Better the Devil You Know

The Down Under Defense Expert (DUDE) sent me an email asking me to read a voter's referendum they're considering in New Zealand. Feel free to read it yourself. I just wanted to expound a little bit on my answer. Here's what I wrote to the DUDE:

"I found it maddeningly complex. But then I'm used to the US system of winner-take-all (the NZ referendum calls the system First Past the Post (FPP)) and having minority party issues subsumed under the major parties. That said, I've heard/read good things about the Australian system. The others were variations on a theme that made little difference to me because I have little trust in the stability of governments with a multiplicity of parties.

"The advantage of a major-party system that incorporates minority views is that much of the assimilation and wheeling/dealing is done prior to the election. Otherwise, you end up with one small party can upset the entire governmental apple cart.

"I fail to see much advantage to the systems that encourage the minority parties, nor do I understand NZ's desire to change their system or the bewildering number of distinctions without a difference. If what you have works, don't fix what isn't broken."

There are three other systems: the existing NZ system (Mixed Member Proportional), the Irish system (Single Transferrable Vote), and the Japanese system (Supplementary Member). My observations are just that multi-party nations and governments seem more unstable than the U.S. The advantage of the multi-party system, if I had to guess it, is simply that it gives broader voice and more formal power to minority parties than exists in a single- or two-party system, as we have. If a smaller party (say, the Greens or Libertarians) had a strenuous objection to a particular law or course of action and their support was necessary to ensure a majority coalition, the government/parliament will be dissolved and new elections are called if no agreement can be reached. Most of these governments are designed along the British model, and nearly all of the major Western nations (incl. Israel and Japan) that use it have shakeups of that sort at one time or another.

The American results are gridlock followed by elections every two, four, or six years. But, again, the national majority parties--the Democrats and Republicans--are coalitions of what would be separate minority parties in these parliamentary democracies. Imagine, instead of the Dems and the GOP duking it out year after year, with the arguments occurring within the party caucuses, the individual coalition members each had its own party and then had their fights in Congress instead of on the convention floor. On the left, you'd have Big Labor/Government Unions, Trial Lawyers, Greens, Minority Rights Activists, Feminists, and flat-out Socialists and other small groups. On the right, you'd have Big Oil, the Moral Majority/Evangelicals, Gun Advocates, Economic Free-Marketeers, and members of the Armed Forces, and flat-out Fascists. Other groups with their own parties might include the Farmers, Bankers (who blow with the wind), Libertarians, and other moderates and Independents. Think our ballots are confusing now? Imagine how many hanging chads could screw up a soup like that!

That, my friends, is why we have primaries. Individuals representing these various smaller interests run off against each other within the larger parties. The winners of these contests have to form an internal platform within the Democratic or Republican Party that the bulk of the coalition can live with, and that final candidate goes up against his or her other number in the other party. Those two candidates, in turn, must convince 50% +1 of their fellow Americans (more or less--we have our own complexities with the Electoral College) to vote for them. The winner, then, must govern wisely and in the best interests of the nation as they see fit. If the majority of the public doesn't approve of their performance, the opposing party gets put into power in the legislature in reaction against the President. And so the pendulum swings, again, back toward the middle. That is the point and the genius of the American system. It gives me a headache to think of having to adjust to another one. I wonder what our cousins in New Zealand are thinking that they wish to reconstruct their system.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if it is broken in places, fix those places before doing something stupid like trashing the whole system and tossing out whatever good the old system had. So sayeth this voter, anyway.

The Amateur's Guide to Event Management

Part III: Site Selection

Location, location, location. It's important for real estate, it's important for events. For some situations, like Science Cheerleader performances, the location can already be established--a booth, a stage, whatever--as part of a larger activity. In other situations you have to go hunting. The larger the event, the larger the space needed and the more things you need the facility to do. This blog will discuss the things you need to consider when selecting a site for your event--big, small, or in between.

What Will You Do When You Get There?
What does your event include? Stage shows? Lectures? Meetings? Exhibits? All of the above? Could the event expand? Will your function spaces be used for more than one activity? Do you have extra large items that need to be brought in? Lots of questions must be answered, and these questions are made even more fun by the fact that you'll most likely have multiple sites to visit before making a decision. You'll need to do this field research before you sit down to write your proposal.

The first thing that must be done is a little online research. Pick your keywords: convention center, hotel, what have you. If you're in a big city, like Chicago or New York, you might have a lot of research to do. If you're in a smaller metropolitan area like Huntsville, the odds are pretty good you know all the large venues in town. Regardless, you can still collect a lot of information online as a first pass before you start asking questions of human beings. For instance, where is the place? Is it convenient for your attendees? Are you dealing with a hotel with a convention center attached, or a stand-alone convention hall? If you have a lot of out-of-towners coming, is there a hotel nearby? More than one? What do the hotel rooms cost per night? How many of them are there? What do the pictures of the rooms look like?

