Election 2008!
So you may have noticed that there's an election on. Maybe.
Frankly, I think if you don't plan on voting, or don't find the time to do so, you are an ogre. Just sayin.
Anyway, here's how you should vote (if you're in California)
Prop 1A: High Speed Rail between SF and LA, eventually Sac and SD. Yes. The only real argument against it is that its a bad time to be investing money in things, however I think this project is worth it. We desperately need to invest in more mass transit.
Prop 2: Ending inhumane conditions for chickens. Yes. You have probably heard they keep farm chickens in cages so small they cannot even stand up, turn around, or stretch their wings. Their entire lives. This to me is unimaginably cruel and a continuing crime against my conscious. Sure egg prices might go up 73 cents or something but thats a price I'm very willing to pay. Sure chicken farmers might just move out of state - I don't know how practical it is to ship eggs long distances. Either way at least if we've chased the inhumane practices to another state we've done something about it.
Prop 3: Money for children's hospitals - I have no idea - Even ballotpedia doesn't seem to have much information on this. It sounds good, the arguments against are again primarily money, honestly I'm not qualified to evaluate the economic "can we afford this" consequences of it. If someone knows of an economist's evaluation of this I'd greatly appreciate it.
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Okay new plan, this is going to take forever talking about all of the propositions so I'm just going to touch on the ones I have something to say about. You can catch up with the rest here.
Prop 7 & Prop 10 - Are both ostensibly environmental propositions, BUT you'll notice that the environmental groups are all against them, as are the Republicans, Democrats AND Green Party. Without going into details I think we can safely say all signs point to this probably being a bad idea. Noe.
Prop 11: Redistricting commissions. Yes - The arguments against are that its going to be complicated, still not perfect, and is "not fair" in some sense. As to that, I'd like to mention a quote that Pavel_Lishin brought to my attention after my entry about life being not fair: "As you know, fairness is a concept that was invented so that children and idiots could participate in arguments." (Scott Adams, the Dilbert Guy). In this case I would like to say that it doesn't matter that its not "fair" and that its complicated and not perfect, because its still BETTER than incumbants drawing districts in a self-serving manner so 99% of the time the incumbant gets re-elected.
Seriously though, I hate it when people make the "there are some problems with it!" argument against something when its still better than the alternative. All that matters is that its better than the alternative. And I don't care that its got "less oversight" when literally nothing could be worse than the current system. There is presently a clear conflict of interest for those in power to draw the districts, not one seat has changed from the incumbant party in the last two elections, and 99% of incumbants get re-elected.
Chickens were meant to be free!
Yes on Prop 2!!