zen.org Communal Weblog

I’m not one for gadgets as far as a computer geek goes. I got an iRiver player, and a old mobile phone, and they rarely get used. I try not to leave home! Having said that, the Sony® Portable Reader System PRS-500 looks really cool. The interface seems what I’ve been thinking about for years! Decades from now, when I’ve finished most of the books I have at home, I’ll get one to read Project Gutenberg titles again. I wonder if it works on Linux.

No, I don’t want one for Christmas! …this year.

I heard the promo on NPR this morning, but missed the article. It seems there was a world rock paper scissors championship the other day. Funny, I always thought it was paper scissors rock.

Leaver machines are gone in Bucks County this year. Not knowing how to use the new computer voting system, and having never done a write-in vote before, I visited the Bucks County web site to see haw to vote. That web site forwarded me to a Pennsylvania State site, that site said Bucks County votes on a Danaher ELECTronic 1242. It was easy, the shockwave demo showed me, it would pop up a keyboard on the screen and I enter the name there.

It seems Yardley Borough didn’t have the Danaher ELECTronic 1242. The League of Women Voters Bucks County web site actually had a better description, though that was not quite right either. The bothersome part was I needed a pen, had the government web sites been accurate I would of brought a pen. Instead I had to ask a very helpful volunteer for a pen, he had to ask the police if he was allowed to lend me a pen. He lent me the pen and I wrote in my candidate. Everybody in the room now knows I wrote-in a vote. The ladies who make sure you where registered told me my house looks very nice, I thanked them.

It seems that whomever picked these machines did a very good job. They where easy to use, and though not required by Pennsylvania law, they had a paper trail. Since I’m probably the only person in Yardley Borough who voted for Carl Romanelli, I hope, like last time, I can see the one vote tick one the Bucks County vote totals web page.

Election day is coming up, I sat down do choose who to vote for. Candidates in Bucks County where finally published by the Board of Elections. It’s funny that the League of Women Voters of Bucks County had the list online first. Starting from the top of the Board of Elections list:

For United States Senator I feel I’m picking between Hitler and Stalin, should either of there careers advance. Rick Santorum, so popular amung gays he got his own sexual slang named after him (really, don’t read the definition, I regret I did (I’m not kidding)) is a bushbot. I think Bob Casey, Jr. has the campaign slogan of I am not a bushbot. Both say they are a pro-life Catholic. So both would rather see a child who made a mistake get a coat hanger, alley abortion rather then facing an abusive family. I agree with Bill Clinton when it comes to abortion: Abortion should not only be safe and legal, it should be rare. So I’m writing in Carl Romanelli.

For Governor it’s incumbent, pro-choice Ed Rendel. Or pro-life, Ex-Pittsburgh Steelers Lynn Swan. I always try to make the environment my main deciding factor on who to vote for, but for some reason abortion always trickles to the top. Sorry Marakay, I’m voting for Mr. Rendel, maybe next time.

Now we finally start getting to the good stuff, Representative in Congress – 8th District. No Green or Libertarian write-in candidate here. Both bourgeoisie candidates put environment issues not close to the top on there issue web page, so abortion bubbles up to the top again. You go Iraq veteran Murphy J. Murphy!.

Now state election, crap. It’s hard enough remembering what U. S. Congress district I’m in let alone state congress and senate. With bourgeoisie gerrymandering it’s probably changed since last time. Again no Green or Libertarian write-in though, for either. For my little Senator in the General Assembly – 10th District there is no incumbent, I’ve read that Joe Conti didn’t run again becauso of the 2005 Pennsylvania General Assembly pay raise controversy. Well, I read some place that the Bucks County Green party supports Chris Serpico. Wait, I read that on Mr. Serpico’s web site! Hopefully he is not lying.

Last, and least I think, it’s the Representative in the General Assembly – 31st District. Thank the goddess this is the last one. Whomever I pick, this will probably be the most world wide endorsement they well get! Well, nobody will be reading past the first line of this past anyway. So, well, I can’t find Mike Diamond’s web site. His sign is across the street, he has a fine graphic artist! Well we all have to abstain from something, maybe I’ll vote for Mr. Diamond just because he isn’t incumbent David J. Steil, another Pennsylvania General assembly pay raise controversy alumni. I’ll choose in the booth.

That’s everybody! There is still some question. Shit.