With these basics in hand, you'll be able to go on to the next step, which is a site visit.

Getting a Feel for Things
Once you've narrowed down your location to your top two or three choices, you need to check out the places in person. It's good to have two or three people along to get different perspectives on things and ask different questions. On that first visit, it also probably helps to just show up and see how the operation runs. If the term "surprise inspection" sounds familiar, that's correct. Your first impression should be unfiltered. I love my friends in the hospitality business, but having been there myself (three years at a Disney hotel, one year in Disney convention reservations), I can tell you that management and staff act differently if they know "someone's coming," whether that someone is a corporate vice president or a big customer.

So while you're on your first visit, you're looking for some of the basics: how helpful is the staff? What's the condition of the common areas, hallways, and restrooms? What's the traffic flow like? If the function areas are open, take a look inside to evaluate their condition. Does the carpet look worn? Has the place been redecorated lately? Is the place busy? How happy do the guests look? In essence, you really are on an inspection tour. Once you've completed that first run, before you leave, if you like what you see ask to make an appointment with the sales manager.

Working with the Sales Staff
When you're still in the scouting phase, it doesn't hurt to tell the sales staff that you're looking elsewhere. It keeps them competitive and interested in your business. I'm not suggesting you play a lot of games with sales staff, mind you, but you also can gauge their willingness to work with you. Depending on the size of the event, you'll be working with these folks for months (or years). No need to drive unnecessarily hard bargains. It can generate hard feelings and get you labeled as a "problem guest." And really: they want the business, you want your event to succeed. Yes, this is a business arrangement, but it's also a partnership.

Okay, end of lecture. Back to business.

The more details you can tell the sales staff, the better. Surprises aren't much help for you or them. You need to give them a good rundown on how big/long your event is, how many people you're bringing in, how many function rooms you need, what sort of audio-visual equipment you'll be using, the whole thing. The more you know up front, the better cost estimate you'll be able to provide for your proposal and budget.

Your initial negotiations are when you start to discuss special needs or requests: complimentary rooms, early check-ins, IT setup, what have you. The National Space Society, for example, has its own in-house contract that it uses for its International Space Development Conference, which is based on previous experiences and lessons learned. Will the hotel use an existing contract? It's worth asking.

Final Selection
You might not have the final say on which facility gets chosen, but you can make your best recommendation based on your direct knowledge of the place and the people involved. Sometimes the final decision will come down to price, sometimes to the appropriateness of the site to your event, sometimes to location, sometimes to a combination of all of these. But once the selection is made, you've taken your first step toward making the event real.

Final Thought on Working with Facility Staff: Last-Minute-itis
You can do as much planning as possible, but the sales staff knows--even if you haven't admitted the possibility yet--that last-minute items will continue to come up a year, a month, or a week out. This is where that goodwill you built up at the beginning pays off. The better you're able to get along with the hotel staff up front, the more likely they'll be happy and willing to help you out of a jam later.

If you learn anything from this series of event management blogs, it's just this: don't be a jerk. It makes the event management process--especially in an all-volunteer environment--much easier.

The Amateur's Guide to Event Management
Part I: The Whole Shebang: Who, What, Where

John Smith and Mary Jones

invite their friends and family to share their wedding vows

at the Lamb of God Lutheran Church

11716 County Line Road, Madison, Alabama

May 22, 2012

Formal reception, dinner, and dancing to follow at

Embassy Suites Downtown

800 Monroe Street, Huntsville, Alabama

When you receive a party invitation, you are looking at a very simple event summary, or plan. You have all the important information you need to attend the event: who's inviting you, who's attending, where the event is, when it is, and what sort of food and entertainment are involved. This who-what-where equation drives any event you are likely to host.

Who
The who of an event drives nearly everything. Your audience has a specific set of interests in mind, and you, as the host, have the job of appealing to those interests. Mind you, the audience for a wedding is a little simpler--family or friends--and their interest might simply be to see you happy and to have a good time. But even something "simple" like a wedding takes time to plan (ask my sister, a serious planner, about how long her relatively low-key wedding took). Your event is about people and providing something that interests them.

Audiences can vary by size, age, associations, and any other way you can think. If you're going to bring them together, they must have common interests, right? So you've got to get them in the room (church, hall, etc.). People require persuasion, engagement, patience. Events are about people and appealing to their interests. That means having a little insight into what motivates people.

What
The what of an event is the event itself--a wedding, a speech, a ceremony, a convention, a performance. You might be the main attraction (the bride or groom) or you might be the host or hostess while someone else is the center of attention. In any case, the odds are good that the center of your event is sufficiently different, interesting, or important that formal planning is required to get people into the room to appreciate it properly.

