It’s election day. If you’re registered and haven’t already done so, go vote. Take a state or federal picture identification that has not expired. Wait 30 years. Tell your kids about today. As always, a quote from Starship Troopers and/or Neal Patrick Harris is in order. Here’s a two-fer:

NPH: We’ve got one of their brains now. Pretty soon we’ll know how they think, and then we’ll know how to beat them. One day it’ll be over, and everyone will forget that this was the moment. This is when it turned. And it wasn’t the mighty Fleet, it wasn’t any fancy new weapon, it was a cap trooper named Zim who captured a brain.

There is reason to hope that today is the day we start getting the country back on the right track. Maybe we’ll reject the talk tough, hope for the best foreign policy of the neocons. Maybe we’ll reject the religion-on-the-sleeve, not-in-the-heart moral grandstanding of the social conservatives. Maybe we’ll reject the unregulated, debt ballooning, economy wrecking crony capitalism of the money conservatives. Instead, maybe we’ll speak softly and keep the big stick in reserve rather than waving it about. Maybe our morality will encompass the well-being of those living in the period between birth and brain death. And maybe we’ll recognize that our economic engine depends on a stable, prosperous middle class. Maybe.

So, go vote.

Oh, here’s a bit of election day inspiration from Walt Whitman, swiped from BarbinMD:

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,

‘Twould not be you, Niagara – nor you, ye limitless prairies – nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,

Nor you, Yosemite – nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,

Nor Oregon’s white cones – nor Huron’s belt of mighty lakes – nor Mississippi’s stream:

This seething hemisphere’s humanity, as now, I’d name – the still small voice vibrating -America’s choosing day…

Blue Indiana has a good post on State Representative Jackie Walorski, a particularly objectionable candidate from the Elkhart area who is spouting Palin-esque “real America” crap. Walorski is from a reliably Republican district so she probably isn’t at risk for losing her job for this sort of nonsense, but hopefully her constituents will let her know, one way or another, that she isn’t doing them any favors with this kind of hateful rhetoric that denigrates the patriotism of fellow Americans simply because they don’t share your policy views.

The heart and soul of our country isn’t marching to Obama’s drum..we are hard working, middle class Americans who believe in God, Guns and Country and aren’t impressed with the American Idol type of hype that has flooded the air.
. . .
We’re proud, hard working Americans and this is OUR country.

You know what? Go to hell. Obama supporters are proud, hard working Americans as well, and if Ms. Walorski chooses not to recognize that, she’s a big part of what’s troubling this country at the moment — people so tied up in rooting for “their team,” that they aren’t interested in acknowledging the legitimacy (if not necessarily the superiority) of competing points of view.

Yesterday, I went to a friend’s wedding. It was unique in that it had a double ceremony, one Christian and one Hindu. They both had a common theme, of course, the tying together of two people into one unit. But the accretion of religious elements around that common core was very different for each religion. One had a lot of Jesus and the other had a lot of Ganesh and other gods with whom I am unfamiliar.

To me, non-religious fellow that I am, both sets of religious add ons seemed remarkably arbitrary – all the more so since I had the opportunity to see two sets of them side-by-side in the same day. Obviously the Christian ceremony was more familiar, but no less arbitrary, from my view. I have to say that the Hindu ceremony has much cooler production values – the colorful attire most of all.

The core of both ceremonies was “do you two want to be together and act as a common unit?” and “are the families cool with that?” It makes me wonder about the first time in any religion where a priest sidled up to the people who wanted to get married or their parents and said, “You know, it doesn’t really count unless a priest is involved in this process, and we talk about God (or gods) for awhile during the ceremony.” There is nothing intrinsically religious about the joining of couples. Seeing both rituals together makes it apparent that God (or gods) were something of an afterthought to the process.

Good food, though. And watching the mix of cultures – two groups of people practicing wildly different religions happily sharing a day watching one of their own marry a person from the other group without much more resistance than saying “hey, this is kind of different” – makes me feel like we’ve come a long way in certain respects. Though, I wonder what that says about the power of religion. I’m not sure you can be devout and watch such entirely different religions in practice without it occurring to you, “hey, at least one of these has to be wrong.” Not really my battle to fight, I guess.

This is even farther afield than the Halloween post, but what the heck, it’s Saturday morning. I mentioned this elsewhere and got a few “I’m not alone!” responses, so I figured I’d throw it up here. Here it is:

I hate “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein. It’s a horrible children’s story with no redeeming features so far as I can see. It’s about a boy who takes and takes and takes with no thought about the effect his self-centered greed has on the giver, and it’s about a tree that kills itself giving to the ungrateful little puke. Neither character in the tale is acting in an admirable fashion. The tree comes closest, I suppose, with its generosity, but giving to death in the hopes that it will make someone love you isn’t healthy either.

I know you all come here for the children’s book reviews. Next time, I’ll give “The Little Red Hen” what for.

The Evansville Courier Press has an opinion encouraging voters to eliminate the township assessor position. The General Assembly already eliminated the smaller township assessors but put the position up to a vote for those townships with a large number of properties. If the township assessor is eliminated, those duties shift to the county assessor.

I don’t have strong opinions on the township assessor position, but I’d like to sound a note of caution as to the Courier Press’s rationale. They point out that consolidating the duties has the benefit of more uniformity and fewer costs related to more levels of government. These are probably accurate, but there are competing considerations in a democracy involving proximity to one’s elected officials and the desirability of limiting the power of any one government official.

