The Voter Waltz

Maybe astounded is the right word, describing the feeling I get when I watch the voters get swayed to and fro by the political masters. Because it is in fact complex or made to look that way becomes unimportant as people scramble to make sense of it in time to vote. It's no wonder that when the time comes people end up relying on basic instinct to make their decision. So it gets right back to what the masters look for when divining electable leaders. Remember the masters are interchangeable professionally with those who create pop stars or the next super brand of some sort. Why do they do this to us? To win and because we let them. They know the right way to say "jump", and we say "how high". Why should it matter. Because simply it's just too damn important. Mind you the masters have a place in a capitalistic system. They are vital to our gross national product. If they want to make an automobile the best seller in the world please have at it, everyone benefits. Or make a chicken salad pop group out of a chicken poo pop group, who cares. But when they tinker with this great American experiment it should not be tolerated. The impact steadily increases as does the harshness of the outcome.More later. Got to go. Good to be hear.

Court Duty

I was called to the court house yesterday for jury duty. Boy does that system need help. I believe more than ever that a professional jury system is the way to go. Anyway, people asked some good questions and I was all ears. " Where do you get your information on which people to call? Primarily from voting records and drivers license info". He said , "we worry that if people thought it was just from the former they might not vote but we know they wont stop driving". I'm not going to say for sure that he really knew or not but I thought it was interesting. He came across authoritatively and the way people talked about the issue later it was clear that most believed him. It has always seemed to me that some people never get called and frankly they were often the people I never knew to vote. I've got to look into that a little more.
It turns out the guy was quite a comedian. He had me laughing a few times. As he went on about this and that I sort of drifted off into some reading. Of course everything seemed to be about the mid term elections. A side note, can you think of a better value today than a newspaper? I cant.
So I'm sort of simultaneously listening and reading when I hear the guy say that he will call people alphabetically, "we'll start at the end so the the first group will be R through Z and I'm talking about your last name." A few people laughed. He said, "you'd be surprised." Not 30 seconds passes, people are starting to line up when the guy next to me leans over and asks, '' Is he talking about first name or last name." I kid you not. I thought to myself how is this guy going to serve as a juror? It's been my experience that the rules given during the course of a trial are not only complex but often illogical. Then I started reading again.
It's about some politician saying how smart the American people are and they know what's best for them and so on. Talk about timing. Not only is it not true since there is obviously a spectrum from smart to not very smart at all; I think of it as a great marker for when someone is lying through their teeth. It's kind of like when responding to a question someone says "I can only say." You hear that a lot from politicians. This usually means their worried about the down side of telling the truth. It can have a humble ring to it or the old protecting classified information feel but it's usually deceptive to some degree and used a lot by non-truth tellers. The so inclined have a deep aversion to the phrase,"I don't know". They avoid it at all costs. To be fair it's a human frailty and never more perilous than when one is taken to there mental limits.
After all with the package you must possess to be a politician surely it would be a lot to ask to have it all, mentally and intellectually to. They usually do have a good guidance system to keep them out of the rat holes and alligator pits. But this is that skill you use a lot when your young. It's a lot easier then . It's keeping your ducks in a row, a lot of balls in the air, one campfire ahead of the posse, and so on. But when your a politicians age it's harder. Not to say that they aren't good at it. They just have a lot more to think about like appealing to that large swath out of the middle, fringe groups, corporate interests, etc. It's a wonder any one would want to do this. But when you do step into the arena you are fair game.
I find it fun to listen to them navigate that treacherous course right now. It's too late in this election cycle to start taking whacks at politicians and I doubt anyone will read any of this before the election anyway so I'll save that for a later day. By the way I never had to talk to anyone, got sent home with 60-70 others. How efficient was that? I've got another year that I don't have to think about it and it got me to start this. That's positive.

Here goes, guess Im a Blogger now

Well here goes, I'm in the fourth day of jury duty and have not been told to come in yet. I'm getting a bit stir crazy. I'm self employed and therefore cranky. Why am I doing this? Not positive but I think I have something to say. When I started noticing the blogisphere around the time of the last elections, one thought kept occurring to me. Anything that opens up communications between people is a good thing. And I know no other way to explore this than to jump in. It's about curiosity and of course that image of someone at sunrise sitting next to a wood stove in some remote and beautiful corner of the world gazing out over a misty pond or coastline or maybe some snow capped mountains pondering something I've written. Come on now, that's irresistible. I know its not easy. I don't know much technically about this but from the lack of comments made generally about entries, It would appear there is not a lot of interest. I hope I'm wrong. What will I write about? I've read stuff about keeping a narrow focus and short and sweet and the like. I'll try, but no promises. I'm not big on formulas. They make us all think and talk alike which I view as a real bad thing. It leads to insurmountable problems. For the most part I just want to write about what occurs to me as important about the issues of the day. In any task or project or profession I've been involved with there always seems to be those people whose minds churn out original thoughts and ideas. I want to be one of those guys. Can I do it ? All I can do is try. Am I a professional? No way, if you can't tell already. This is probably the most I've written in 10 years.(yes to this point right here) I cant even type 15 words a minute. Grammar? spelling? I know a little bit, but don't feel too good when you find problems with either. Nothing bizarre, over the top ,extreme or in poor taste. Hopefully there are a few people left out there that just like to read another persons point of view. Good to be here. Looking forward to it .jcat