Event programming can be simple or complex: a single speaker or performer showing up for an hour or two or several days' worth of activities. Consider all the moving parts involved in a typical American wedding: bachelorette party, bachelor party, rehearsal dinner, wedding rehearsal, wedding, reception, honeymoon. Or a convention: keynote speaker, track speakers, meals, receptions, exhibits, entertainment. The details include funding, scheduling, booking rooms and meals, and a bunch of other things that can jump up to surprise you.

Where
The where of an event is driven by the who and what: how many people are coming? What are they doing? If you're hearing a singer, you need a concert hall (or maybe just a room big enough for the performers and a few friends); if you're hosting a wedding, you need a church or a park or a hall of some sort; if you're hosting a convention, you need a hotel and function spaces for anything ranging from formal speeches to meetings to meals to exhibits.

Locations have their own special challenges: do they have the space to accommodate all the people you plan to invite? What sort of audio-visual equipment do they have? Is their food any good? How late can events run? What do they cost? When do they want the money? How big is their staff? Do they have any house rules that will affect how you run your event? These are important questions, and they become more so the more money you or your group are spending.

If you're going to host an event, you need to have an idea in your head of who's coming, what you plan for them to do, and how big a space you'll need them to do it in. These three factors will drive most of your event activities. The devil, as they say, is in the details.

Space, Inspiration, and STEM Education

Food for thought as I attend the “Igniting Young Minds Through Space” symposium this week...I’m a big advocate of getting kids interested in space exploration as soon as possible. My sister informed me awhile back that my six-year-old niece had built a rocket out of Legos. Warms the heart.

But I think some thought needs to be given to the whole notion that being interested in space as a kid automatically means you’re going to study science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) subjects. Perhaps I’m an anomaly (big surprise), but as I was taking aptitude tests as a kid, I always scored high on math and science—higher than I did on English, by the way—and yet I ended up as an English major and didn’t get into technical writing until well into my second career at age 33. How did that happen? I was smart enough. My mother was taking an algebra course when I was in sixth grade, and I was doing the problems out of her book for fun. However, around junior high I started having trouble with algebra, and despite being in semi-advanced placement classes, I was really struggling to get by. Part of this might have been a hangover from my social struggles. But part of it was just boredom. I didn’t enjoy doing math for fun anymore. I took environmental science and biology to avoid the math that I knew came with physics and chemistry, and no one pushed me to do otherwise.

All this time, I was following the space program, particularly the Shuttle, which was just starting to fly when I was in junior high (my dad took me to STS-2, the second launch of Columbia, in 1981). But I remained a science fiction geek, very much stuck in my own little world(s). Part of the blame I place solely on myself—I was not incapable, I was lazy. It’s not that I couldn’t do the math, I just didn’t want to. I was bored, and SF seemed more fun/interesting. I graduated Northern Illinois University (19 years ago today, as it happens) with a minimum of dummy-algebra, dummy-trig, and that was it. I was done with that stuff. I majored in English literature, minored in history, and took science classes that didn’t require a great deal of math (meteorology, geology). I was going to write The Great American Science Fiction Novel. I still recall Father Dan asking, “Now that you’ve got no marketable skills, what are you going to do with yourself?” In fact, I had this irrational belief that I could write the aforementioned Novel and make enough money to go to Disney World whenever I pleased. Meanwhile, back in the real world, I ended up working at Disney World for 12 years to pay the bills and support my SF writing habit. Never have written that Novel, by the way.

  Again, despite my interest in space and SF, my career path did not lead directly to a career in the space business. What happened was that I went to a space advocacy convention (the International Space Development Conference) in Orlando when it came to town that year and “got religion,” or at least figured out what I wanted to do with my life: write for the space business. You can thank Robert Zubrin for that. He was a dynamic speaker, at the height of his influence at the time, and talking very boldly about a humans-to-Mars program that could be done within 8 years. I thought, what the heck, I can contribute to that! And so I went back to school to get a B.S. in engineering, figuring that I’d need some technical credential(s) to write for the space business. I willingly enrolled in my first math class for the first time in 15 years, and started the slow slog toward a second bachelor’s degree: dummy algebra, dummy trig, dummy physics…etc. I was doing it, but it was taking me a long time and again I wasn’t having as much fun as I thought I would. Fortunately some understanding person in the guidance office at Valencia Community College pointed out that University of Central Florida had a master’s program in technical communication. It would only take three years, I’d have a better degree, and there was no math required!