To, again, file under cute things children say. As far as I know Zoë has not read The Hobbit, but it is on the bookshelf so you never know.

I had just finished getting her dressed and I picked her up to take her downstairs for breakfast. She stuck her hand into my shirt pocket, is there something in my pocket? I asked. Her reply was My hand.

I’m worried about George W. Bush’s marriage. Since New Jersey said homosexual unions can be equal, but separate, Mr. Bush said it he now raises doubts about the institution of marriage., or that the rulling raises doubts about the institution of marriage as a whole I think. I asked my wife after we heard the article on NPR about it, and she said she felt our marraige is in no less doubt now then it was before the New Jersey rulling. I think our marriage is strong and harmonious, but it seems Mr. Bush didn’t start questioning every marriage in his courtry until after this court ruling. Trust me Mr. Bush, my love for my wife is going to get no less strong no matter how you manipulate marriage, but I’m worried about yours.  I actually think marriage in a religious thing, not a government thing.

It’s in german and called Casablanca fällt aus. I seem to have played Ronny (alle Rollen). This week Theater Apron is playing Bedtime for Bastards. It’s fun to google your name from time to time.

President Bush has been lying for years, and most of the Republicans agreed. While the GOP rating had been going down people have not been to outraged by the Republican party. Now what presses peoples buttons? A sex scandle. Unless your congress man was related with the scandle why change your vote? I think Democrats, and other party members for that matter, are just as likely to have homosexual pedophiles as the Republicans; though perhaps republicans are more likely to have in-the-closet homosexuals then Democrats. The Democrats are also just as likely to have corrupt leaders that would cover somebody misbehaving as the current Republican leadership of congress.

Mr. Bush’s lies should be the outragous headlines that drastically lowers the GOP poll numbers nation wide, not Mark Foley’s lust for young boys. My best wishes go out to Mr. Foley and his family, I hope he can over come his issues.

When I lived in San Francisco, before the election I would get a piece of mail telling me where to go to vote, and a sample ballot. It even came with a list of pros and cons for each item on the ballot. In Bucks County I get nothing. I’ve search Bucks County’s web site, nothing. Thank you Bucks County League of Women Voters for publishing a voters guide.

In Yardley Borough there are no parties on the ballot apart from the bourgeoisie Democrat and Republican. Not a Libertarian or Green to be seen. There are a couple of Independents running in Bucks County, but not in my area. Being a registered Green party member, what I usually do is go vote for all the green party members, and if they lack a canditade I vote for the Libertarian. Lacking either member of those parties is when things get hard and I actually have to do some reading to see which bourgeoisie is least likely to cover up there parties evil doings. I got a lot of research to do this year. If non-bourgeoisie start winning I’ll have to start doing some research into those people too.

Now, I do have a peeve about the Green party, at least in Pennsylvania, maybe just in Bucks County. Claming to be grassroots I always see more Green running for major offices, U.S. Senate, or President, rather then local offices. I would rather see these people running and winning local offices then running and loosing national and state offices. Perhaps they are scared of winning? This years race for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate in a prime example:

The bourgeoisie took the Green party to school. First the Republicans help the Greens pay for getting the 67,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot. Then the Democrats took the Greens to court claming they didn’t have enough signatures, and won. Thus the Greens have to pay the Democrat’s legal bills and there own, a total nearing a million dollars. The Green candidate should of run for a local office, if you can’t win locally don’t bother running for a bigger office. I hope the Pennsylvania Greens learned there lesson.

The 67,000 signatules needed is also biased against third parties, bourgeoisie candites need 2,000 signatures. The 67,000 number is 2% of the votes from the last state wide election. So, if I want to encourage third parties to be on the ballot next election I should not vote? It’s a trap no matter which way a look.

I would like to think I could do the following, but I don’t know if I could:

Unlike typical reactions to dastardly shootouts of this kind, the Amish have joined the family members of the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, in their bereavement. Roberts had committed suicide after killing the girls in the one-room school. The community has already announced it is forgiving Roberts for his act. Roberts is survived by his wife and three children.

Quoted from Mourning Amish seek private funeral for girls killed in school shootout on The Earth Times. Evil people claming to be christians often dominate the news, it is reliving to hear that real christians still exist. I hope I can evlove my thinking to be able to forgive such an act.