Was the actual article bad, or just the way Slate framed it? (I'd saved for later reading the same article published in a different venue, with the title "The Icelandic experience challenges the view that constitutional process must be exclusionary and secretive.")
It seems like the main lesson here is that you're not going to have real constitutional change if you leave veto power in the hands of existing winners, who are unlikely to want to change a system that they've successfully gamed. See also the British Columbia Citizens' Assembly: "In 2004, the government of British Columbia embarked on a bold democratic experiment: it created an assembly of 160 near-randomly selected citizens to assess and redesign the province's electoral system. The British Columbia Citizens' Assembly represents the first time a citizen body has had the power to reform fundamental political institutions" ... which failed because their proposals were subject to a 60% supermajoritarian referendum hurdle, and hence "lost" when they got only 57% of the vote.
kids were fine, and I actually just found it difficult myself to be trapped in a car for that long. I thought that by the time you're an adult, you can take endless road trips without any problem, but it turns out that the last leg of the trip I was really antsy
Aha! Who got it right?
Now I think I need to write a self-help parenting book The Self-Focused Parent: How to raise better children by making them take care of you.
Your prize is flying to Montana and driving my children back to Texas!
they'll understand it's not a renewable resource.
"Enjoy your treats while they last! You won't have them, or Grandma, forever."
5: Save your receipts for the reimbursement form.
7: Ok! My wife's going away for the weekend, so I have to bring my stepdaughter and dog. Your kids are going to love our dog! This is going to be be so much fun!
What a relief. Please treat yourself to the best steak in Wyoming.
In World War Z (the novel), Iceland was one of the last places on earth totally infested by zombies. Just sayin'.
Vaguely on the subject of trips, we're planning our first family trip in five years that isn't visiting other family. I'm finding it stressful because I have no idea what I want to do, or what is possible to do on vacation with a two-year-old. It seems like the default thing is to rent a room somewhere near a beach, and take the two-year-old to the beach. I don't know that I'm going to find this preferable to going to work.
Vacations are just trips unless you've got extra adults who like your kids.
11 -- not quite for a 2 year old, but for 3 and up I highly recommend skiing. You get an activity+day care for the kid+some vague sense the kid is learning a skill+non skill learning day care. The only downside is that it costs a zillion dollars.
Also don't knock just going to the beach too much, the key is to find a really nice ass beach to go to, preferably with day care. I can recommend one in your area! Unfortunately the zillion dollar problem is also an issue.
Have in-laws that looooooove small children.
Have in-lawscommenters that looooooove small children.
"I love to pick up and drive small children in Montana!" Creepy or no?
Hey man, parts of Montana are gorgeous.
Let's have him try it out, and then we can decide if it's creepy. Peep and Eggie can have an adventure.
Unfogged group vacation/daycare pool at the geographical center of Unfogged, which is, I don't know, Newfoundland.
Or somewhere towards the center of the earth.
Atlantic Ocean, some depth down?
14: is an ass beach like the opposite of a topless beach?
In-laws do love small children, but they're ten hours away.
For complicated reasons, I'm actually near a beach within two hours of your presumed location RIGHT NOW Nathan Williams. If you drive your kids up here I'm ready to party with them.
I mean does an ass beach have to be creepy? Only if you're a creep to begin with.
Unless your kids are libertarians. Then things are getting creepy up in this bitch.
Hot damn am I getting derunk in this New England near beach community that I am in for annoying, complicated reasons. If I get into a fight, can we do a meetup at my bail hearing? What does the bible say.
I'd ask you to redact that but honestly at this point how can I legitimately ask to redact anything. Let's start a fist fight!
Some guy is staring at me funny for using the IPhone! I'm going to go over to speak with him to defend ALL of your honors..
30: e-mail us where you are, Halford!
I totally intimidated IPhone stater with the power of eyebrows and crossfit.
Honestly it is so beautiful here in summer that it is objectively better than Southern California. Still, let's see who I can provoke a fight with to prove otherwise.
Man, if you were closer, I'd totally track you down.
Bostoniangirl Vs. Rover Halfdn
FIGHT!
No fight. I just want to go to the beach. I agree that Maine is beautiful in the summer.
We're about to leave for our a trip to a place with loads of extra adults who like our child and even so it doesn't entirely seem like it will be better than staying put. I mean, it will, it will be great! but right now on the eve of leaving, it does not seem so great.
We have friends (multiple families) (academics and/or K-12 teachers) who set off for yearly epic road trips that often occupy nearly all of the summer. To me, it really doesn't sound like as much fun as having a whole entire summer to putter around your house. They seem to like it.
That is, with kids in day camps or daycare. If your alternative is being at home with the kids every day, by all means go for an epic roadtrip and at least shake things up.
Next week we'll be going to Yellowstone for 10 days and its a really nice drive from here up through WY. East to Evanston then north through Star Valley and Teton.
47: I suspect the part heebie's driving through is a lot less picturesque than that part.
It's pretty, but super monotonous.
Huh so the answer to the question "why does that mountain range seem to be called essentially The Tits?" is "because that is in fact where the name comes from." Thanks, internet! (Bok bok!)