  Three years later: program completed. Along the way I finally got technical writing jobs within Disney (“He’s going for a master’s; he must be serious!”), and a year after the M.A., I got a job proposal writing for a defense contractor in Alexandria, VA. Switched companies briefly when my boss got fired and he hired me along to his new employer, then started looking for tech writing jobs in the space business.

  The point of all this was not to provide an exhaustive personal history but to show how convoluted and long a path someone with a liberal arts degree sometimes has to take if they want to get into a technical discipline. Lockheed Martin, which had a plant a couple miles from my home in Orlando, was not interested in hiring me fresh off my B.A. because I was an English major; what the heck did I know about space? They were similarly condescending when I went back with my M.A. in hand. They felt that they needed engineers who could write, not an English major who was interested in technology. Which is how I ended up working for a mid-size defense contractor outside Florida. The other big companies on the Space Coast never even bothered replying.

The other thing is, my interest in space did not result in pursuing a job in a STEM discipline, or even encourage me to take more STEM subjects as a student. I had to reach the tender age of 28 before I decided to go back and work for the space business, and then I ended up pursuing a career as an English major because, again, STEM classes failed to inspire me.

  So what sort of lessons can be derived from this extended anecdote? I hesitate to generalize because, as my friends and family often point out to me, “You’re different.” Nevertheless, there are challenges that STEM educators (and my friends at NASA) need to consider before pushing the notion (or expecting the outcome) that “Interest in Space + Studying STEM Subjects Very Hard automatically = Aerospace Engineer or Scientist.” The hard facts are these:

• Not everyone has the aptitude for, or interest in, STEM studies or careers.
• Good teachers matter, not just for the struggling students, but also for the high achievers. Even if you have an interest in STEM, if your teachers can’t inspire or reach you, you will become disenchanted and move on to something else.
• There are multiple ways to acquire the skills necessary to work in STEM jobs, and they don’t all require advanced degrees, though that was the path I took. We are, as a nation, now super-saturated with degrees, and even if you have a degree, that’s no guarantee that you’ll get a job in the field you want. I was the same space-enthusiast English major in 1991 that I was in 2003, but I had a Master’s degree, and major aerospace companies still did not want to hire me because they didn’t think I could be a technical writer. I had to take a three-year detour with a smaller company who was willing to take a chance on hiring an English major to write proposals for them and then do a lot of non-profit, non-paid writing for the National Space Society. THEN I could go back to NASA and be taken seriously enough to write papers for the space program.
• The primary thing that got me to my current job writing for NASA was dogged persistence and a belief that my dream was a) achievable and b) worth pursuing.

I got where I wanted because I had someone inspire me to follow my dream, and I was willing to put in the work to make that dream a reality. So, yes: I was inspired by the space program as a kid. However, that did not lead me to become an engineer or scientist of any stripe. The system is not set up for people like me.

Potpourri CXXX

I have a LOT of junk in the blog file, so let's just see how far I get before I grow tired of the exercise. Ya just never know what mood is going to strike me sometimes.

From Kate Down Under:

• A roundtable site on the Battle of Midway, one of the major turning points of World War II.

From Jerry Pournelle:

• A posting on surviving the future/survivalism (which isn't exactly the same thing).
• Some comments on the state of education in the U.S....and it's not pretty.
• Three essays on what should be done about space/ NASA: http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/gettospace.html, http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail242.html#prizes, and http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail242.html#prizes.
• Some thoughts on reforming Wall Street and fund rating agencies.

From D2:

• Seven species of robot
• A truly fantastic TED.com lecture on why we should go to Mars.

It's been awhile, but these are still (mostly) worth reading...some of my thoughts on using targeted marketing to appeal to specific audiences in space advocacy.

• http://www.thespacereview.com/article/795/1
• http://bartacus.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-on-gen-y-and-space-friend-sent-me.html
• http://bartacus.blogspot.com/2008/07/apollo-11-39-ares-i-x-etc.html
• http://bartacus.blogspot.com/2008/07/should-disney-get-retired-space-shuttle.html
• http://bartacus.blogspot.com/2008/03/selling-space-to-science-fiction-fans.html
• http://bartacus.blogspot.com/2008/03/marketing-space-to-baby-boomers-ive-put.html
• http://bartacus.blogspot.com/2008/03/marketing-space-to-gen-x-okay-enough.html
• http://bartacus.blogspot.com/2008/02/useful-travel-links-and-marketing-to.html
• http://bartacus.blogspot.com/2007/10/targeted-marketing-vs.html).

A cautionary tale for any Gen Y tech genius looking to get ahead in the world: Apple traditionally has kept a tight hold on keeping new products from being seen by the public until they were good and ready. That is, until this kid brought a new "4G" iPhone with him to a bar, got ripped, and left it behind, allowing Gizmodo.com to pick it up and reveal some of its secrets to an interested world. Wonder where this kid's next job is going to be and whether he'll be asking "You want fries with that?"

