Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J.B.C. who wrote (77964)	11/16/2000 1:42:08 PM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Gore's legacy. Commentary: Election lexicon causes deep confusion United Press International - November 16, 2000 13:20 By CLAUDE SALHANI WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A few years ago, while the country was in the midst of that horrible Monica Lewinsky scandal, parents across the land faced the difficult and at times embarrassing task of explaining to their children what oral sex was. While nonchalantly eating their morning eggs and bacon, the topic kept turning up like an unwanted bad coin. Today, our children are asking other questions, and this time we are just as embarrassed, not to mention totally confused. True, the context of the issue at hand, and the questions being asked are quite different this time. But still, many of us could offer far easier explanations to matters relating to sexuality and the human body, than to the complexity of this presidential election and the confusing outcome that has ensued. Just when we thought we could explain the intricacies of the Electoral College and why the candidate who won the greatest number of popular votes does not automatically win the presidency, along comes a barrage of newer and more difficult questions for us to ponder. And then try to explain. What exactly is a pregnant chad, a hanging chad, or a bulging dimple? A hanging door, a swinging door, or a tri? What are manual recounts? And just how do they differ from hand recounts? Or do they? What is a county canvassing board? And why are butterfly ballots so confusing? All this talk of counts, recounts and re-votes, under-votes and over-votes! So many questions for which most of us have so few answers. Probably the most confusing word in the entire electoral lexicon is a manual count -- which subliminally (remember that word?) sounds a lot like Immanuel Kant. Kant was undeniably one of the most influential philosophers in the realm of moral and political thinking. Kant's great contribution to philosophy was his Copernican Revolution. According to the great German thinker, "It is the representation that makes the object possible rather than the object that makes the representation possible." Kind of like Floridian politics. Watching political pundits on television --- and there have been legions of them filling the airwaves recently -- only makes matters worse. Often, it's those very experts, those who are supposed to clarify the situation for the rest of us, that confuse the issues further by using phrases such as "the chads have started falling on the floor by the hundreds." For anyone still unfamiliar with the new post-election lingo, is chad made up of the small bits of paper that are supposed to fall out of a voting ballot after being punched or perforated. That is if it was punched correctly. Otherwise it becomes a hanging, or pregnant, chad. If you think you are confused by such statements, there is no need to worry. You are not alone. If they were to hold a vote today, most of us would fit nicely into the totally confused category and win the electoral votes of the state of confusion. (That's if they could count the chad, pregnant chad and hanging chad correctly.) It's at times like these that I wish they could bring back Elian Gonzalez. Furthermore, we have been taught by our parents, and in turn have passed the learning on to our children that "it's not really about winning or loosing, but more about how you play the game." Well, you can now throw that rule book right out the window. As the strange and bizarre events and conversations of this last week have shown us, it is indeed all about winning. Winning, winning and winning! Nothing else seems to matter. So next time you are standing on the sidelines of your child's soccer game and the other team scores a goal, do not be at all surprised if the children start yelling at each other for a recount of the goal, insist that the referee does a manual recount and call in an army of experts to settle their differences. After all, if grown ups behave that way, so why not the kids too? datek.newsalert.com