COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

German Children to Vote?


The politicians are outraged that approximately 14 million German citizens are shut out of the democratic process because of their tender ages.

Just when you think it can't get any goofier, or as a friend of ours, Brother D-Day, would say, "Germany jumps the shark." :

Germany Ponders Giving Children the Right to Vote


Every German citizen should have the right to vote in national elections, even those under the age of 18, says a group of parliamentarians. They've proposed a law that would allow parents to vote for their children.
Preschoolers have as much right to make their political opinions heard as adults, according to a bipartisan group of 46 German parliamentarians.

The politicians are outraged that approximately 14 million German citizens are shut out of the democratic process because of their tender ages, the DPA news agency reported. That means nearly one in every five German citizens is too young to cast a ballot.

Currently, Germany follows the lead of most other democratic countries in limiting voting to adults 18 years of age and older. Some German states allow voting starting at age 16 for local elections.

The idea has gotten backing from some members of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the free-market liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). The proposal also has the support of political heavyweights such as the former minister for family affairs Renate Schmidt, Bundestag vice-president Wolfgang Thierse and FDP head Dirk Niebel.

Constitutional change required

The supporters want to change Article 38 of Germany's constitution by striking out the sentence that defines voting eligibility as starting at the age of 18.

Under the proposal, parents would be allowed to vote for the children. Parents could then add their children to a voting list when they believe the child is ready to take on his or her own democratic responsibility.

A similar proposal was defeated in 2005 on constitutional and practical grounds. Opponents objected that parents would vote their own wishes and not those of their children. A two-thirds majority would be needed to change the German constitution.

DW



13 comments:

  1. Yes, by all means, I'm in the mood for this today. Fools in the chairs of the wise is what we all need.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve: Ray’s comment about ag land – looking at ag land as being extremely important. Are we going to develop randomly? We may need the land more than we think we do. Integrate faming into communities? It’s happening elsewhere. Why not take this opportunity to do something like that. Think about where we are in this world right now and the big picture. Preservation of ag land able to produce crops for local and regional use is important.

    from my notes

    Ah, yes, let us put fools in the seats of the wise. What these fools don't know is the restrictions of being in the city, which I am, and farming, are such, as to make most of it nearly impossible. I can't grown peas or lentils for instance, as the chemicals needed are too dangerous. Nor use Fountain
    Flying Service, to get that fertilizer on in the spring, when it is too wet for tractor work, and time if flying.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Te City of Scottsdale wanted to change Kemper's DC Ranch from ag to developmental property.

    Big tax increase if they could.
    Said that Kemper had not ranched it for a couple of years, seems the rustlers were poaching the cattle.

    So Kemper brought in the goats
    Any idea how hard it is to fence out goats, in an Open Range enviorment?

    ReplyDelete
  4. With GM seeds, it should be only a matter of time for pesticides to become obsolete. No?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Said that Kemper had not ranched it for a couple of years

    I'm really really small potatoes compared to a guy like that. But, I've run into a similar like problem. I got to keep farming it, to keep the taxes down, because if it isn't farmed, in the Idaho Code, it goes way way up in taxes, but, I can barely farm it for the restrictions. Hence, the alfalfa. Which no one has complained about yet. And isn't worth much. The city demanded it be brought into the city at an earlier time, with another project. So. it's a dicey arrangement.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I don't know anything about modified seeds. The last time we sprayed for pea weevils, though, years ago, the guys that did the spraying looked like they were ready to go the moon. Mean stuff, that parathion.(sp?)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Any idea how hard it is to fence out goats, in an Open Range enviorment?

    :) Pretty hard. How about a US Government funded Virtual Fence?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bobal:I'm really really small potatoes compared to a guy like that. But, I've run into a similar like problem. I got to keep farming it, to keep the taxes down, because if it isn't farmed, in the Idaho Code, it goes way way up in taxes, but, I can barely farm it for the restrictions.

    Bobal, I read a book about the founding of Battleground, Washington. It seems back in those days, several homesteader families would get together and pitch in for a pane of glass, which they would pass from family to family to be installed in their log cabin to impress the guy at the office who signed off on their improvements. It seems they had to show a certain number of home improvements to convert their homestead into a piece of land with a title free and clear.

    ReplyDelete
  9. T., I don't think that is right. If you are being serious. I have a deed from Benjamin Harrison to my grandfather, passed down to my aunt, and then to me, and, I am making my last payment on it this year. 160 acres and a mule. Lousy farmland. But, it's home. It came from the Land Office in Lewiston, and I think, once it was issued, it was yours, or grandpa's in this case. I don't know how he survived out there. It was a rough, rude business at the time. But I don't think there were any conditions to be met, just survive.

    ReplyDelete
  10. In fact, back in the old days, some of these deeds were won and lost in card games, no shit.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Barack Obama on Dickipedia

    An excerpt:

    Stymied in a 2000 bid for the U.S. House of Representatives, Obama settled for election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, helped largely by the fact that his political opponents kept suffering public accusations of domestic violence and sexual misconduct. He eventually defeated perennial election loser Alan Keyes, who, despite last-minute carpetbagging from Maryland (not to mention being a ridiculous right-wing crackpot), still managed to win 30% of the vote...As far as anyone can tell, the only things Obama did as junior senator from Illinois were to not vote for the Iraq War and run for president.

    ReplyDelete