Triumphrat

MVP44

That's pretty impressive. US voter turnout 2000 - 52% 2002(non-pres election) - 39% 2004 - 61%.

I have had different thoughts on the military service issue - Being retired Navy I once espoused the view that it should be mandatory, but now being active father I have to admit I would cringe at the idea of either of my daughters being required to serve if they do not wish just because of the chance they would be called to serve in Iraq. I would applaud them if they wish to serve and choose to go, but required wouldn't sit well with me. Amazing how the views change once those kids come along.

HiDesert

In Starship Troopers he said military service; the key was the fact that you accepted the fact that others would try to kill you because it was for the common good. That demonstrated that you were willing to put the common good ahead of your own, which demonstrated that you'd probably vote responsibly.

Barring the postal service, government service doesn't satisfy that criterium. :razz:

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Rest in peace, Aleksandr Isayevich
‘What is written by the pen cannot be cut down by the axe’

lanwanman

:roflmoa2:

Starship Troopers is the book I was thinking about. It's (IMHO) the most cogent writing Heinlein did on personal responsibility and culpability before he drifted on to the some of the more extreme views for which he is generally (and unfairly) remembered.

As to voting in the US? Lemme see. The latest "news" regarding the 5,000 people who are possibly running for President of the Republic is topped by the shocking (shocking, I say) revelation that John Edwards went to an expensive spa for a haircut and other treatments!! The media are outraged and incensed. I can't imagine how many column inches have been devoted to this travesty of...something. Perhaps the chattering classes have effected a bloodless coup by beating us senseless with their trivial outrage over trivial events and peccadillos.

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Mike

"Clone me, Dr. Memory!"

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stevent

Lanwanman, that's where you're wrong my friend,... the latast outrage to grip the nation was the sh*t-bomb Alec Baldwin left on ex-wife Kim Bassingers voice mail about their daughter that someone was kind enough to send to the press.

I was flipping channels last night and came across this gabfest of talking heads trying to decide if they were wrong for airing the on-going misery of those two's lifes on national tv (after they aired it a few dozen times, of course)


:knkknk:

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stevent....."May the Goddess turn the hearts of those who hate us, if not their hearts then turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping..."

HiDesert

lanwanman, I'd say The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is better in terms of it's discussion of responsibility, the social contract, and government.

Alec Baldwin left a nasty voicemail for his ex-wife, and that's NEWS? Don't explain it to me. I don't want to know.

__________________
Rest in peace, Aleksandr Isayevich
‘What is written by the pen cannot be cut down by the axe’

mglemans86

Lets start with 3 rules

1. You should be a citizen.

2. You should be alive.

3. You can only vote once.

An unwritten rule: if you are to stupid to work a voting machine, too bad
:???: :???:

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Piles of Miles with Smiles