Now, I’m not saying that the township assessor position is necessarily the place to draw the line, but democracy is messy and inefficient. Mussolini, the saying goes, made the trains run on time. Dictatorships are probably cheaper and more uniform than a patchwork of democratic institutions all jealously guarding their turf and vying against one another.

Seems like the political campaigns are jacked up to such a level that I can’t pay a whole lot of attention. There are important races out there, not just the one for the Presidency, but all kinds of state and local races. But with the Presidential race at such a fever pitch, it’s kind of like trying to look into the sun. Initially, it was dark, and you had to squint and grope around to see the political landscape. Then, it got lighter and things were nice and visible. But, for the past couple of weeks, it’s been nothing but glare.

I guess that’s just the nature of the beast. As a Presidential candidate, if you tone it down, you’ll cede the ground to your opponent. About all you can hope for is to cancel out the other guy. The down ballot races probably suffer the most.

According to the lede by Rick Yencer of the Muncie Star Press, at a local House forum:

Indiana House Democrats and their party’s candidates generally support property tax caps, local rules for CAFOs and a living wage, while House Republicans are advocates for privatization of state government, right to work and making those tax caps permanent.

I threw in a link on the “right to work” position because it’s one of those pieces of jargon that sounds good on its face but is problematic in practice. Basically it creates free rider problems wherein a person can work at a place where a union has created better conditions without having to pay dues to that union.

Making tax caps permanent refers to putting property tax caps in the Constitution. Personally, I oppose such a move since we don’t know what tax policy is going to be most prudent in the future. Currently those caps have been legislated, and that legislation is being implemented and it will probably be awhile before we can tell whether this policy works well. And, even if it ends up working well now, putting it in the Constitution ignores the possibility that property tax caps might not be the best policy in the future when conditions change. Nobody likes taxes, and all taxes have their pros and cons. I don’t think there is anything peculiarly pernicious about property taxes that warrant special Constitutional treatment as compared to income taxes, sales taxes, estate taxes, excise taxes, or whatever.

Privatization can work in some situations, but it’s not automatically better than having government perform a function. At times, it feels like privatizing a particular government function or asset is selling our seed corn and, too often, simply enriching well connected bidders.

The Evansville Courier Press recommends that voters stick with the incumbents running for the state House of Representatives in the southwestern part of the state. There is no opposition to Democrat Trent Vanhaaften, Republican Vaneta Becker, and Democrat Gail Riecken, so those choices were easy.

As between incumbent Democrat Dennis Avery and J.D. Strouth, the paper concludes that Avery has done a lot of good stuff, has some seniority and influence in the House, and Strouth doesn’t bring a record that compels getting rid of Avery. So, it endorsed Avery. As between Republican Suzanne Crouch and Democratic challenger James Rapp, the paper cites Crouch’s growing experience, her support of the Toll Road privatization which helps I-69 construction in their area, and her knowledge of local government; along with Rapp’s opposition to eliminating township government. The paper, therefore, endorses Crouch.

Mark Souder can’t be happy with numbers like these.

Research 2000 (10/16 – 18)
Mike Montagano (D): 40
Mark Souder (R-inc): 45
Bill Larsen (L): 4
(MoE: ±4%)

Howey/Gauge (10/23 – 24)
Mike Montagano (D): 44
Mark Souder (R-inc): 41
(MoE: ±5.7%)

Every four years, we get the civics lesson that we’re not really voting for President; we’re merely voting for electors pledged to cast electoral votes for that particular Presidential candidate. The Secretary of State has a list of the electors.

Pledged to Barack Obama are Jeffrey L. Chidester, of Valparaiso; Owen “Butch” Morgan, of South Bend; Michelle Boxell, of Warsaw; Charlotte Martin, of Indianapolis; Jerry J. Lux, of Shelbyville; Connie Southworth, of Salamonia; Alan P. Hogan, of Indianapolis; Myrna E. Brown, of Vincennes; Clarence Benjamin Leatherbury, of Salem; Daniel J. Parker, of Indianapolis; and Cordelia Lewis Burks, of Indianapolis.

Pledged to John McCain are Chuck Williams, of Valparaiso; Edward Smith, of Galveston; Barbara Krisher, of Fort Wayne; Daniel Bortner, of Bedford; Virginia Marner, of Kokomo; Susan Lightle, of Greenfield; Pearl Swanigan, of Indianapolis; William Springer, of Sullivan; David Buskill, of Jeffersonville Samuel Wayne Goodman, of Greenwood; and Juana Watson, of Columbus.

Pledged to Bob Barr are Jeff Duensing, of Lowell; K. P. Nfr, of Michigan City; Jonathan Bartels, of Fort Wayne;Todd Singer, of Plainfield; John Rutherford, of Carmel; Gayle Bond, of Hagerstown; Jame Goldstein, of Indianapolis; Andrew Horning, of Freedom; Margaret Fette, of Bloomington; Melanie Hughes, of New Albany; and Mike Kole, of Fishers.

There are also electors designated for the Green Party, the Socialist Party, Chuck Baldwin, Kevin Mottus, and Ralph Nader. (I tried getting information about Kevin Mottus since he was the other one I hadn’t heard of, but a quick Google search didn’t turn up much, and I’m not interested in working that hard.)