Today Halloween is becoming once again and adult holiday or masquerade, like mardi Gras. Men and women in every disguise imaginable are taking to the streets of big American cities and parading past grinningly carved, candlelit jack o'lanterns, re- enacting customs with a lengthy pedigree. Their masked antics challenge, mock, tease, and appease the dread forces of the night, of the soul, and of the otherworld that becomes our world on this night of reversible possibilities, inverted roles, and transcendency. In so doing, they are reaffirming death and its place as a part of life in an exhilarating celebration of a holy and magic evening.
They never seem to lose their hats?
McCord graduated from Harvard with a bachelor of arts in 1921 and received a master's in chemistry in 1922. He became an editor of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin the next year, and from 1925 until his retirement in 1963 was the executive director of the Harvard Fund Council. In 1956, Harvard awarded him its first honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
Here is a list of ten ways to survive the last week of the election with conservatives. Seven of these came from the Huffington Post (an article on how to deal with conservative family members) while three of them are mine. I've also added some further comments on the tips. Besides dealing with family members I also have conservative friends and co-workers and I work at a very conservative school. When we did a pre-presidential election last spring, only one student voted for Obama. It can be quite,difficult since I have to teach government, and all of the students want to know how I will vote. So far I have told them that I will vote for Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, or Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate. I tell them that it doesn't matter how I vote since Romney will win in Alabama, but I refuse to vote for Romney. I'm pretty sure I will either vote for Johnson or Obama, I will know when I get to the polls.
So here are some tips to survive those conservatives.
Tip 1: Set boundaries. Just refuse to talk politics with them. They know you disagree with them, so just let each other disagree and refuse to discuss the topic.
Tip 2: Change the subject. "How about this weather?" I do this one a lot when an uncomfortable subject comes about. Just move on to something else, and the rest will generally follow.
Tip 3: Just keep eating. I don't have a hard time continuing to eat, but sometimes I do have a hard time keeping my mouth shut about politics. However, my Mama always taught me not to talk with my mouth full, so this is a polite way to just keep out of the topic of politics.
Tip 4: Remind them that they once had to fight for acceptance, too. This is one of the Huffington Post's suggestions. It doesn't work too well if you are from a white family in the South. They have always felt accepted. However, for some this might be an option.
Tip 5: Take it as an opportunity for a good laugh. Make a joke out of it. It's according to who you are having a conversation with and what type of sense of humor they have, but you know who you can joke with and who you can't. It is easy to joke at the ridiculousness of either party, so you can actually have a little fun with it and not get too serious, but you might also get your point across at the same time.
Tip 6: Pretend it's the holidays and just drink. When it's hard to deal with some folks, especially at a social gathering where it is acceptable, just have a few drinks, pour you a stiff one, have a few beers. The party will get going and the topic of politics will go out the window. It is Halloween this week after all.
Tip 7: Argue with them. Yes, I said it. You can do it civilly or not, but sometimes it is just to hard to keep your mouth shut. S let them have and let the chips fall where they may when the dust settles.
Tip 8: Remind them that Romney is a Mormon. If they are a Christian conservative, remind them of all the things they have always thought of Mormons. Keep as a back-up too that Obama attends the same church that George W. Bush attended as president.
Tip 9: Embrace this opportunity to cut off those family members you never liked in the first place. This is another one of the Huffington Post's suggestions, but not one that I particularly agree with, unless it is a family member or acquaintance that you really don't like.
Tip 10: Just remember that no matter what happens, they are still your family and you love them. If all else fails, just give them some Halloween candy to shut them up. Women like chocolate and give a man something very chewy, so it will keep him quiet a while.
So do you guys have any suggestions?
Gay and bisexual Christians understand that they are part of three communities at once. They are part of the church community, the straight community, and the queer community. They understand that they are called to be responsible and active members of each community, contributing to the well-being of the church and society through each community.
Some gay Christians are active in the gay community by helping with the planning and administration of gay community organizations and events. They might donate time to present lectures about bullying in schools, how to treat gay youth or AIDS. A few gay Christians have a significant amount of work and business contacts within the gay community. Those gay Christians who are not living in an area where there are enough gay people to have a gay community may choose to be part of one of the many online gay Christian communities.
While being responsible, contributing members of the gay community, queer Christians are also contributing to the church. Their contributions to the church depend a lot on the specific talents and interests they have. Many gay Christians are sources of tremendous strength in local churches.
Because most people are straight, gay people interact as part of the straight community too. Gay people do not live their lives in total isolation from the straight community. In fact, it would be difficult for a small group comprising no more than about 10% of society to live without regularly coming in contact with the remaining 90% of society. Gay people go to straight schools, often work for straight businesses, firms and social service agencies. Many gay Christians are very dynamic, giving members of the straight community too. You may find them contributing to straight society by volunteering time as coaches, teachers and care-givers.
Queer Christians recognize they have responsibilities in three communities, the Christian community, the gay community and the straight community. They contribute to all three communities and are proud to be able to be part of the three communities.
The CDC has issued a medical alert about a highly contagious, potentially dangerous virus that is transmitted orally, by hand, and even electronically.
You should immediately forward this medical alert to five friends. If you do not have five friends, you have already been infected and WORK is, sadly, controlling your life.
