The misunderstandings and suspicions melted away, as they always do, after a few litres of liquid bread that the Germans call “Bier”. Harald was very honest in his German way, a kind of honesty that was spelled out in long, silent pauses as much as words. “With all of these different people and cultures, what is it that makes you Americans?”
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Category Archives: Politics
It’s about improving people’s lives. Miss ya, Paul!
Housing Bubble, Toil and Trouble
The other day I got into an argument in some distant corner of the internet. That’s not exactly news – it happens far too often in my life. But this particular argument, setting aside how it got personal, was rather important to me.
IRV
This fall, Saint Paul is going to have a referendum authorizing Instant Run-off Voting (IRV) for municipal elections on the ballot. Under this proposal, choices in an election would be ranked, rather than simply selected, and in successive rounds candidates with fewer votes can be dropped off and the votes allocated to the voters’ second or third choices.
Convention Wisdom
This September, my neighborhood will host the Republican National Convention. It is not an event I am looking forward to largely because I expect it will be something like a large frat party – a celebration of failure made up of drinking and whoring by a lot of white guys.
Desaparecidos
Between 1976 and 1983, as many as 30,000 people in Argentina simply disappeared. These “Desaparecidos”, as they were known, simply vanished at the hands of the regime. After a while, mothers of the disappeared started marching in the Plaza de Mayo carrying pictures and demanding answers. Eventually, the government fell and a long process of truth and reconciliation began.
Recently in the USofA, people have started to disappear. Government agencies and nonprofits who track foreclosures have found it nearly impossible to find the people who have turned in their homes throughout the nation. The kids are no longer in schools and the families are no longer on the tax rolls; they simply disappear. Similarly, people who have taken unemployment insurance for the full six months become “discouraged workers” and no longer count as unemployed; they have also simply disappeared.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 