it's voting day in many places about the nation today, a special election here in california, with some propositions which i really don't care to discuss... not that that has ever stopped me before
but, i'll keep it simple
propositions:
- 73 Abortion Notification - makes it so pregnant minors' parents must be informed and a 2 day wait must pass before said minor may get an abortion. i was under the impression that medical decisions didn't usually get made by minors, and really they shouldn't, unless we're going to change the definition, the legal definition that is, of a minor and of an adult. the key to being for this one, methinks, goes to that point, the medical decision thing... but, we're goign to have to make it a hell of a lot easier for minors to find access to judges to get around their parents, otherwise, it seems wrong to say, "oh yeah, you can get an abortion, you just can't decide to get an abortion." and, of course, folks against this one might cite the republican slippery slope to rid the world of abortion once and for all, so our population rises so high that we've got cheaper and cheaper labor all around the world, and in our gardens and in our kitchens and cleaning the bathrooms at our offices and all that. or they might cite women's rights, except if this is just an issue for women, then we might as well not support or detract it, if we don't happen to have vaginas... can't expect our support anymore than you can expect our derision if our gender isn't allowed an opinion. and, of course, going against this propostion, there are the scam possibilities, but i've already covered that, last week
- 74 Teacher Tenure - extends the time it takes to get tenure. since i don't get the point to tenure in the first place, i really could go either way with this one. ultimately, i'd say, as long as we insist on having public schools, perhaps we shouldn't fuck with their ways of doing things every damn chance we get
- 75 Union Dues - makes it so unions can't use money from dues for political purposes without consent of those paying the dues, which i would guess is sorta a given as to how unions run already, and is it just me, or does the government telling unions how to run themselves kinda defeat the purpose of having unions in the first place? people are going to need subunions to represent them within the unions soon
- 76 State Spending - ooh, the "California Live Within Our Means Act," that puts some kinda of math formula on how much the state can spend from year to year, cause you know actually doing that sort of thing practically just doesn't work in this day and age, what when we can pillage education money for other purposes and borrow money from other states and from the federal government and just make imaginary credit capital to spend when all of that runs out, and there's always disney dollars after that. arguably, this is a good idea, but it seems that once a state needs such an act, isn't it a bit late already to bother?
- 77 Legislative Districts - puts retired judges in charge of dictating district borders, as opposed to congressmen, but aside from population changes, why do the districts need to be redrawn anyway, and shouldn't population numbers be objective enough, assuming politicians are not lying scumsuckers--and that's a huge assumption--that we can objectively draw these things and--oh, i don't know--call special elections on a whim to make them official?
- 78 Prescription Drugs, Discounts - do we really need to medicate poor people? won't that just make more of them in the long run? and, won't that mean more unwanted pregnancies and more budgetary problems and more teachers needed, and... how about we have a new proposition for mandatory euthanasia if your income falls below $25,000?
- 79 Prescription Drugs, State Negotiated - and 78's evil twin, or good twin, or siamese twin... i swear, i just read a simplified explanation of these two propositions and i don't get the difference. but, i say no on anything that makes drugs cheaper. if poor people want cheap drugs, they need to get them on the street. that system has worked for centuries
- 80 Electricity Service - "Prop 80 addresses a number of aspects of the state’s electricity market: the regulation of Electric Service Providers and direct access, the procurement process, resource adequacy requirements, the renewables portfolio standard, and the use of time-differentiated electricity rates" and is really boring. vote no on boredom