Saturday, May 08, 2004
FUSTEST WTTHOUT MOSTEST
How many men have become President of the United States without having the most popular votes? Who were they? How do the records compare for each of the major political parties?
And - what difference does it make, anyway?
We are rapidly approaching that time of the fourth year when the question will come up again, as it does with regularity The concept of the popular vote and of the Electoral College vote puzzle most Americans and it remains a worsening problem because we think about it for one week or less every four years.. I can remember how we used to get all worked up and in a sort of political lather and convinced that the Electoral College was a terrible thing. However, I had saved an auricle clipped from an old copy of “American Legion Magazine” which explained the EC business very well and I could pull that item out of the old file and be re-convinced that it was, indeed, a wonderful thing to have this Electoral College arrangement in place. We have recently downsized our living place and done away with the old four drawer file by dumping the accumulated contents into boxes. I have yet to find the resuscitating article, this years projected Electoral College set-to might see me go off the deep end.
Some fifteen candidates have become President of the United States without having a majority of the popular votes.. Actually, the total is eighteen because three of them did so twice each. Grover Cleveland, in 1884, did it and then skipped a term to 1892 to allow a one-time skipper Benjamin Harrison , to do it in 1882. Then, Woodrow Wilson did a duet-thing in 1912 and, more recently William Jefferson Clinton in l992 and 1986 I find it interesting that the popularity of both Wilson and Clinton improved a bit on their second elections.
Regardless of the manner in which these figures are set forth recrimination comes form all,sides. It starts as a series of discussions when no one is certain of exactly what they think and advance to the argument stage as the figures become to say opposite things to different people.
The lowers Pop-scorer was John Quincy Adams. He was chosen, by the House of Representatives over challenger Andrew Jackson who, oddly enough, had a plurality in both the electoral and popular votes but did not have a majority in the electoral college. J.Q.A rated a 29.8% on the pop scale; the next lowest was Abe Lincoln 1860 at 39.9%. At the top end of the spectrum the highest percentage was that recorded for John F, Kennedy in 1969 - 49.7%/
The overall count per party excludes John Q. Adams, as House chosen, and Zachary Taylor who was member of the Whig Party The Democratic party has had ten with three double-doers, and the Republican Party has had a total of six, with George W. Bush holding the title at the moment with a rating set at 47.8 in 2000. A.D.
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More... as reports come lagging in.
A.L.M. May 8, 2004 [c524wds]
Friday, May 07, 2004
TODAY'S YoUNG PEOPLE
Older people tend to forget they, too, were once young.
We take turns at bearing the label “ Youth” during which time we serve as specimens to be studied, examined, cross-examined,, tweaked, fine-tuned and adjusted as we are checked to see how we compare to those who have passed on to the next level of life's sometimes rather cruel regimen.
The common result of such judgment is far from kind. It is, all too often, a condemnation pointing out the way in which we think youth has changed.. We reflect on how “ we were at that age” and compare it all to the way youth appears to act today
I have long felt many of today's criticism of young people are improperly conceived. It is almost as if , while the basic game remains the same, the ground rules, the very nature of plays, and the variation in crowd acceptance of the results has been radically modified. There has been a complete transition from the way in which offspring grow from being children into becoming adults. And hurry! Be quick about it or be lost.
It's all a faster process today./ Society today seems to rush the process at every step. Young girls in their Middle School years, are often parentally paraded and urged to dress as adult women and to be skilled in purposeful use of cosmetic trickery far ahead of their years, Both boys and girls are expected to be qualified drivers of many types of powered vehicles even before they reach legals ages of doing so. As one result of that. they become individuals much earlier than they did at one time, and are eager to be on their own. And often unaware of he new responsibilities they have to assume. Economic conditions are such in modern times that parents find it commendable when sons and daughters want to pay their own way or the help with pressing family desires. The costs of education and medical care have skyrocketed out of sight and both children and parents find it to be difficult to aspire to even modest coverage. Sports scholarships are in far greater demand than academic assistance.
Education has changed far more than educators seem to realize. The very nature of the process of learning has been modified with the emergence of computer technology. our social mysterious is fought with problem's of how education may best be fitted to the special needs of youth today, but it remains for many educational entities to realize what has taken place. They are coming around to provide the youthful scholar needed facilities and new goals to provide works for a labor market which has changed spectroscopically-offering a far greater world of opportunity than any which has ever gone before.
Young people. The game remains the same in one sense. but the rules governing how is might best be done are yours to discover. Good luck
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A.L.M. May 4, 2004 [c481wds]
STUBBORN HOLDVERS
You may well have noticed a few of them in your own special field of interest, as well as in political and business affairs we share - persistent points of potential action which , while they have been in place for some time, simply refuse to go away.