National Geographic has some cool pictures of the lightning generated by the Iceland volcano. Speaking of that volcano, it's affecting domestic commercial aviation revenues, not just transatlantic.

Note to scientists interested in hunting for meteorite fragments: try to do it expeditiously during planting season.

Interesting letter to the editor in the Huntsville Times on being yourself.

A report in the Houston Chronicle says that depression is more common in springtime than winter. Doesn't sound right to me, but I've always been cold-intolerant/-depressed.

Some mild Mars humor from Fox News viewers.

Speeding isn't just monitored by cameras on the ground anymore...

Did you know vacationing was a basic human right? Depends on whom you ask.

An opinion poll by the Everett Group on space exploration.

Markings on Pluto look like molasses?

More details revealed on the X-37, which launched last week.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: a good article on bad writing. Trust me, folks: there is NO need for academic writing to be bad or dull.

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, has an editorial on the failings of Constellation, getting a few things wrong and missing a few critical points, alas. Like the Shuttle, I have a feeling Constellation won't be missed until it's gone.

Some more good pictures of Ares I-X.

Speaking of Ares I-X, I have two articles in the latest edition of Ad Astra: a summary of Ares I-X and a review of Les Johnson's latest book.

I keep getting asked what I think of the Obama administration's NASA policy. Best I can do is refer you to the first paragraph of the National Space Society's original response to the 2011 budget. After all, I wrote that one. :-)

Speaking of Obama's space policy the New York Daily News has an editorial by Robert Zubrin on Obama's "failure to launch." There's also this.

The subtitle on this article made me laugh long and loudly: "Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in an interview Sunday, when asked about the Tea Party protests, that the Obama administration is paying more attention to the deficit than the Bush administration did." BWAH ha ha ha ha ha! Want to visualize what "budget cuts" mean to the current administration? Check this out, and this.

A climate scientist in Australia was quick to "announce" that the eruption of the Iceland volcano would have no effect on temperatures in Europe. And if temperatures DO drop, as they did after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo? Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

A really excellent and uplifting (if a tad utopian) talk by my buddy Loretta Whitesides on the future of space and what we can do with it.

Did you know there was a "man-cession" on?

Amazing what some folks will pay good money for...for instance, movie props from the latest Iron Man movie.

Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin will speak at the Mars Society Convention this coming August. Speaking of Griffin, he was one of the VIP guests at Yuri's Night Huntsville this year.

Sometimes it's all about modernizing the Benjamins...

I just liked these images...some of the world's most unusual buildings.

Why are some guys single? This article suggests a few answers...I've pled guilty to most or all of these at one time or another.

Twenty years of Hubble Space Telescope photos. Saaaaa-lute!

I still want to include this artist's work as part of ISDC 2011. Anyone have any idea how one goes about arranging that?

From one of my random morning internet surfing adventures:

• A Guide to the World’s Healthiest Booze
• Best Star Wars memorabilia ever (some of these are arguable)

Speaking of booze, I got this link from Tina, indicating that stronger wine might be available for sale in Alabama soon. I don't want stronger wine here, I just want Wine.com to be able to ship good stuff here.

Rock your Christmas hard:

• With Twisted Sister
• And Billy Idol (what's with that turtleneck, dude?)

From my old stomping grounds of Illinois...Blago (former Governor Rod Blagioevich) wants to subpoena President Obama in a corruption trial. This could prove interesting.

This is kinda cool: a 360-degree view of Atlantis on the launch pad at Complex 39A.

The makers of Marmite are taking the British National Party to court for using their product in an ad without their permission.

Because traveling through Dulles International Airport doesn't bite enough...

From Nick Skytland, an interesting article on how management is done at Pixar Studios.

From Joanne Manaster:

• The world's tiniest world map.
• Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking advises against attracting E.T.'s attention.

Random: William Shatner and some Chinese guy I've never heard of doing a cover of "Total Eclipse of the Heart." No, really.

This is pretty cool: a father developed an app to help his autistic son communicate.

Wow! Cleared 'em all out. Might as well reward myself with (almost) 8 hours of sleep. Stranger things have happened.

Potpourri CXIII

Today's little doses of the different:

The U.S. Science & Engineering Festival, the first national science festival, will be happening in Washington, DC, October 23-24, 2010.

From Dar, Data in the Cloud from Dallas to Mars. This article on the blog Shepherd's Pi talks about Microsoft's latest search engine system, which appears to be a sort of hyper-Google, designed both to compete with Google and to do things they can't do, like assign meanings or draw trends from very large sets of data.

From Yohon, a link to a new science/space publisher.

From ABC News, of all places, a report that jobs the Obama administration claims to have saved or created exist in congressional districts that don't even exist. I'm shocked, shocked...

