Rhinocrisy

Governments throughout history have been tools of oppression; they need not be.

A large part of the reason for my new-found Mike Gravel fanhood is his National Initiative, a piece of legislation/Constitutional amendment he has been promoting for several years. In his own words, the problem with representative democracy:

We’re accustomed to thinking that, when we go to the polls on election day, that we’re exercising our power. Really, what we’re doing is we’re giving our power away, and giving it to politicians who have manipulated the electoral process; and then, once they get in office, they obviously - dictates of human nature require that they will put their interests before the public interest. That’s the way representative government works.

This gives me paroxysms of joy to hear. Yes! finally, someone who actually believes in democracy!

Gravel proposes changes allowing a national initiative process, whereby people can vote directly on federal laws. The details can be read here, if you’re curious. I’m sure there’s room for improvement (for example I’m dubious of the use of public opinion polling as part of the qualification process), but at first pass it seems well-organized and attempts to address some of the major pitfalls of state-level ballot initiatives. Read the section titled “A Strong Deliberative Process” and you will hopefully get a warm, happy feeling in the pit of your stomach.

An interesting twist, as Gravel acknowledges, is that Congress is unlikely to enact legislation which directly undermines its power. To answer that, Gravel proposes that the people vote directly on the issue of creating the initiative (as organized by his non-profit company Philadelphia II, where you can, in fact, start the first part of approving the initiative right now). Would it fly? Who knows? But it’s certainly worth trying, and I think if it did NOT fly, despite approval by a majority of the electorate, it would be quite revealing enough to shake the foundations of this country.

Finally, here’s Gravel himself on the subject. If you don’t already know, you can get your fill of Gravel on YouTube - he posts Q&As with random questions from folks on a regular basis. Golden.

This song is from the ending credits of Valve’s stellar first-person-puzzler game Portal, as sung by the mad AI GLaDOS. I find the lyrics very poignant, especially:

I’m doing science and I’m still alive.

Lately I’ve been interested in the Fusor, a device which achieves fusion by accelerating individual ions to high energies using electric fields (rather than creating a high-temperature plasma, the strategy employed by expensive and to date unsuccessful “tokomak”-based methods). It seems some guys at UC Irvine have done something similar. Check it out.

Note that this is NOT “cold fusion”, it is “hot fusion”, and the physics is relatively uncontroversial. Fusion power in a matter of years?

UPDATE: Apparently not.

One of our most popular posts, google-wise, is hedgehog’s missive about the health effects of bisphenol-A, a common ingredient in many plastics. I happened across a nice letter in PLoS Biology, written by Rebecca Roberts, describing her fears as a new mother on her child’s exposure to BPA. Included is a nice summary and references for some of the research supporting the need for tighter regulation (some say banning) of BPA in plastic products, especially with regards to kids, and a chronicle of the failed legislative efforts at removing it.

America’s predominant response to racism, of course, has long been denial. In Jena, the town fathers effected a vivid evasion. Their problem, they concluded, was not themselves but their tree: they cut down the offending oak and hauled it away.

Cha.

Here’s some video of old white guys doing the right thing.

The first you’ve probably seen, of Republican mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego coming out in support of gay marriage. If you haven’t, you MUST watch it. You might even cry.

The next is a composite of Old Man Winter Mike Gravel’s tidbits from the last debate. Gravel is a crazy old man, to be sure, but goddamn, he is so right. Even about how angry he is.