Life Safety is not "politics"

NPeteN said:
Typically the people who would vote based on the outlandish criteria you have listed above ARE the ones most vigilant about registering and voting.... Go figure.
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Outlandish...really?? Your opinion and you're welcome to it. My experience has been just the opposite.
 
MikeG said:
Outlandish...really?? Your opinion and you're welcome to it. My experience has been just the opposite.
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We are saying the same thing, or at least I was agreeing with you.
Outlandish in that anyone would consider those criteria before casting a vote.
 
MikeG said:
Do you really want voters who's only criteria for selection is- who is going to give me the biggest check/who comes from the most oppressed background/who is the most NOT like the other guy/who does social media tell me to vote for? At least taking the time to register might cause you to give SOME thought to why you're voting in the first place. Politics should be more than a team sport or campus drinking game.
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Citizenship should be the ONLY qualification. There are morons on all sides and if we excluded all of them, half the electorate would have to stay home on election day. Just because someone takes the time to register doesn't make them any more qualified to have an opinion than anyone else. I want every citizen of legal age to vote. The more votes, the more valid the election.

At first, only landowners were allowed to vote. Then only white men. Africans and women came later. If those non-landowners, blacks and women didn't exercise the right to vote, they might as well have not gotten that right. The effects of non-voting are similar.
 
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Danno said:
Citizenship should be the ONLY qualification. There are morons on all sides and if we excluded all of them, half the electorate would have to stay home on election day. Just because someone takes the time to register doesn't make them any more qualified to have an opinion than anyone else. I want every citizen of legal age to vote. The more votes, the more valid the election.

At first, only landowners were allowed to vote. Then only white men. Africans and women came later. If those non-landowners, blacks and women didn't exercise the right to vote, they might as well have not gotten that right. The effects of non-voting are similar.
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I wholeheartedly agree about the citizenship part, but you should also be able to exercise your right not to vote if you don't like the options. It's what leads to candidates like this:

en.wikipedia.org

Vermin Supreme - Wikipedia

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actually being taken as a legitimate candidate. The Saturday night before New Hampshire's primary election this guy and his pony (really) had a crowd of people, some reporters included, following him up and down Elm street in Manchester as if he really had a chance.
 
There are no politics without religion. What is an individual's or government's 'duty of care', if it is not to minimise the risk to a tolerable level ? For the first two hundred years, Australia's industrial safety laws were prescriptive - like the ten commandments. They are now performance based - they require risk minimisation. There are only two references to risk management in the Bible.
 
Bernhard said:
Do you have alternative political parties for people to vote for if they don't like the party's on the ballot paper like in the UK we used to have the Screaming Lord Stuch and the Monster Raving lunatic party ?
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Yes. Witness ACT AND Kim.com's Internet Party.
 
MikeG said:
I wholeheartedly agree about the citizenship part, but you should also be able to exercise your right not to vote if you don't like the options. It's what leads to candidates like this:

en.wikipedia.org

Vermin Supreme - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

actually being taken as a legitimate candidate. The Saturday night before New Hampshire's primary election this guy and his pony (really) had a crowd of people, some reporters included, following him up and down Elm street in Manchester as if he really had a chance.
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Jury duty is mandatory. Should one be excluded from having to to it? Democracy isn't Democracy if everyone doest have a say.

Jim Crow, gerrymandering and now 253 bills to limit voting access post this last election.

Some people just don't plain like it when everyone votes.
 
gortnipper said:
Jury duty is mandatory. Should one be excluded from having to to it? Democracy isn't Democracy if everyone doest have a say.

Jim Crow, gerrymandering and now 253 bills to limit voting access post this last election.

Some people just don't plain like it when everyone votes.
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Not to get political, but one particular party reaps the benefits of non-voting and are quick to support any restrictions on voters and voting they can slide by. Colbert said something about one of those bills that closes polls an hour earlier. He defined it as "The defrauding hour".
 
gortnipper said:
Jury duty is mandatory. Should one be excluded from having to to it? Democracy isn't Democracy if everyone doest have a say.

Jim Crow, gerrymandering and now 253 bills to limit voting access post this last election.

Some people just don't plain like it when everyone votes.
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Jury duty in the UK is you could say , mandatory, but you can supply a reasonable objection to be excused.
I was called up , but I pointed out that I have very bad hearing and cannot be expected to follow a trial without lip reading.
 
I got called for jury duty once immediately after I started a new job when I had been laid off for a couple months. Fortunately, the judge was the son of the old country doc that delivered me and I got out of it.

Recently, since I've been retired, I got called again. Showed up and went through the process, but didn't get picked. They could have had me indefinitely, this time, but no go.

BTW, in the construction industry, "Life Safety" is school remodeling work since a lot of old school buildings are retrofitted with sprinklers, fire alarms, automatic electric doors and more modern mechanicals.
 
I would gladly serve on a jury, and would actually like to do so, but in the 33 years I've been at my present address I've never been called. Not sure if it's because my physical address and my mailing address are in different counties or something else but I've always wondered why.
 
MikeG said:
I would gladly serve on a jury, and would actually like to do so, but in the 33 years I've been at my present address I've never been called. Not sure if it's because my physical address and my mailing address are in different counties or something else but I've always wondered why.
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Could be you have the same name as someone who is on their blacklist! just saying. . . .
 
Economic rationalism is often an excuse to ignore safety. In Australia we used to have an effective standards organisation and testing bodies. The testing bodies were put on a user-pays basis, so the costs were put back onto the inspection authorities' budgets, instead of direct funding from the government. It is a minor matter which has a large effect on public safety. China is a country which does not have unions in it's workplaces to influence process or product safety
 
acotrel said:
Economic rationalism is often an excuse to ignore safety. In Australia we used to have an effective standards organisation and testing bodies. The testing bodies were put on a user-pays basis, so the costs were put back onto the inspection authorities' budgets, instead of direct funding from the government. It is a minor matter which has a large effect on public safety. China is a country which does not have unions in it's workplaces to influence process or product safety
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Jack Welch once said, "Corporations should be based on barges and towed from port-to-port and moored at whatever country has the least taxes and regulation"

Chairman Mao, when informed that China could easily lose 20 million people in a nuclear conflict outbreak said something to the effect of. "Ah that's not so bad."
 
gortnipper said:
Jury duty is mandatory. Should one be excluded from having to to it? Democracy isn't Democracy if everyone doest have a say.

Jim Crow, gerrymandering and now 253 bills to limit voting access post this last election.

Some people just don't plain like it when everyone votes.
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In Australia, we have a grand old tradition of branch-stacking in most political parties and unions. Either you are a member of the electorate, or you are not.
 
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