Only 1 in 200 men are descended from Genghis Khan. http://www.cell.com/AJHG/retrieve/pii/S0002929707605874 I am not.
Your premise about "splitting the vote" is fallacious. 1) Nothing you, Joe or this mailing list does is going to affect the outcome on Nov 6. 2) A "vote" by its very definition incorporates a "split" 3) It seems that 40% of the voting US population doesn't fall into the hard-headed camp (they identify themselves as Independents) [http://www.webcitation.org/690ibz8mi] and for them TV debates would have more impact than the discussions at FRIAM <sigh> 4) Mitt Romney apparently picked up 4 percent of the Independent vote after the first TV debate. 5) In advanced democracies, the swing/independent voters vote for CHANGE .. the anti-incumbency effect. Whereas in the US it seems that the Independent voters are the timid ones who prefer the known evil to the unknown one. 6) Based on this [http://www.webcitation.org/690ibz8mi] it seems that more Democrats would vote for Romney than Republicans for Obama. On 10/6/12, Steve Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > Sarbajit wrote... >> http://www.quora.com/Are-all-the-US-Presidents-related-to-each-other >> >> It seems that except for Martin Buren, all the US Presidents are >> descended >> from evil King John. > They are all also probably descended from Genghis Khan as well... but > then, so are you and I! > > By coincidence, I've a friend in Santa Fe who is descended from Van > Buren... King John or not, the blood there is still rather cyanotic... > > I understand Joe's implication about "splitting the vote" and I'm not > interested in helping the candidate with the most inflexible, > hard-headed supporters (those less likely to be split), but rather, as > he implies a change in structure where we can vote for who we *really* > while also voting for *the lesser of other evils*. > > I'm more interested in how the debate (the general debate among all of > us, not the televised one between anointed candidates) is shaped. > > Politics is at best, a "necessary evil". Leadership and discussion in > the building of a dynamic, progressive culture is what I seek, not > statesmanship or nation building, much less grandstanding, > fearmongering, special-interest-leveraging, etc. (also Mom and Apple > Pie while I'm at it...) > > - Steve ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
