Saturday, October 29, 2016

In Defense of the Two Party System

I know this is not a very popular opinion, especially in light of our choice in 2016, but two-party system is still the best way to pick a leader. By all accounts, most Americans view this year's election as a vote for the lesser of two evils. Most people are casting their ballots against one of the candidates rather than affirmatively for one of the options. This has caused many people to say that we need more choices - more parties.

If you agree with that sentiment, take a closer look at how the system works in the countries that have multi-party parliamentary systems. In England, Germany, Australia, and even Canada, it's extremely rare that one candidate or party wins an outright majority in any election. Instead the votes are scattered across five, six, or even more parties. After the election is over, no single party or candidate has an outright majority, so then comes the task called "forming a government." The leaders of the scattered parties meet behind closed doors and bargain to form a coalition. It takes a lot of compromising and horse trading to make this happen. One party may be offered a couple of cabinet posts in exchange for their votes for a Prime Minister of another party. The voters have no assurance that the deals made by those politicians are the choices that those voters themselves would have made.  There's not even any assurance that the deals struck are even in the best interests of the voters who sent them; often the primary benefit of the coalition deals is to the politicians who negotiated the deals."Forming a government" is really back office dealmaking. Governments are "formed" in smoke-filled rooms away from public scrutiny.

That, as I see it, is the biggest problem with the multiparty parliamentary system. All of this horsetrading to build a coalition happens in secrecy behind closed doors. The voters themselves may have been given a clean choice, with candidates with whom they can agree universally, but then the messy work of give and take is left to the politicians.

By contrast, in our system, the voters themselves must deal with the ugly choice of weighing the merits and liabilities of two imperfect candidates. It's very unpleasant, especially when the choice looks like the one we have have this year, but, in the end, I would much rather have the compromising be done by me and my fellow citizen voters rather than leaving it to the politicians to compromise behind closed doors after the election is over.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

My Geographic Extremes - September 2016


Prior Entries in this series:


I love to travel!  2016 was the year I finally made it out of North America! Two separate trips to Europe pushed my "easternmost extreme" point further and further east. First, to the low single-digits of west longitude as I landed at Heathrow airport and rode the Underground eastward into London. Then, to the Prime Meridian at 0° longitude as I travelled to the Greenwich Observatory and even strayed a few feet into east longitude. Last lasted only one day, as the next day, I rode the Eurostar through the Chunnel to Paris.  For a couple of days, my easternmost point was the Gare du Nord in Paris. Over the course of the week, my easternmost point continued progressing eastward: to the Marne La-Vallée RER station at Disneyland Paris, then Brussels, Amsterdam, and finally on the eastern edge of Cologne. it remained there until a second trip to Europe in late September, when I flew to Athens.  The Athens airport is in the far eastern suburbs of the Greek capital, and it remains, presently, the furthest east I have travelled.

I still haven't managed to get out of the northern hemisphere. The closest I've come to South America is the island of Curaçao, about 25 miles north of the Venezuelan coast.

Two of the four compass point extremes are located on islands. Here are my current geographic extremes (as of September 26, 2016)

NORTHERNMOST: 52.43° N

On the A10 Ring Road on the north side of Amsterdam

52° 25' 31.5552" N
4° 53' 16.0512" E
Saturday, May 14, 2016

Plot on map

SOUTHERNMOST: 12.07° N

Caracas Baai, Curaçao

12° 4' 8.439" N
68° 51' 42.1524"

Tuesday, June 13, 2007

Plot on map

EASTERNMOST: 23.95° E

Athens International Airport, Athens, Greece
37° 56' 12.1956" N
23° 56' 48.3106" E
Sunday, September 25, 2016
(repeated Tuesday, September 27, 2016)


WESTERNMOST: 158.10° W

Haleiwa, Oahu, Hawaii

21° 35' 35.448" N
158° 6' 12.5892" W
Monday, February 14, 2011

Plot on map







PRIOR NORTHERNMOST: 51.45° N

On the Trans-Canada Highway, about 8 km NW of Lake Louise, Alberta

51° 27' 30.2652" N
116° 16' 7.3848" W
Saturday, May 23, 2015

Plot on map



PRIOR EASTERNMOST: 7.06° E

Cologne, Germany
Transition ramp from southbound Autobahn 3 to Autobahn 4 and 59, east side of Köln
50° 55' 29.172" N
7° 3' 30.2522" E
Saturday, May 14, 2016

Plot on map


The view at my easternmost point


Screen shot captured about a quarter mile earlier

The eastward march of my easternmost point in May 2016

Thursday, May 5, 2016: Heathrow Airport, London
Thursday, May 5, 2016: Tower Bridge, London
Friday, May 6, 2016: Royal Naval Observatory, Greenwich, England
Saturday, May 7, 2016 - 48.88°N 2.36°E: Gare du Nord, Paris
Sunday, May 8, 2016 - 48.86°N 2.39°E: Père La Chaise Cemetery, Paris
Tuesday, May 9, 2016 - 48.87°N 2.78°E: Marne La-Vallée RER Station, Disneyland Paris
Friday, May 13, 2016 - 50.84°N 4.34°E: Bruxelles Midi Station, Brussels*
Friday, May 13, 2016 - 50.84°N 4.38°E: Parlamentarium (European Parliament), Brussels
Friday, May 13, 2016 - 52.38°N 4.90°E: Amsterdam Centraal Station, Amsterdam*
Friday, May 13, 2016 - 52.37°N 4.93°E: Brouwerij t'IJ, Amsterdam

* - Also a new northern record at the time





Conversions from Decimal to Degrees /Minutes/Seconds:
https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/dms-decimal