Electronic voting

If electronic voting is to work well it must be trustworthy. I think the following would accomplish that.
Have the voting machine print the votes of each voter in a standardized and easy to read format. The voter could look at the paper to verify that the vote was correctly recorded.
The votes could be counted by either using the paper to double-check the machines counts or just directly counting the paper votes (like is done for standardized test that use machine readable answer sheets).

As a software engineer I don't trust computers to keep our elections accruate--because there is always the possibility of human tampering.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2007/04/27/the-case-against-e-voting/

Person to person lending

I just learned about http://www.prosper.com/ -- a website where individuals can loan other money. It looks very compelling. They only facilitate unsecured loans but I wonder why it couldn't be done with secured loans also.

First make "right" easy then make "wrong" hard

I think it is best to make it easy to do the right thing and then make it hard to do the wrong thing.
Two examples:
The music industry should have made it wasy to buy and download legal music before making massive prosecutions. Most people will do the right thing when it is easy.
Immigration: We should make it easy to do the right thing (especially for those who aren't currently breaking the law) by making a guest worker program with generous limits, then after that is working well increase border security.

Spring Election

The Spring Election is tomorrow. Details at http://elections.state.wi.us/subcategory.asp?linksubcatid=1865&linkcatid=1846&linkid=155&locid=47

Does local control reduce corruption and waste?

It seems to me that when control is as local as possible then government waste and corruption are minimized. How much money is wasted by passing it up to Washington and back down to schools? If the federal government only controlled what only it can control (military, foreign policy, etc) then that would immediately reduce the lobbying at the federal level. At the local level lobbying is harder to do (because there are many controlling groups) and the citizens have better access to those in control (the local school board members all live within a few miles). Corruption can still occur at the local level but should be easier to address.
The WI Republican Party wants the state to limit the property tax amounts that the local governments can access but I would rather go to my local school board to ask for tax relief than the state legislature.

Do you think moving control to the local level would be beneficial?

Libertatian and Christian agreement on homosexual marriage

I have been reading a lot from the Cato Institute blogs lately and agree with much of what they publish. They had a blog entry against a constitutional amendment to define marriage. I think on the federal level both Christians and libertarians could agree to pass a law preventing federal judges from ruling on the definition of marriage by removing it from their jurisdiction (See Constitution excerpt below). That would truly leave the question of homosexual marriage up to states.

Article III, Section 2

In all cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

Is there an electric car in my future

I am interesting in electric car developments like those at Tesla Motors but I wonder if or when some company will create an electric car to meet my needs.
First it gets cold here in the winter so I wonder if the batteries will work well.
Second most electric cars are small. I have a car with an 118" wheelbase so that I have room for my family.
When will large electric cars that work well be made anytime in the next few decades?

Sold house

Last Friday we finally closed on the sale of our New Richmond house! That gives our budget a little more breathing room. :-)

Is a Filibuster ever good?

Is there ever a good reason to use a filibuster? It doesn't seem right to me that 41 senators can stop the will of the majority based solely on traditional rules. Can anyone give me a good reason for the filibuster (I am all for delaying voting under discussion is done but I am specifically referring to preventing voting just because a vote wouldn't go your way).

Election day on Tuesday

See who is running in at the state elections board: http://elections.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=9728&locid=47

WI Supreme Court candidates:
Linda M. Clifford: (I couldn't find an offical website so I just searched with Google).
Joseph Sommers: http://www.sommersforsupremecourt.com/
Judge Annette Ziegler: http://www.judgezieglerforsupremecourt.com/ (Thanks to her mailing and phone call for reminding me of the election.)