French explorers are super into tits.
I mean I guess naming a mountain The Big Tit isn't exactly inexplicable, though it's a little fourth-gradeish. Is there a word like phallic/yonic but meaning breastular?
This is the worst insomnia, laying on the floor of this overpriced shitty peak season motel, so I can be directly in the stream of the failing AC unit. It's not even that hot out but my internal temp is wacky. So various limbs keep falling asleep, but not me, and tomorrow's drive keeps seeming worse and worse.
I'm hoping writing all that out will allow me to sleep. That is my plan.
Not much worse than insomnia that amplifies itself by creating worries about things it, itself is going to make worse. I dunno, keep reading. Teo says the Teo and Smearcase show is not very interesting so we might lull you to sleep.
On the other hand it has been minutes upon minutes since Teo's last comment so it's possible he's already asleep and I will just have to tell you bedtime stories. Once upon a time there was a cell phone that wanted more than anything else in the whole world to swim...
I actually off-blogged you a whole message on how tightly I was gripping my phone on the in laws boat. Somehow I thought I'd like to have it to take photos but I ended up sitting on it to be safe. Obviously the message wouldn't go through from the middle of a lake, so no sanctity is being v'd.
Teo says the Teo and Smearcase show is not very interesting so we might lull you to sleep.
Prove me wrong!
Except the sanctity of sleep. Unfogged doth murder sleep.
Actually I've spent the past few minutes reading about breast-shaped hills, for which I blame Smearcase.
Oh great now I feel like I have to admit to a murder or something.
Or admit to something else super interesting so as to avoid the stylistic no-no of two three comments in a row referencing murder.
I could murder a burger right about now.
I don't think there's actually any stylistic restraint on number of comments referencing murder.
I had to get up at 4-ish this morning because I stupidly booked an early flight. How does anyone function at this kind of hour?
I was up at 3:50 to settle a baby. He didn 't really settle so fitful sleep from about 5 - 6:30 for me. Sucks. Never ever been a morning person, never will be. I think super early risers (by choice) are all serial killers in waiting.
...waiting impatiently for their victims to wake up, because there's no fun in murdering someone in their sleep.
because there's no fun in murdering someone in their sleep.
Oh, I don't know...
Because it's fascinating to hear about someone's accumulation of miles.
Are Jammies & Ace flying back from here or are they staying with you?
I used all my miles to go back to Nebraska for my reunion.
We just dropped them off at the airport. From here on out it's me and the HPs.
Do you have different DVD for this leg, or is it still Annie?
We've only watched Annie once in the past two days. The current hits are Tom & Jerry and Umi Zoomi.
I like the updates too, though I'm really glad I'm not driving little children cross-country for 4 days.
We've driven close to 10,000 miles in the past month and a bit: from Davis, CA to Cleveland, OH; from Cleveland, OH to State College, PA and back 9x; from State College, PA to Gettysburg, PA and back; from State College, PA to Baltimore, MD and back; from State College, PA to Bucks County, PA and back; from State College, PA to Cleveland, OH; from Cleveland, OH to Toronto, ON; from Toronto, ON to Ancramdale, NY; from Ancramdale, NY to Bucks County, PA and back; from Ancramdale, NY to Oquossoc, ME; from Oquossoc, ME to Sag Harbor, NY; from Sag Harbor, NY to Cleveland, OH; and from Cleveland, OH to Toronto, ON, where we are now. In the next two week, we'll travel from Toronto, ON to Boston, MA; from Boston, MA to State College, PA; from State College, PA to Cleveland, OH and back; from State College, PA to Washington, DC and back.
We've made it through the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and most of the Harry Potter books on tape.
What on earth. Are you delivering something by hand?
If my life were a decent mystery novel, I would know of corpses found in those places.
Anyway, relatives and friends think I'm avoiding them, but at least I'm not building a huge carbon footprint this summer.
83: we're semi-homeless, so we've been couch-surfing with friends and relatives. It's all been surprisingly fan, actually, because the kids are both old enough and young enough to listen to books on tape. Actually, the older boy was at camp for about a month of the epic journey, so we got to hang out with the little guy alone, which was incredibly nice.
I like 83s implication that VW and his family are drug mules.
A masochistic tribute to Simon and Garfunkel's "America"?
Especially this part: from Cleveland, OH to State College, PA and back 9x
81 suggests that State College is a nice place to settle down.
First the story about the adjunct homeless woman, and now Von Wafer!?!?! The man has won a prize and PSU won't even pay him a living wage. Bérubé must be getting all the money.
Is there a Square Cash or Venmo account set up for donations?
Well, we already had one pretty solid piece of evidence that VW is terrible at making decisions.
91: That is an unfair stereotype. Fewer than one in ten people in Cleveland is an illegal drug wholesaler.
VW is terrible at making decisions
If California runs out of water* soon, he's going to look like a genius.
* what does this actually mean?
96.last: That Halford can't wash his car and Megan has killed a guy who refused to fix a leaking toilet after five weeks of notice.
Water will be shipped in from Ohio.
I've consoled myself about my exile from California with the thought that at least we don't have to worry about water, and a Great Lake up and becomes undrinkable.