One such story awaiting ignition is that which sees Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton springing forth ready to become the savior of the Democratic Party when it appears evident that the
Democratic National Convention, meeting in Boston within a few weeks, may find it difficult to support Senator John Kerry as the party's official banner waver this time around.
The H. Clinton move, of course, depends on how the Kerry “Bloody Shirt” campaign gets along. He insists on going back and again his rather lackluster military career as the main area of comparison with incumbent George Bush's National Guard participation. Kerry's efforts have not been received with any great enthusiasm. I don't think the American people have been as distrubed by revelations concerning Kerry's past as much asd they were expected to do by Republican party planners./ Such things have to be extreme now-a-days to shock average Americns hardened to such things by history and television treatment thereof. If it all depended on the remarkably severe broad-axe job C-Span aired early this week concerning John Kerry's wartime role. Either insufficient numbers viewed the hour long condemnation of just about everything Senator Kerry has allowed to be published concerning his dramatic four-months of heroic battle action. All of the participants = every one of them-officers and enlisted men – were member of the the very same “Strike Boat” crews in which John Kerry served and their condemnation was strikingly severe.
Any Boston-bound Democratic leader who saw that C-Span telecast by U.S.Navy Strike Boat personnel, each of whom had served at least a full year of duty, must be having some serious second thoughts about naming Kerry as their symbol of the typical wounded American hero
Another pesky idea which is hanging around/
What if candidate John Kerry shifts back to insisting that he was right when he led war protesters after he returned from Viet Nam? As and all=out “Peace” candidate, he might make it, if he can make skillful use and misuse of the present Iraqi prison scnadal and other anti-war clusters now plaguing George W. Bush.
Other such ideas which won't go away include: Will Michael Jakson go free? How many years wiil Martha Stewart be imprisoned? Several murder trials will decide if “he” did it or not or not.. In London, England it will continue to be illegal for one to feed the pigeons in Trafalgar Square making one subject to arrest for doing so. In style:”Pencil skirts”are in this year.
A.L.M. May 5, 2004 [c472ds]
Thursday, May 06, 2004
WHY, OH WHY?
Every time we have national election I find myself wondering what would ever make a man want to be President of the United States of America.
There must be a reason and behind it all, I realize/ which has something to do with a type of personal egotism at its ultimate points.. I can't imagine anyone being that sure of himself or so unthinking of the merits of others. Any individual who gets the idea will also finds himself, or herself, able to “tune out” any questioning views and to view them as weaknesses. Certainly there are few individuals = very few- who could look at themselves and always make a positive evaluation as to their worthiness to take on such a demanding task.
It may well, of course, that it has less to do with one's self-knowledge and much to do with respect for the judgment and opinion of others. A mentor such as a mother, wife, a revered father or grandfather or other relative, family traditions which favors the political life, -possibly might play a major role in urging the prospective candidate forward in spite of any temporary misgivings along the way. Such factors nay well cause the aspirant to see many things other than what .they might prove to be, or become, in reality. The individual may be the last to see such things as flaws in any comprehensive plan and to view them. Rather, as challenges
Much of this this, of course, is readily explained away by saying that the candidate will be representing his political party's views, standards,, idea and ideals – plus a few quirks here and there - other than his own, individual and, sometimes very personal, even privately-held views. The willingness to be subservient to such machinations will continue to puzzle me. How many of our political leaders at what levels live such a patterne. Some may be following a political pattern long isnce obsolete which others may be dreaming of unlikely developments to justify their thinking, Emulation can be a fine thing, i some circumstance's,but not in all situations. I would think a potential president might might well be aware of of how some little mis-step of the past could bring the future down in humiliating ruin.
I can see how it is natural that an incumbent president might wish to stay where he is, but anyone seeking the oval office job faces some very real charaxteruestionof character.. Why does he wish to win/? Different reasons are suggested.” I am against big government.” “ I am against whatever the incumbent favors/”. Such statements are sometimes “rifled” to specific voter targets while others are best “shotgunned” in a more general sense. Much of such verbal fire splatters into meaningless special effects decoration.
If you want to be our president you might well refrain from asking yourself why you wish to do so. It's a job few man would aspire to if they looked at the harsh realities to be overcome in getting there and, even more, in fulfilling the assigned as well as the unassigned -tasks which you have never even thought about, which will become yours while you are there.
A.L.M. May 3, 2004 [c540wds]
Monday, May 03, 2004
BORED OF EDUCATION
There are at least four levels at which many school systems are found to be sluggish, inefficient and seen to be lagging behind national averages.
