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I think what you are referring to is the concept of preferential voting, which is the system we have hear in Australia. When you vote, you don’t just tick a box (punch a hole, whatever), you *rank* the candidates from 1 (your highest preference) on down. At the federal level and in some states...

Whenever I hear people say this, I'm reminded of something I think Karl Popper once said: The key question of political science is not "How can we ensure that we have good rulers?" but "How can we devise a system that will minimise the damage that bad rulers might do?" He had a point...

One of the big problems with systems like the electoral college or single member electorates in parliamentary democracies like the UK and Australia is "wasted votes". More people voting for you in a division that you have already won are just wasted. Whether you won Californie with 51% or 99%...

Re: Re: Re: Compulsory voting No. That's the compulsory census. There is a space for religion with a list of options and then a space to fill in if you ticked "other". Religions which have a certain level of support are usually given recognition in the tax laws, etc. There was a joke...

There are a lot of ways round it (just as there are a lot of ways around any law) but the fact that it’s a law means that most people obey it. Every couple of years, officials from the Australian Electoral Commission come around to houses in their area and letter drop and doorknock asking if...

Compulsory voting Just for an international comparison, in Australia it is *compulsory* to vote. If you don’t, you get fined. Having said that, it’s compulsory to enrol to vote, turn up to a polling station, have your name ticked off and put the papers in the ballot box. It’s not uncommon...

Re: Re: Re: Re: In Defense of Golems Quasi-corporate institutions I was thinking of: - The Wayfarers Guild from T&B - Lawful church hierarchies - The Arcane Order from T&B - Lawful governments (limited to household guards, servants, etc – the individuals in charge and probably not self...

Re: Re: In Defense of Golems Again I totally agree. However two types might have sufficiently long time horizons to make widespread use of “immortal” but expensive “technologies” – elves and institutions. Elves live so long that it’s worth it (and this dovetails nicely with the idea of elves...

mmadsen, I agree totally! From my reading of the history of technology (admittedly within the context of economic history rather than the history of science), early inventions were extremely expensive and available only to the very wealthy and to governments and other major institutions (e.g...

Agreed. There's a slipery slope here and I think we're going to accelate rapidly if we dont' stop now. Take it from a past offender that the moderators are *very* commited to stopping political or religious discussion on these boards (despite the difficulty of drawing an arbitrary line in a...

With respect, I really think we need to be much clearer than this on what we mean by "terrorism". “Terrorism” is a pretty pejorative term. In some countries being suspected of being a “terrorist’ will get your civil rights suspended. Countries that are thought to support or tolerate or...

That’s just the point, these people DO care about what you think of America. Being an ally of “the Great Satan” is what makes you a target. These people hate and despise US foreign policy, the US government, American culture and the American people (in that order) and anyone who allies with...

Re: Re: Re: [OT] Bali terrorist attacks My prediction is that there is NO WAY the Indonesians will let us anywhere near the investigations. Since East Timor, Australians have been SO personae non grata in Indonesia. I have Canadian friends who were surrounded by an armed mob in Jakarta –...

Re: Re: [OT] Bali terrorist attacks Umm, doesn't that just deny any independent meaning to the word "terrorism? If you call any act of violence against “terrorism” you put a bank robbery in with the Columbine High School Massacre in with that thing that happened in Helsinki in with Nelson...

Re: You go, Valendo! Of course, with my view of alignment that evil=cruelty and good=benevolence, taunting a creature in torment, no matter how evil or deserving the creature, is a cruelk and thus vaguely evil act. I've alwasy seen good as a very demanding alignment. You fight evil, but...

Why not let the player play the risen, formerly NPC cleric? Or do a two person, one body thing, like trade out the palidins fitghter levels for cleric levels and get the player to roleplay a hybrid character? Palidin gives up his "life" (i.e. eperate identity) that the cleric might live again...

By the way... has anyone read this? Sacry...

Posted in error. Moderators, please delete.

That's certainly plausible. However, I always thought the "regional governors" in Tarkin's comment meant "regions of the galaxy" rather than planets. I had this image of the Empire being divided up into regions governed by governors who had a large garrison and fleet of star destroyers based...

I'm not sure this is right. In TPM, Padma Amidala was the (elected) "Queen" of Naboo and Palpatine was the Senator from Naboo. Palpatine clearly deferred to Amidala (while subtly manipulating her, of course) and Amidala was given a right to speak in the Senate despite not being a Senator at...