual mechanisms of whatever political body they of which they are members. For the judicial branch, there are even trials. When I attended, an acquaintance of mine (who is now an actual, practicing lawyer) convinced me to be a witness in a trial where he was representing the defendant. The kicker was that I was supposed to reveal during my interrogation that the plaintiff had a habit of framing victims. I asked if the prosecution was aware of this, and he replies something along the lines of "well, this isn't like a real trial." Against my better judgement, I went through with it, anyway. For the record: despite my testimony, the court found in in favor of the plaintiff.
I'm sure that the governor's office didn't actually say "Have the young lady remove the image, or have her removed from the convention." No, that would be censorship. It was probably more like "It would be nice if you could make it go away." That's just asking for a favor.
I'm exceedingly busy over the next few weeks, but after that I intend to do some catching up here. Hopefully, I'll have some good news. Or at least some less bad news.
As for myself, I remain in a perpetual state of aggravation, embarrassment, disappointment, and bewilderment at my elected leaders. For example, my extremely vain and thin-skinned governor just had a Girls State attendee removed because the young girl cheekily posted a picture of the governor along with a water bottle with the message "Let's party like it's Trump's impeachment day" to an obscure Instagram-like sharing app.
http://dakotafreepress.com/2019/06/16/g ... p-message/
Some background:
Girls State and Boys State are civics programs sponsored by the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary. The idea is to have the 'best and brightest' of tomorrow convene and simulate the political experience. Attendees can run for any number of offices: governor, congressman, alderman, sheriff, etc. In theory, there is some merit for it. In practice, though, it falls well short of intentions. Since there are no real issues to campaign on, office-seekers tend to appeal to popular-ism, even if it was impractical or nonsensical: "Vote for me, and I'll give you free beer!" Since the convention only lasts for a week, the election cycle lasts something like a day. During the rest of the week, attendees play-act through meetings to propose and enact policy, through the usual mechanisms of whatever political body they of which they are members. For the judicial branch, there are even trials. When I attended, an acquaintance of mine (who is now an actual, practicing lawyer) convinced me to be a witness in a trial where he was representing the defendant. The kicker was that I was supposed to reveal during my interrogation that the plaintiff had a habit of framing victims. I asked if the prosecution was aware of this, and he replies something along the lines of "well, this isn't like a real trial." Against my better judgement, I went through with it, anyway. For the record: despite my testimony, the court found in in favor of the plaintiff.
I'm sure that the governor's office didn't actually say "Have the young lady remove the image, or have her removed from the convention." No, that would be censorship. It was probably more like "It would be nice if you could make it go away." That's just asking for a favor.
I'm exceedingly busy over the next few weeks, but after that I intend to do some catching up here. Hopefully, I'll have some good news. Or at least some less bad news.