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The things I appreciate in this world:

1.The beauty around me, whether it be people or places. Everything is beautiful.

2.Babies. (Especially Riley and Shelby and Harding!)

3.Good sentences. No matter if they are complex or simple, sentences are amazing.

4.My parents. They provide for me (for now) and will hopefully always support me (though I’m cut off financially in twelve months!)

5.My siblings. They’re my best friends and always have been. We have a relationship like no other family I know.

6.Douche bag Christians. Who else would I argue with?

7.Republicans. Who else would I argue with?

8.Watches.

9.This here energy powering my computer and refrigerator and lights!

10.My darling friends who don’t hate me and don’t make me feel like crap every day.

11.Not being mauled by bears.

12.Bears.

13.Ann Coulter.

14.The United Nations (good job on this peace, guys!)

15.The makers of South Park. I wouldn’t send them death threats for making fun of my Jesus!

16.Tea. I love tea.

17.Halloween costumes.

18.Metal. (The music and the hard stuff!)

19.Microwaves.

20.Cell phones!

21.Socialism.

22.Darwinism.

23.Social Darwinism.

24.AP History/AP Chemistry/AP English

25.Not being dumber than fuck.

26.Cursing.

27.Attractive men.

28.Unattractive men.

29.Mildly attractive men.

30.Not being an extremist!

31.Everyone who isn’t an extremist!

32.Grandaddy. He’s a good fellow.

33.Grandmother Burney. Even though she’s completely lost her mind and can’t remember anything and occasionally gets naked without realizing it, she’s still the nicest person I know.

34.Funny people.

35.People who will laugh at anything.

36.The person who made up the joke “What did the Leper say to the prostitute? Keep the tip!” (ISN’T THAT FUNNY?)

37.J Kade.

38.Karl Marx. Good man, good man.

39.threadless.com

40.People who speak coherently.

41.Parents who DON’T do everything for their kids.

42.College kids who don’t live with their parents.

43.Cock-blockers

44.The phrase “cock-block”

45.The Roman empire.

46.The Vatican. (How else can we waste our money?)

47.Not-ridiculously-skinny people.

48.Interracial babies. (They’re the cutest!)

49.Using my mind occasionally!

50.You!

I think this was a fitting blog with no real importance. Thanks for reading (or not), in the meantime, let’s figure out how to keep me from trying to have a baby in high school! (OHMYGOD THEY’RE SO CUTE!)

Love you (and especially babies!!),

Elizabeth <3

Is this picture not badass?! Perhaps it is my half-delusional mind as a result of finals week, but I greatly enjoy it.

Peace.
Elaine

P.S.
This is definitely my best work to date, and I’m not talking about the photo because I totally stole it off a free layout example.

Hi.

Alright, it’s been a while since my last blog entry. I don’t have a lot of time for it lately, but I’m gonna try to squeeze a few out where i can.

What I wish to talk about today, is something called a vote of no confidence. This is a motion to recall an elected official from his position, done if a majority of some group agrees that this person no longer serves the best interest of the country. In Norway, members of parliament can form together to move for a vote of no confidence, either in the government or specific people in government (also if a single government has more than 2 votes of no confidence against members of it, the government has to resign).

What does this do? Well, it’s a system for keeping politicians in check. So that they can’t just go rampant and do whatever the hell they want with their elected positions, they have to keep the peoples best interest in mind. After all, the parliament is representatory of the supreme people as chosen through a votation. So if a member of government or the government itself no longer serves the people, the peoples direct representatives can recall it. At least in Norway. And it’s a nice thought.

In Venezuela, they have something similar to this. In addition to the parliament moving for a vote of no confidence, the people can do this as well if enough people sign a petition for it. Thus, if a great enough part of the population moves for a vote of no confidence in the president he has to resign. I take my hat off for Venezuela, because this is pure brilliance, and it is highly democratic and admirable.

If the president no longer serves the people, they can throw him and elect another one better suited. You know what this ensures? It ensures that issues stay on topic after election campaigns. In Norway, as I’m sure in the rest of the world, politicians are great at making promises before elections. Not so good at keeping them, and that’s a shame. This recalling system, the fact that the supreme people have the power not only to appoint its leadership but to throw it, is nothing short of brilliant. I believe a certain vendetta-fueled rebel said something about how the state should fear its people. And imagine how the world would have been if our leaders were afraid of us, and therefore couldn’t, for instance, go to war on Iraq because it felt  fucking good idea at the time?

Yes I am aware of the fact that 18 states in the US has the ability to recall their governors, but that’s a bit irrelevant to the point I’m trying to make. I think. Anyways, I’m ending this entry now. No proper ending on it, so salutations and farewell to ye all.

Vegard

This entry is actually a few weeks old, from my other blog. I just didn’t bother posting in on brbcoffee until now. Nevermind that, here it is.