I love a good "what if" scenario. One of my favorite series of books was Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory alternative history novels. In this series, the Confederacy wins the American Civil War and continues to exist as an independent nation into the mid-20th century. The series began with How Few Remain (1997) and continued with the The Great War Trilogy, The American Empire Trilogy, and The Settling Accounts Tetralogy. I was very sad when the series came to an end. For me, alternative scenarios are very fun especially if they are well thought out.
There is a current "what if" scenario brewing as the media tries to,predict the 2012 presidential race. Most polls in the presidential race show the national popular vote to be a virtual tie. But as we know, the popular does not pick the president. That's the job of the Electoral College. And some election number crunchers are starting to explore the nightmare scenario of an Electoral College tie. It's a remote possibility, but a possibility nonetheless.
Two hundred seventy electoral votes to win, there are scenarios, though, that would end up with a 269 to 269 tie. It's quite remote. But we saw in 2000 that George W. Bush won with 271, so, you know, you can get awfully close. And we have eight states that are battlegrounds, tossups. That's Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia and Florida. And depending on how those electoral votes get distributed, it could actually wind up 269 all. The number of solid electoral votes for Obama can then be assumed to be 201 and the number of solid Romney votes is 191. The most likely route to an Electoral College tie by far is in Romney winning Florida (29), North Carolina (15), Virginia (13), Colorado (9), Iowa (6) and Nevada (6), in addition to all of the states where he has a solid lead over Obama.
Maine and Nebraska both use an alternative method of distributing their electoral votes, called the Congressional District Method. Currently, these two states are the only two in the union that diverge from the traditional winner-take-all method of electoral vote allocation. In the year 2008, just the last presidential election, the congressional district around Omaha, Nebraska, favored Barack Obama. Now, the rest of the state went quite handily for John McCain. And we expect Nebraska to go quite handily for Mitt Romney. That could change the scenario by which we saw Mitt Romney winning with 270 electoral votes nationally – and it's possible to put together that math – and then not winning because just that one city, just that one congressional district in Nebraska was taken away from his total of 270, leaving him at 269, and giving President Obama a tie.
So what would happen then? It's a bit complicated, but also a very interesting "what if" scenario.
The newly elected (incoming 2012) House of Representatives will count the Electoral College votes on January 6th. These new members of Congress will be sworn in 3 days earlier on January 3rd. If there is an Electoral College tie, the House of Representatives will elect the President.
Each state delegation, not each Representative, gets one vote in this process. The House members from each State must agree on who to give their vote to from the 3 candidates who received the most electoral votes. That means that while California's 53 Representatives must decide amongst themselves who to cast their one vote for, Vermont congressman Peter Welch must only consult himself before getting the same amount of votes as California. So, if an Electoral College voter in any State decided to vote for someone other than Obama or Romney ("faithless elector"), that person could also be an option for the House members.
Three times in history, the house has decided who the president would be. In 1800, they decided the electoral college tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. In 1824, they decided the four-way race in which the candidate who won the plurality of electoral votes, Andrew Jackson, lost to John Quincy Adams. In 1876, they decided the infamous Hayes/Tilden election, which led to the Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction.
If there is a tie in the Electoral College, the Senate will select the Vice-President. Each Senator gets one vote, and can choose from the top 2 candidates who receive votes from the Electoral College. The candidate who gets 51 votes (majority) will be the Vice-President on January 20th. (Probably Biden if Democrats continue to control the Senate as expected.). In the case of a tie, Biden would cast the deciding vote for Vice President.
If the House of Representatives cannot come up with a winner by January 20th, then whomever the Senate elects as Vice-President becomes interim President until the House can pick a President. If the Senate is also unable to reach a decision by January 20th, then the Speaker of the House becomes the temporary President. Therefore, John Boehner could temporarily become President. If John Boehner does not want the job, which is possible, then Daniel Inouye (D-HI), the President pro-tem (President of the Senate when the Vice-President is not there) would become President until the House selects the President. Boehner might actually turn the temporary position down because when he becomes interim President, the House of Representatives would have to pick a new Speaker, and upon his return, he would be a "regular" member of the Congress. He would no longer be Speaker of the House, if he were to take the job as President, even temporarily.
The Electoral College has nearly always produced a winner–so far, with the only exceptions being the elections of 1800, 1824, and 1876 as mentioned above. While it has not always picked a winner, it usually gets something on paper. Congress will only have 14 days to pick a President, provided the Supreme Court does not have to get involved to settle disputes at the State level. The Constitution and Federal Election Laws cover many different possible scenarios. However, many aspects of a tie in the Electoral College have not been taken into account and could provide for some interesting results.
If you are having a Halloween party this weekend, I have a drink/punch suggestion for you. It's quite yummy but also packs quite a punch that sneaks up on you. It's called Witch's Brew and is much better than Shakespeare's recipe in Macbeth.
All measurements are approximate. Adjust to your own taste.
Mix well. Pour into your cauldron, preferably with chunks of dry ice to create the bubbling steam effect. You can also add green food coloring if you desire something more greenish.
I have always enjoyed this passage from Macbeth. It's such a wonderful mixture of words, and is perfect as Halloween approaches.