From Doc:

• A link showing what Stormtroopers do on their days off. Fantastic!
• The T-shirt of the week from Cafepress.com

Want to be a Martian? NASA has a web site for that.

From NASAWatch (really?): Help choose the best public service announcement in support of NASA.

If you're interested in the works of an honest-to-gosh Rocket Scientist, check out the web site of Les Johnson, a very smart fellow whom I've had the pleasure of chatting with, reading books by, and participating on a panel at a sci-fi convention with. Les is an excellent writer because he is also an excellent and patient teacher--he takes the time to explain very difficult things in words that illuminate without insulting the reader. These are all good skills to have.

From AIAA:

• Richard Branson, founder and owner of the Virgin family of companies, wants Virgin Galactic to eventually fly tourists around the Moon. Great, if he can do it and I could afford it.
• A UCF professor was profiled in the Chronicle of Higher Education for his efforts to promote zero-gravity experiments on privately built suborbital rockets.

And that'll about do it for now.

Book Review: The Anti-Federalist Papers

I'm rather ashamed that I got through all of The Anti-Federalist Papers before I got through all of The Federalist Papers, but these things happen. I ended up reading the Anti book after some libertarian friends on Facebook tried to convince me that the U.S. Constitution was, in fact, a coup d'etat, a statement with which I vehemently disagree--and still do, come to think of it. However, I already had this book on my Kindle, so the conversation more or less prodded me to read. The Federalist Papers, of course, are the articles written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay under the group pseudonym "Publius" to persuade the people of the United States to fully reform the Articles of Confederation by adopting a wholly new Constitution. Those works succeeded and, in my view, constitute some of the most profound political thinking ever written on this continent.

But let us give the Anti-Federalists their due. They, too, had some profound insights into human nature and its effects on politics. Like the Federalist Papers, the Anti- version is not particularly easy reading, written as they are in a somewhat windy 18th century prose. But the language is still recognizably American English, and carries with it many of the same underlying political assumptions and sources that were used by the Founders to write the Constitution we use today, including Montesquieu (which I'm also in the proces of reading).

We tend to forget that it was not just a matter of Madison, Hamilton, and Jay trying to persuade Americans to accept their new vision, but they were fighting those who preferred things as they were with simply a few adjustments. The Constitutional Convention most definitely exceeded its mandate, which was to reform the Articles because the nation was experiencing political and economic turmoil in the late 1780s.. However, to call that a coup d'etat, when the Constitution required adoption by vote by all of the States is stretching the point a little too far.

Still, what was it that the Anti-Federalists disliked so about the Constitution? What did they see as contemporaries of Publius that we, looking back through the awe of History do not? Here are their primary objections, and many of them are on-target and prophetic--just 200+ years too early to be taken seriously:

• They objected strenuously to the right of the U.S. Congress "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." It was thought all such "necessary" laws as the Congress might create could supersede and eventually eliminate the power of state laws.
• They objected to the lack of a Bill of Rights prior to signing. These were eventually written by George Mason.
• They thought that the terms of office for the House of Representatives, Senate, and President were all too long.
• They felt that federal taxes on top of state taxes would make the people poorer.
• They wanted the states to have the right to censure and recall their Senators if they should prove unsuitable or too independent.
• They felt that the President would become little more than an elected monarch and that he held too much power.
• They felt that the Supreme Court held too much power by virtue of its right to "interpret" the Constitution with no higher appeal.
• They felt that the Supreme Court's Justices would eventually eliminate the right to trial by jury, one of the few legal practices Americans proudly retained from the British.

In short, they felt that the new federal government, so constituted, would trample on the rights of the individual 13 States to make their own laws, govern their own people, and collect their own taxes. The 10th Amendment notwithstanding, the arguments of the Anti-Federalist Papers hold up pretty well over the course of nearly 233 years, though to the credit of the writers of the Constitution, it took nearly that long for most of the fundamental weaknesses in the structure to be undone or exploited.

One might ask, what did the Anti-Federalists want? What sort of government did they hope to protect? The Articles of Confederation owe some of their heritage to the constitution of Switzerland, which consists of several small cantons (the equivalent of states) with very different local cultures and traditions. For example, Switzerland comprises French, German, and Italian consitutents, as well as Catholic and Protestant citizens. For the sake of peace, independence, and the common defense, the Swiss have strong local governments and a weak federal government. This allowed--and continues to allow--Switzerland to maintain its local cultures and traditions without a lot of meddling from the central government.