So often, sheer boredom lurks in the lagging system which is damaging our educational objectives in many ways, It grinds out graduates who are poorly equipped to face the actual needs of the world they step into; it steadily looses skilled and experienced teachers to other occupational fields and discourages new talent from entering the teaching profession. At the very top we often find it is governed by men and women who see it as a mere appendage to their overall political intent. Often party biased and cared for by people who have only a slight idea of what is required of them, it also seems to make little different if they are “elected” or “selected”.
I would seem to be time to re-evaluate what is expected of members of the teaching profession, school management and maintenance and governing bodies, those who develop, plan and activate circular's at all levels and yes, of the students themselves, as well.
Weak system rely greatly on criticism of students and parents in the system as they get into trouble student are depicted as being especially undisciplined at home, as being slothful in their or being victims of TV or game-gear excess, of parental neglect. The first people to hit the fan when proposed undertakings at started are the teachers, rather than the kids. The teacher view changes as an increase of their work hours and intensity. They deride the plan from the start, or fulfill new requirements in a cursory manner for what ever time it takes to kill the whole thing.
There was a time when communities took great pride in and honored their teachers and alloted them a special place in community affairs, but that era has long since ceased to be valid. Teaching today is, to many, about the same as anyone taking a job at the local factory assembly line not yet farmed out to Mexico, or at the local poultry plucking plant. Young people are no longer even tempted to be interested in becoming a teacher. Salary scales have advanced steadily because one of the primary ways those bored of education deal with a crisis is to stand back and throw money at it.
If you live in an area where school board members are “elected”, you know how cursory voter's knowledge of those nominated can be. A few ads in the local paper, maybe a glitzy, one-time ad on TV, and that's about it. The elected board member may just as well have been appointed by the groups which placed his or her name in nomination and they are often the very ones who expect and receive anticipated results or else.
But, don't get me wrong. Don't run on ahead of me and see trouble where it does not, as yet, exist.
There are still good, functioning school boards and systems, but evidence seems to be piling up which tells us they may not be around much longer. Let's re-create the world of teaching as a strong, interesting field which can be inviting, challenging for the young. Present day standards of colleges teaching teachers to teach are dismal, at best – even difficult to find at all. Worse than that, “ed” courses of study are dull - they are, purposely dulled down to increased teacher-turnout. The dullness carries over over to make the students think of them a waste of both time and money. When you talk of ”education”, you are speaking of our own tomorrow. Let's make it a brighter time.
A.L.M. May 2, 2004 [c625wds]
Sunday, May 02, 2004
CAN'T BE DONE!
The truly innovative concept deals with that which is said to be impossible,
In my view, all things are possible. Just because no one has, as yet, come upon the right combination of things to bring the advancement about, does not mean that it is forever obscured and beyond mankind's ken. Some where, and at some time in the future, some one individual will realize what is needed to bring the idea forth as a much needed and highly desired item. It can be anyone. It could be you.
When we take time to delve into the maze we call history, we often -with hindsight ? find that the great invention came about because there was a need for the item and what it could do. Some one person, or a group of learned men and women, studied the problems associated with the need and failed miserably in their attempts to find the answer, Then, following, perhaps, less academic paths of questing, someone else has hit upon the proper means of doing the thing, seemingly by chance or by accident, and of doing it well.
This procedure may take place over generations of time. The project can be flubbed time and again and even considered to be thews impossible things which accumulate in man's mind as a major barrier to to his progress.
Our immediate future is a paradise of potential. The greatest inventions of all are yet to be made. Our is a remarkable free society and allows individuals and thinking groups of people groups of men and women to consider ideas which have never before been on the workshop tables of inventive persons.
Our needs, today, are multiple in spite our obvious material wealth Our objective are not always clear but cause man's mind is shrill subject to corroding accumulations of narrow bigotry and ignorance which forever hold him back when he seeks to step ahead. There a social need to be met,by some new procedure of management of human desires and ambitions. We are told we are on the very edge of using up our fossil fuel stocks and a frigid future seems to be our fate, but there are inventions yet to be found which , I think, and , can be and will be solved. The invention on the scene this week is that which is called :Google" and at this a weeks ceremonies making it a stock market entity .will, in moments, make the two young inventors thereof billionaires by money standards. The world is already
been made richer because of the complex and ever increasing nature of their invention. The world has been ?googleized? by this invention and learning, education, and the accumulated fund of all of man's findings is nonviable to all people world wide. Knowledge is now the personal possession of millions of people thworld over who have never had such even a small encyclopedia of man's knowledge and attainment to use in their lives,
Think about this, young people. of 2004! Where do you fit into all of this? What do you find the world needs right now which it does not have? Even if your reply comes out as being silly go with it! Take it as yours.,. work with it and make it available to others. The world needs a good laugh now and then, too. If you can be good at that - go for it. Go all the way!
A.L.M. May 1, 2004 [c549wds]
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