Being on the receiving end of rolled eyes, arguments and dirty looks when you make your teen finish his homework before going to visit a friend.............frustrating.
Being on the receiving end of a big hug and the words "Thank you for making me do my homework" when your son gets invited to go see his favorite basketball team (the one for which tickets are almost impossible to get) and realizes he can go because he has his homework done --- unforgettable!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
So it is January 1, 2010 and 2.5 years since I last updated this blog. This year I will try to update more often (I'd say its a New Year's resolution but I don't believe in those).
I just checked on the status of National Popular Vote. It looks like it is making progress and is now law in 5 states -- NJ, Maryland, Hawaii, Washington and Illinois. This is one of those very dangerous things. Noone talks about it much and it gets passed under the radar in state after state. And then all of a sudden one day the last state needed will pass it and chances are the representatives in these first states will have forgotten they ever passed it. As previously mentioned -- I'm not necessarily against the concept. I just think that if the folks in favor of a popular vote election want to make it happen, then they need to work on the constitutional amendment and avoid this end run! Let's have the debate openly and on a national basis because we are changing something very fundamental to our nation. There is no way such a change should be made as an end run.
Of course our legislators don't see this. For too many them, everything is an end run. What little provision should be but in a piece of legislation today? Heck if Ben Nelson had made his deal early on, that exemption for Nebraska would have been included in the healthcare bill and noone would have ever noticed -- not in 2000 pages of legalese. That is why I think Congress should pass a law limiting legislation to 100 pages. And as far as spending -- if a bill contains more than $250 million in total spending then it can't have more than 3 major spending items in it. No more $787 billion stimulus bills! Some of you would claim that Congress would never get anything done -- I'm not sure that would be such a bad thing. The reality is that the bargaining would still occur -- but it would be easier to see. It would make it harder to earmark and make semi-secret deals.
Oh well, time to go cook dinner. More later......this week, I hope!
I just checked on the status of National Popular Vote. It looks like it is making progress and is now law in 5 states -- NJ, Maryland, Hawaii, Washington and Illinois. This is one of those very dangerous things. Noone talks about it much and it gets passed under the radar in state after state. And then all of a sudden one day the last state needed will pass it and chances are the representatives in these first states will have forgotten they ever passed it. As previously mentioned -- I'm not necessarily against the concept. I just think that if the folks in favor of a popular vote election want to make it happen, then they need to work on the constitutional amendment and avoid this end run! Let's have the debate openly and on a national basis because we are changing something very fundamental to our nation. There is no way such a change should be made as an end run.
Of course our legislators don't see this. For too many them, everything is an end run. What little provision should be but in a piece of legislation today? Heck if Ben Nelson had made his deal early on, that exemption for Nebraska would have been included in the healthcare bill and noone would have ever noticed -- not in 2000 pages of legalese. That is why I think Congress should pass a law limiting legislation to 100 pages. And as far as spending -- if a bill contains more than $250 million in total spending then it can't have more than 3 major spending items in it. No more $787 billion stimulus bills! Some of you would claim that Congress would never get anything done -- I'm not sure that would be such a bad thing. The reality is that the bargaining would still occur -- but it would be easier to see. It would make it harder to earmark and make semi-secret deals.
Oh well, time to go cook dinner. More later......this week, I hope!
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