Welcome back

.... to the Path of Bones. I'm still your host, Klikhizz Grimscale.

Er ... sorry about that. Feeling a tad on the silly side at the moment as I'm making myself stay up all night in order to try to switch my sleeping schedule around.

As most of you already know I work in video/film post-production ... and with that sometimes comes whacked out hours (both odd working hours and long days ... sometimes combined in the same schedule.) ... Starting Monday we're beginning dailies work for several episodes of a new TV series called October Road, which means that I get to switch from a 10a - 6p work schedule last week to a 10p - 6a work schedule that may last the duration of the shoot (38 work days). After getting home from work Friday night I'm forcing myself to stay up all night in an attempt to exhaust myself so that I can get into a schedule of sleeping in the afternoons.

The result of which is that I'm not necessarily all here at the moment ... so I can't guarantee that the ramblings that follow (or, for that matter precede) this will have any coherency what-so-ever.

In any case … I was sitting here and remembered something that I heard on the way in to work Friday. I was listening to talk radio and they were talking about the up-coming elections. The host in question was, in particular, speaking to the portion of voters who have become fed up with the Republican administration’s increased spending and lack of significant progress on various issues from the borders to tax reform to social security reform, and who are considering voting Democrat in the upcoming elections to ‘teach them a lesson.’

His stance was ‘don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, because if you do you just end up with an empty tub and have to start over with a new baby.’ … and that voting Democrat may send a message, but it may not really be the message that you want to send.

The problem is, our system tends to encourage throwing out the baby with the bath water. If you have an elected official … particularly on the national level … that you don’t feel is representing you then you need to vote them out of office …. To accomplish that you generally have to vote the opponent into office … and since there is (usually) only one candidate from each party in the final election then that usually ends up meaning that … to effect a change you have to vote the opposing party into the office….

… so what do you do when you aren’t being properly represented but ‘the other guy’ doesn’t represent your beliefs either?

Yes, you could vote them out during the primary … but if they’re not opposed by someone in their party then what? Run yourself?

I’ve heard a lot of people saying lately that they wish that there was a viable third party in this country … (many times I would argue that to have a third party we’d actually have to have a second party rather than two faces of the same party) … well, for one, there could be if people would actually support one rather than being afraid of ‘wasting’ their vote. I’ll almost guarantee that most of the people that say they wish there was a viable third party in the country will go to the ballot and vote for either the Democrats or the Republicans and most of them will do it because they don’t want to waste their vote and have the other major party get the seat. Thus making the ‘third’ party get a small percentage of the vote and continue to appear ‘unviable’.

Now … swinging back around (weee isn’t stream of semi-consciousness fun!) to voting for the Democrats to send a ‘message’ to the Republicans …. The question here becomes by voting for a Democrat, what message are you really sending to the Republicans? Yes, you’re telling them that you won’t support them if you’re not happy with them … but you’re also telling them that you agree with the ideals of the Democratic party (or at the least the ideals of the candidates that you vote for) … and the result may be that the Republicans move more toward that set of ideals in order to try and win more votes in the next election … make sure you know what message that you’re sending when you cast that ballot.

I’m certainly not saying to just go in there and vote Republican … though personally I don’t really want to see the Ds get the keys to the car either and I certainly don’t want the Rs to get the idea that I support the agenda largely supported by the Ds (withdraw from Iraq, repeal the tax cuts, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and weaker pursuit of terrorists.)

So, what’s my point? Heh … I’m not sure I had one … I’m just rambling to keep my mind working in an attempt to stay conscious a bit longer. When Election Day comes around who you vote for is your choice (obviously) … just make sure that if you’re trying to send a message, that you know what message you’re sending. You may want to check to see if there are any independents or 3rd party candidates maybe their views will better match you ideals, and who knows maybe an above average 3rd party presence in the election will make both the Ds and the Rs sit up and take notice ….

Or maybe I’ve just passed out and I’m really dreaming…..