You know, I sure hope there are only seven!

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Akhal Teka is the name of the horse, in Turkmenistan. 

This is a fine looking animal, too!

When You Get to the Roots of U.S. Politics, it Becomes Weirdly Simple

One recent estimate pegged the amount spent on the 2012 elections as $6 Billion.  That's an awful lot of yard signs.  What was the result of all that money sent floating over the airwaves and polluting the atmosphere with jet exhaust from candidates jetting here, there and everywhere?

A lot less than you might think.  Here's why.

We pride ourselves on being self-determined individuals.  "Every vote is precious," you know the drill.  "You, alone, may make a difference!"  "Casting your ballot is your sacred duty to preserve Democracy!"

All of that is perfectly right.  You should vote, that's how things get decided.  If you don't vote, you can't complain, and someone else will be running things.

But here's the kicker: in the aggregate, our votes - ALL of our votes - haven't changed the basic political landscape at all within any of our lifetimes.

"What!" you cry.  "We had the New Deal, the Fair Deal, even the Square Deal.  The Great Society came and went, as did a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage.  Richard Nixon got thrown out, and we elected our first African-American.  How can you possibly claim that nothing in politics has changed?"

I don't have to claim it - I can show it.  And it is surprisingly easy to show.  Note that I'm not talking about the "March of Progress," the natural evolution of civil rights, the gradual relaxation of restrictons on people in general, the movement of population centers from the Northeast to the Southwest, or individual issues at all, which become just buttons for manipulators to push to advance themselves and their own agendas.

My claim is restricted to who actually rules the United States, and who perpetually challenges that rule.  Mine is a regional argument, which conveniently also breaks down into a geographical argument.

The beauty of the proof is that it is visual.  You don't have to take my word for a thing, you just have to look and think and draw your own conclusion.  It consists of two maps, or more if you want to get elaborate, but two is all you need.

Let's look at the first map.  It shows the results of the 2012 election, in which President Obama was re-elected by a thin but clear margin:

Electoral map of the 2012 US national election

OK, time for something a little uplifting....

Technorati is a directory of blogs.  According to people who are listed there, it is the premier such directory. I don't really know what everyone else thinks about that claim, but it probably isn't that.

I joined Technorati early in 2012.  I didn't know much about it, but somebody said it would be a good idea to join.  Off I marched, jumping through their hoops and signing up.

I didn't have much published at that point, so there was no point in trying to get added to their directory.  The are very exclusive.  Without anything to contribute, I quickly lost interest.  Besides, time is precious, and I don't have any to spend poking around websites I don't normally visit.  I basically forgot about it.

The months passed quickly.  It was a beautiful summer here in Colorado, which meant forest fires everywhere.  When you can see the flames from the roof of your house, it gives the adventure that extra little bit of spice.

I worked hard, though, building up my blogs.  I have over half a dozen, some very active, others which I haven't touched in a while, though they serve their purpose.  I get a fair number of hits these days on my various sites, which is encouraging.

I ran across an article mentioning Technorati again recently, so went back to pay a visit.  I had trouble getting in, but eventually figured it out.  It is not the easiest website to navigate.

Everything was exactly as I had left it, which means, just a simple profile and nothing else.  Not very useful.  However, you have to start somewhere.

So, it was time to review their submission guidelines.  Turns out you have to go through a somewhat tedious process for them to send someone out to your site to inspect it.  Normally, I don't like having to pass inspection.  My mother refused to go to an interview for a local club when I was a child because she knew that was how they kept out "undesirables."  Very laudable, but it meant we got to watch our friends walk by on their way to the swimming pool while we sweated it out.

But I was intrigued.  Could I pass muster.  More importantly, would I meet their snooty standards.  I took it as a challenge and looked up the instructions.

The process turned out to be not so bad.  You must demonstrate a basic level of understanding of How Things Work by submitting a RSS feed, which, if you are a programmer, undoubtedly is pretty trivial.  A few Google searches and I was good to go there.

Other than that, you just have to submit a bunch of tags for your site, describe it, then put a token on your site for to verify.  Once again, somewhat tedious, but not so bad.

It took some babysitting, because their feed reader apparently has trouble finding its own tokens on your site, but eventually everything was complete.

Sat back, worked on my sites, and waited.

The next day, success!  All three of the sites I submitted - Movie Lovers Reviews, Animated Film Reviews, and Once Upon a Time Fan Site - were accepted!  There they were, each in the directory right where they were supposed to be.  I had made it into the club I hadn't even been sure I wanted to join!

Emboldened by my victory, I tried to submit this website.  It is, after all, the one where I actually post my opinions from time to time, such as they are.  As I'm doing now.

And there, dear friends, Mighty Casey struck out.  Request denied.  If I want to find out any more, well, read the FAQ.

But I got in the door, that's a start.  And someday, perhaps on some hallowed anniversary of the birth of flight or of Mrs. Daimler taking that epic first drive to grandma's house or wherever it was, my own thoughts may be deemed worthy to join my film reviews and updates about "Once Upon a Time."  Just not yet.

  

And a good thing, too!

Just come on over!