This was the model early Americans strove to emulate. True, no one hears about Switzerland conquering anybody or making huge changes to its neighbors or the world at large, but they have stubbornly guarded their freedom and way of life for nearly 500 years--and many Americans would have preferred it that way. The lack of European-style ambition along the lines of Germany or France was one of the things that separated Americans early on in our history. This changed, of course, and the Constitution had some hand in that.

It's difficult to read the arguments of the losing side--after all, who cares? But my libertarian friends would say that many of the problems they identify (and I agree with) today--such as excessive federal power, taxation, and military overreach--are fundamental and inevitable offspring of our 222-year-old Constitution, and therefore need to be called into question. I would beg to differ, and merely suggest that the current President and Congress at least make some effort to operate within the Constitution as writ. It might also be of value to eliminate the XVII Amendment, which called for direct election of Senators--making them once again answerable to the states--and maybe add a clause regarding the States' rights to recall their Senators.

The reason why no one takes "states' rights" seriously anymore--and hasn't for over a century--is because the Confederate States of America picked the absolute worst cause in the world upon which to stand on their rights: slavery. If they had been fighting excessive taxation, government regulations, or some other issue, the federal government might not have reached the levels we've seen in the 20th and 21st centuries, and the Civil War might never have happened. Alas, we must live within our history, and it is very difficult to resurrect a political doctrine that is almost as far gone as the buggy whip. Nevertheless, The Anti-Federalist Papers still deserve to be read today. These writers--including George Clinton, Robert Yates, and others--saw many of our problems today well before their time.

Potpourri XLVII

Articles here and here on Ares I-X...

Here's a list of things that have to go right to get human beings to and from the Moon safely. All of them must take place at extreme velocities, temperatures, or environments and require our greatest efforts to correctly. How is it that people cannot be inspired by the space program? How is it possible for a nation to make space exploration boring?

From a friend of Hu: a company that ships wine to Alabama legally. Better read the fine print first.

Here's the official White House press release on the nominations of Charles Bolden and Lori Garver.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2009
President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals for key administration posts: General Charles Bolden, Administrator of NASA and Lori Garver, Deputy Administrator of NASA.

President Obama said, “These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the long-term vibrancy of America’s space program.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals today:

Gen. Charles Bolden, Nominee for Administrator of NASA
Charles Bolden retired from the United States Marine Corps in 2003 as the Commanding General of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing after serving more than 34 years, and is currently CEO of JackandPanther LLC, a privately-held military and aerospace consulting firm. Gen. Bolden began his service in U.S. Marine Corps in 1968. He flew more than 100 sorties in Vietnam from 1972-73. In 1980, he was selected as an astronaut by NASA, flying two space shuttle missions as pilot and two missions as commander. Following the Challenger accident in 1986, Gen. Bolden was named the Chief of the Safety Division at the Johnson Space Center with responsibilities for overseeing the safety efforts in the return-to-flight efforts. He was appointed Assistant Deputy Administrator of NASA headquarters in 1992. He was Senior Vice President at TechTrans International, Inc. from 2003 until 2005. Gen. Bolden holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis and a M.S. in Systems Management from the University of Southern California.

Lori Garver, Nominee for Deputy Administrator of NASA
Lori Garver is the President of Capital Space, LLC, and has served as Senior Advisor for Space at the Avascent Group, a strategy and management consulting firm, based in Washington, D.C. She was the lead civil space policy advisor for Obama for America, and she helped lead the Agency Review Team for NASA during the Transition. She has intimate familiarity with the agency and knows well the challenges it faces. From 1998 to 2001, Ms. Garver served as NASA’s Associate Administrator of the Office of Policy and Plans. Reporting to the NASA Administrator, she oversaw the analysis, development, and integration of NASA policies and long-range plans, the NASA Strategic Management System, and the NASA Advisory Council. Ms. Garver also served as a primary spokesperson for NASA. Prior to this appointment, she served as a Senior Policy Analyst for the Office of Policy and Plans, and Special Assistant to the Administrator. Ms. Garver earned an M.S. in Science, Technology, and Public Policy from the George Washington University and a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Colorado College.

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A Space Review editorial compares NASA to the automobile industry.

This one from the corporate office: the Baltimore Sun is reporting that you're going to need to pony up with your middle name when it comes time to fly. I actually inquired how much it would cost to legally change my name from Bartholomew to Bart because I sign my checks Bart but my mother and the State of Alabama call me Bartholomew (and the former only when she's angry with me). Why? Because the TSA was getting p!$$y with me about my driver's license not matching my credit cards. Parents beware: I won't be the only one to contemplate this change to save myself the aggravation at the airport. Another lesson in the law of Unintended Consequences from our government: make the law more intrusive and yoiu can even cause people to change their names.

