Hilarious banned commercial:

Ridiculous person alert

Via Tracy at FRAUDfiles comes this hilarious story.

A guy got convicted for voting twice in the 2006 elections. The kicker, however, is that he tried to defend himself by saying he forgot!!!! Most commentators have neatly dissembled this argument, and I think I'm prepared to take it as given that he deliberately voted twice. In an era when far less than half of the electoral body actually votes, shouldn't we be lauding someone who tried to vote twice?

Or maybe just expelling them from the gene pool.

Why I shouldn't be rejoicing at Britney and Lohan's misery

because it can get much, much worse. Lainey's right that:

It is heartbreaking. And decidedly different from the almost absurd, circus-like scandal surrounding the Britneys and the Lilos.
Amy’s situation is so much more… authentic.

Household fingerprint locks are here

Yet another sign of the rapidly approaching future:

Splitting electoral votes...moronic

Ridiculous piece mentioned by my favorite polisci blog here. California is thinking of splitting its Electoral College votes by congressional district! As is pointed out, the flaw:

is the fact that the congressional districts in most states have been gerrymandered and usually in a way that radically over-represents one of the two parties–this is certainly the case in California, where a large number of the districts are “safe” for either the Democrats or the Republicans.

I agree with Dr. Taylor, the Electoral college is outdated, fundamentally patronizing at the outset, and distorting of the people's will. The most insidious effect, however, is the fact that a Democratic vote in Texas (as Dr. Taylor put it), or a Republican vote in California, is essentially only symbolic. I think that the Electoral College has contributed to the United States' low voting rates by devaluing the act of voting. The futility of voting for a congressman in a gerrymandered district or a president in a one-colour state has fundamentally eroded the confidence of the average American in his/her ballot.