TheTicklishPear at Tumblr has a whole lot of writing resource posts: http://theticklishpear.tumblr.com/Index
"In general, the state will treat cannabis like alcohol, allowing people 21 and older to legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana and grow six marijuana plants at home."
I wasn't aware the state limited how much alcohol an adult could own.
Voter turnout is about 60% for popular, high-media-participation elections. For mid-term elections between presidential ones, or less-visible primaries, it's usually 40% or lower - and that's of registered voters, which doesn't include everyone who's eligible.
There's a handful who don't participate as a protest, but it's mostly a combination of apathy, inconvenience, and accessibility. A recent NC "votor ID" law was struck down by the Supreme Court, because it was full of details that "target African Americans with almost surgical precision" - basically, the law-makers looked at features that drew lots of African Americans to the polls (early voting, weekend voting, not requiring an official state ID card - esp. important for students), and shut those down, claiming they were trying to "prevent fraud."
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the US - and the option that's most susceptible to it, is routinely avoided in "voter ID" laws. (Absentee ballots are used more by Republicans than Democrats, so they don't get noticed.)
Aside from the outright racism trying to push people away from voting, there are practical issues. Voting day isn't a holiday. Most (maybe all?) states allow workers to take 2 hours off to vote, but if you don't work near your polling site, that won't help. If more people show up to vote than expected, the lines get long, and they can't keep the places open longer. They're all supposed to be accessible by people with various disabilities, but how well that's implemented varies. And, in part because of the way media portrays "red" and "blue" zones, people who don't match the majority in their area often believe their vote is useless, so they don't bother.
It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure what it has to offer other than student-to-student connections; there are plenty of online sources for used textbooks: Amazon, Chegg, Bookbyte, and more.
The key problem with used textbooks is that the new ones are so pricey that people (quite reasonably) want to get a notable return on that when they re-sell; most used textbook sales sites don't have a huge markup.
Trump is articulating the anger of the uneducated bigoted white people, especially men who are upset that they no longer have the legal and social dominance that they did 60 years ago, not the 99%. Trump's support with communities of color is abysmal.
I'm not sure I know what you mean by "the US system is largely dysfunctional," especially from an international perspective. (Is not that I don't think parts of my country's government are dysfunctional; I just don't know which ones you're talking about and am not sure we'd agree on those.) I mean, our lack of health care coverage is ridiculous, but this doesn't seem to be an international political issue; there's no swarm of Americans sneaking off to Canada and Europe to get medications and procedures they can't afford at home. Our education system is a mess--but again, why would people in other countries care, other than in abstract?
I am very hopeful about a Clinton presidency - she has a platform I can believe in, and a long, solid history of getting stuff done, including across party lines.
Which problems are you seeing that can't be fixed by a skilled president with congressional support?
Not saying there aren't any, or there aren't many, and I'm not claiming she'll have the solid congressional support she needs to get the majority of her plans done. Just wondering which problems you mean.
You want a debate involving US citizens, about how to fix the US's relationships with the rest of the world, without discussing the two people who are up for running the US for the next four years?
Um, good luck with that?
It's not like we can make any statements about foreign policy, immigration laws, or trade contracts that aren't going to be drastically different based on who wins in November.
(Side note, prediction: Clinton is going to win in November. Whether she squeaks through or gets a landslide, all the options for Trump to win involve actively working to win votes - not rile up attendees at his speeches - in swing states. He has lots of media attention, but no get-out-the-vote ground presence.)
They've realized. They just can't admit it in public without also saying, "this party is packed with incompetence, cronyism, and graft, so it'd be very reasonable if you voted for the other side until we got things sorted out."
Feh.
Yes, reading the "boring school assignment" books ten years later can be enlightening - it's worth noting that most of those books weren't written for children, and the combination of "written for adults" and "written for people in a different country in a different era" makes many "classics" incomprehensible to children; they're slow, dense reading that bears no connection to what they see in real life. Throw a few years experience onto the kid, and the books may have some relevance.
The other points, however... meh. My time is limited. Exposure to ideas from different perspectives is good, as is the ability to concentrate - neither of those requires that I give up my precious leisure time to slog through content I dislike.
I notice the article doesn't suggest listening to rap, country, opera, and folk music to expand one's artistic tastes.
The world has too many books that I actively want to read, that I will never have time for, for me to waste that time on books I know I won't like. The article suggests "you might find that you like them!" Um, no. I am willing to read a few pages of anything; if that doesn't catch my interest, there is nobody awarding prizes for Most Classic Books Read. Time to move on to something that either delights me, or informs me without putting my teeth on edge.
It's gone up a lot. I always have a next book to read, and I can keep several genres with me so I always have something that fits my mood. I don't have to pick my next book in advance; I can throw twenty maybe-next books on the reader and pick which one when I finish the one I'm on.
I read more fanfic and romance than anything else, because those are what's easiest to get in non-DRM'd epub formats. There was a stretch a while back when I read about a novel per day, or novel-length (50k+ words) fanfic, and sometimes more than that.
I'm never too tired to hold the ereader. (Well, sometimes I am, but by that time, the words themselves are blurry.) Don't have to set it aside to eat. Can comfortably read standing up on the bus or while waiting in line. And using an e-ink reader means never running out of battery mid-book; one battery charge is worth several thousand pages.
I don't think e-readers will turn non-readers into regular readers, nor occasional readers into voracious readers. But it gives voracious readers a way to read as often as they want, without the limitations that go with paper.
I checked "only e-reader," but I do occasionally read paper - for some reference books, or very rarely when I've got a highly recommended novel that has no ebook edition. But I'm very much in the "give me the pixel version and I will never touch paper again" camp.
I transitioned almost entirely several years ago, and now find paper books clunky and hard to read. They take two hands, and you have to keep shifting them around, and they don't automatically remember where you left off.
There are areas where print is better - e-readers suck for academic and business texts, or anything you're not reading in a front-to-back linear fashion. But for leisure reading, especially fiction, I want epubs on an e-ink screen.
I like "Stronger Together" as a main slogan - it doesn't have the tinge of egotism that fills all of Trump's activities, and it makes a statement that this isn't a get-Hillary-elected project as much as a help-all-America project.
I'm also very fond of her recent "Dear Donald Trump" ad and the related open letter - the solid message of "we reject your hatemongering" delivered with as much diversity as can be packed into a two and half minute video.



The Writer's WorkshopDo you know of any online creative writing courses for beginners?May 15 at 12:14 PM