Lets talk about democracy. The word comes from two latin words. First up is Demos,  which means people, and Kratos, which means power. So, democracy means power to the people! Which I’m all for. The problem is that the further along I get, the more obvious the flaw of todays “democracy” becomes. And this greatly saddens me. The kind of democracy thats most common today, pretty much the only one you find today, is that a representative democracy. This means that instead of public polls on issues, the public votes forth representatives to make decisions for them. This has flaws.

Obviously, most systems have some flaws. As it is today, the greatest flaw that i can detect is important cases not being represented at all by the representative politicians. In Norway there are two cases like this that im going to mention briefly here. The first one is about oil drilling in an area called Lofoten and Vesterålen. Basically, over 51% of the norwegian people feels that oil drilling shouldn’t be done here, because it is the birthing ground to one of the last big cod populations in the world. Also the area in question is 14 kilometres from land. Drilling here would cause major harm to lots of different businesses. Yet, in the norwegian parliament ca 10% is against it. Nice.

Also, the war in Afghanistan. I might blog about it at a later point, but for now ill suffice to say I’m strongly against it. So is over a third of the norwegian populous, yet there is not one single person in parliament against it. What the fuck!?! I am willing to apt for a complete democracy, where people make individual votes about cases! In Norway, to get a peoples vote it first needs to be suggested in parliament, then get approval from a major part of the representatives. Which never happens.

Representation through single cases is not the thing that worries me most tho. In Norway, a political party has to have over 4% to reach the treshhold for getting district-mandates. (there is no real english word for it. Basically, because people and power is centralized, communes away from the centre of power get additional mandates out above the population number, to make sure there is still people there that care about the districts.) Anyways, the problem with this is that this treshhold is so ridiculous. Norway just had its election, and one party ended up at 3.9%. They lost 2%, yet they lost 8 out of their 10 mandates because of it. They did not loose 80% of their votes!

Another problem with this system is the fact that it is almost impossible to get your first mandate. But from there it gets easier, then you hit the threshhold, and it gets even easier. And the bigger your party gets, the easier it gets to get an additional mandate. So a party that has 63 mandates needs far less actual votes to get an additional votes than you need for the first one.

Personally I think we should scrap the entire threshhold system and rather give mandates based on actual percentage of votes in relation to percentage of people. This has to be worked out, obviously, but it makes more sence than having some predetermined threshhold at which it suddenly gets easy-as-fuck to get in. Alternatively do as Germany did pre-hitler. Germany before hitler was the most democratic land the world has ever seen, in the sence that the threshold was 1%.

A high threshhold means 1 thing more than others: Tactical voting. People vote for the bigger parties, because parties below the threshhold has no real influence. Which is bullshit. Not the power part, but this phenomena. The bigger keep growing, and the small parties get squeezed out. As it is now, Norway is going towards a two-party system, something that is a mockery of the democratic idea. And if it ever comes to that I swear I can’t be held accountable for my actions.

Until next time friends,

Vegard

How entertaining. Thats actually the first time i compare mankind to an animal, without calling everyone sheep! Oh well. Ever seen ostridges on the tv? In cartoons and the like, where they get scared and stick their head in the ground? Thats what this is about, because that is what you do. Up here is reality, in the dirt there is nothing.

But for me to do this, we have to get to the question “what is reality?”. Well, I wont try to debate what reality actually is, because what i see as my reality is really just my brain interpreting electrical signals from my senses. And who is to say that the reality I personally am experiencing is real, maybe none of you actually exist. That leads to.. Alright. I’m stopping myself there, because i could go on like this infinitely. And now, thanks to myself, i probably will loose hours of sleep over this matter.. (Now you see what i am going through)

So. In truth, I am not talking about reality, I am talking about escaping from it. From this point on, lets for the next few minutes abolish our sense of existential debate, and go ahead and say that what your brain interprets as reality, is. This is, in essence, what people want to escape from. But can you really?

Getting wasted or getting high, gaming world of warcraft or counter strike. Simply fantasizing yourself away, or pretending to be someone completely different because thats who you think society wants you to be! Everything is fine, in small amounts. But too much of anything isn’t good for you. (Alright, maybe not the pretending to be someone else-part)

Now, I’m not judging anyone. Who am i to sit here and pass out judgement? Quite hypocritical that would be, as I once escaped completely into the World of Warcraft universe. A time when my real life sucked ass, so i emerged myself completely, and ignored real life. I am not ashamed of this, because i got past it and i grew from it.

Well anyway, no matter why and no matter how, people try to get away from the hassle. Why do i blog about it? I’m not sure. It doesn’t really aggravate me, and I’m not sure if i would like it to change. But the fact of the matter is, there are things that are more important than getting high from that joint, or getting better stats at that game.

I wont say stop it. Honestly, Who am i to? I am simply saying that there are more important things. Dont loose yourself, don’t make an alternate reality your real one. The world is a bad place, and you can’t hope to escape the inescapable. When more than half the worlds population is suffering, the world needs you. When 18 000 children die every day of hunger, the world needs you. When something scares the living hell out of you, don’t stick your head in the dirt. Raise it high, and speak aloud.