Cute story, even if it ain't your art form.

Yes, but still.

The Philippines are getting it again -- a volcanic eruption has forced more than 75,000 people to flee their homes. News, and some really striking photos, can be found here.

Meanwhile,

[The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines] also advised pilots flying near the volcano to exercise extreme caution, as ash from volcanic eruption can be hazardous to planes.

This appears to be sound advice.

I don't believe in this to any serious extent.

I don't believe in this to any serious extent. ~ mpetrie98 at January 26, 2018 7:09 AM

How can you? The author is not trying to create a better political system, nor bemoaning the inadequacies of this one. He wants a system that bends to his political views. He betrays his political partisanship with this sentence:

Worse, the ironclad two-party system has proved to be highly vulnerable to an extreme right-wing fringe that protects itself with gerrymandering and other cheating tactics.

'cause the Left don't gerrymander or cheat in any way?

While our political system could use a fix, it's difficult to take people like this seriously as they pontificate about a fantasy political system that will cure all the ills of mankind, ills put into place and exploited by the monsters hiding in the closets and under the beds of people like this guy.

Like the Iranians in 1979 and the Venezuelans in 1992, he dreams that putting a single set of theories into practice and shutting down the opposition is all the world needs to become a fair and just place. We saw how well those revolutions turned out.

Grown ups, like the people who wrote the US Constitution know human nature will not be tamed by collectivism. The Founding Fathers put into place systems to limit the amount of power that can be concentrated in a single person or office.

The author's call for presidential elections from the House reflect a desire for an efficient government, forgetting (or ignoring) that the first act of an efficient government is to consolidate its own power.

He desires Parliamentary democracy to eliminate stand-offs between the legislature and the executive, conveniently leaving out that Hitler was chosen to be the German chancellor and later made dictator by a Parliamentary system of the very same type he advocates.

No, his is not a call to fix the inadequacies of the American system, it is a call to put his preferred side into power with no limits.

It's another of those "this time, we'll do socialism right" pleas from people who are willfully ignorant ofi history and human nature.

Speaking of the Iranian Revolution....

The protests that broke out across Iran towards the end of 2017 were not triggered by one event. Their cause was mounting unrest at zulm: an all-encompassing term for the injustice, iniquity and oppression that has permeated Iranian society for more than a century.

Gerrymandering only a right wing device? Get out. No, really, get out. Maryland's 3rd Congressional district.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland%27s_3rd_congressional_district#/media/File:Maryland_US_Congressional_District_3_(since_2013).tif

Who doesn't likes them tall, dark, and handsome?

https://www.thedodo.com/on-the-farm/cow-joins-wild-herd-bison-poland

Meanwhile in the West, the prefer to cover themselves because it's a great way to hide those pesky stretch marks

https://twitter.com/radiojibi/status/956265110347177984

But Obama gave them Four hundred million dollars!

https://twitter.com/Raman_Ghavami/status/956535779467169792

Sir Brad, please take Maid Hillary on a tour of the Pit of Misery. Dilly dilly!

https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2018/01/hillary-clinton-chose-shield-top-adviser-accused-harassment-2008/

Nutella riots in France -

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/26/581031630/this-is-not-normal-nutella-riots-hit-france-after-stores-slash-prices

Mindwrap failure on my part

Of course you can pray to Lord Elrond if you want.

Or Saint Anthony. Same-same.

Boobs, firm grapefuit. Ass, a ripe apple.

I know art when I see it, Farmer John!