The Bogosity Forum

[mp3]http://podcast.bogosity.tv/mp3s/BogosityPodcast-2013-07-29.mp3[/mp3]


Co-Host: Tim Dyson

News of the Bogus:

• 0:34 - Innovative move on e-voting from Estonia http://www.markpack.org.uk/44337/innovative-move-on-e-voting-from-estonia/
  
• 
  4:10 - Royal Mail privatization pushes the envelope http://www.timesdispatch.com/business/local/biz-to-go-royal-mail-privatization-pushes-the-envelope/article_296de09d-d608-546b-928f-7d2087509280.html
  
• 
  8:35 - Argentina orders wheat industry to supply local market http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/05/argentina-wheat-idUSL2N0FB0IU20130705
  
  
  
  • Argentina CPI rise more-than-expected By Investing.com
    http://www.investing.com/news/economic-indicators/argentina-cpi-rise-more-than-expected-250204
    
  • President Announces Price Control Programme http://www.argentinaindependent.com/currentaffairs/newsfromargentina/president-announces-price-control-programme/
• 
  13:40 - Is flashing your car's headlights protected by the First Amendment? http://news.yahoo.com/flashing-car-headlights-protected-first-amendment-103216345.html
  
• 
  17:00 - Justice Department To Review George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin Case
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/14/justice-department-george-zimmerman_n_3595835.html?1373832613&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
  
• 
  19:45 - DHS warns employees not to read leaked NSA information http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/07/15/dhs-warns-employees-not-to-read-leaked-nsa-information/
  
  
  
  • The NSA slide you haven't seen http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-nsa-slide-you-havent-seen/2013/07/10/32801426-e8e6-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342_story.html

24:40 - Biggest Bogon Emitter: Melissa Harris Perry http://youngcons.com/msnbc-political-analyst-detroit-is-what-happens-when-government-is-too-small/

29:25 - Idiot Extraordinaire: KTVU http://gawker.com/ktvu-reports-asiana-air-pilots-were-sum-ting-wong-and-759185714

This Week's Quote: "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." —Robert Heinlein

>That DHS story
>That Idiot Extraordinaire

(http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/mj-laughing.gif)

My sides have officially left orbit.

what manner of retard was responsible for this DHS thing? seriously, the level of mental retardation is...frightening.

beyond that, this is the funniest shit I ever heard: it's unbelievable that real life can really be this ridiculous!

The counting times for the votes in Canadian and US elections are not comparable.

In Canada, your (paper) ballot will usually have about five choices for a single office (MP for Federal elections, MPP/MLA/MNA for Provincial elections, MLC for Territorial elections) and these can be held at any time.  Municipal elections usually have rather fewer choices (many districts are often unopposed) but will typically have Mayor, Councilor, and Chool Board Trustee (and a few places have other councils that get elected as well, such as Toronto which used to have two different levels of Municipal government and Vancouver which has a Parks Board election).  Municipal elections are held on a regular schedule (every 3 years in Ontario, on a specific day in November), and Provincial and Federal elections are usually kept well away from them.

The US is a while different matter.  On one ballot, you could have:

(Federal)
President
Senator
Representative

(State)
Governor
Lieutenant Governor
Attorney General
Treasurer
State Supreme Court Justice (possibly multiple positions up for election at the same time)
possibly other State Court Justices

(Municipal)
Mayor
Councilor
Sheriff (every County has one)
Coroner every County has one of these, too)
local District Attorney
Local Court Justice (possible multiple seats, possibly for multiple court divisions handling different classes of cases)

..and that's just the offices I can think of off the top of my head.

(Election of local Sheriff, Coroner, and judges was originally to ensure that everywhere could have them, given that you need all three to have a justice system that can function properly.  It often didn't, of course, but no worse than not having all the bits as was typical in a lot of Canada in the early days.  In the US, if you could set up a town, you could also set up a Sheriff for basic policing, a Court with a Judge for trial and hearing functions, and a Coroner to make official determinations about the nature, cause, and manner of deaths.)