This one from Nickomundo: Anderson Cooper believes the current generation is going to be shafted by the recession. Jeez, spare me. Every generation is screwed by a recession, usually temporarily, as the ability to make more choices and obtain more opportunities is reduced by slowed economic activity. Recession means your mom buys from the discount rack or sews your clothes when you rip them. Recession means you don't go to the Chuck-E-Cheese once a week or don't get high-end snacks with your lunch. Or that you don't buy your lunch. Or vacation gets put off a year. You're sad, you're disappointed. A couple of more fortunate, more shallow peers might laugh at your cheap, off-the-rack clothes. You're hurt. You move on.

Is NASA "over the hill" if the average age there is 49? All depends. People keep telling me that "40 is the new 30." Which means what for Gen Y? It means you'll be waiting another 10 years before you get promoted. (Just a little snark/humor to offer insight into how your elders might be thinking.)

Leonard David, whose brain I'd like to borrow for a week, has a blog on a new approach to searching for Earthlike planets.

The International Space Development Conference officially gets under way tomorrow. The Space Investment Symposium (SIS), which has become attached to ISDC since 2006, happened today. That's an event where they put wannabe space entrepreneurs and venture capitalists into a room and try to educate the space people on the right way to write a business plan to get investment money from the VCs. I first wrote about the SIS in 2007 and have been trying to keep up with it when I can. Lately I haven't been able to afford the leave time--or the ticket price. I don't complain about that--I got in gratis as a journalist in '06 and '07.

I see the SIS as a positive sign in the space advocacy movement because it shows that space businesses are becoming routine, part of the regular investment and business environment, like utilities or drug companies. However, I've heard complaints that this emphasis on business also raises ticket prices for space-related events and eliminates that "grass roots" touch/feel to the activity. I look at it this way, speaking purely for myself and from a strictly appearance-based point of view: more suits means more people taking space seriously. It's the difference between space advocates showing up in t-shirts or Star Trek outfits to lobby Congress and those same advocates showing up with suits, professional attire, and briefcases. Which one would you take more seriously? Apperances matter. And if that means that the space movement loses the "common touch" but gains credibility among the non-space-minded public, then I'm willing to make the sacrifice. If you want to wear t-shirts and Star Trek outfits, there's probably a science fiction convention out there waiting for you. If you want to make a serious effort to get civilization into space, leave the t-shirts at home and get ready to do business.

Potpourri XXIV

I had to update my bio for work. Here's the latest version, in case someone asks (or even if they didn't):

*

Bart Leahy is a Senior Technical Writer at the Schafer Corporation, where he supports the Ares Projects at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Since 2006, he has written conference papers, speeches, articles, web content, presentations, brochures and other outreach materials on nearly all aspects of the Ares launch vehicles and the Ares I-X test flight. He leads the Technical Communicators Working Group as part of the Ares Outreach Team.

Prior to coming to NASA, Bart was a proposal writer for the defense industry and a technical writer for the Walt Disney World Resort.

During his time at NASA, Bart has been a member of four teams that received a Group Achievement Award. As a professional writer, he has produced papers for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), and the Joint Army-Navy-NASA-Air Force (JANNAF) conference, as well as over 30 articles for Ad Astra, NASA ASK Magazine, NSS.org (the National Space Society’s web site), Science@NASA, ScienceCheerleader.com Space.com, Space News, and The Space Review.

Bart has a Bachelor's degree in English Literature from Northern Illinois University and a Master's degree in Technical Writing from the University of Central Florida. His master’s thesis described methods of using targeted marketing to enhance the appeal of space exploration advocacy.

Bart is a true believer in the space cause. In his free time, he is a member of the National Space Society (NSS), which recognized him with an Award for Excellence as an advocate. He has written for and led NSS’s Space Settlement Calendar; led a campaign to send letters to the editor into the top 100 newspapers in the United States during “World Space Week”; and has written position papers and talking points for citizen lobbyists as part of the NSS Policy Committee. Bart is also Vice President of the local chapter of NSS, the Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5), a member of the Mars Society, the MarsDrive Board of Advisors, a public outreach writer for the Mars Foundation, and a regular member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), Society for Technical Communication (STC), and AIAA. He has been a convention speaker and panelist on a variety of space exploration topics.

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New from Hu:

• Congressman Parker Griffin (D-AL) is doing his part to keep government money and jobs in the Huntsville area.
• Apollo 17 astronaut and former Senator Harrison "Jack" Schmitt will be giving the commencement address to UAH grads. He should have interesting things to say. Last time I heard about Jack, he had quit the Planetary Society for jumping on the global warming bandwagon.
• Jeff Foust makes a case for a suborbital version of the COTS program.

Another snappy article from my buddy Dauna over at Science @ NASA, this one on NASA-powered weather prediction hardware being used in Northern Alabama. I love Dauna's easygoing, reader-friendly writing style.

This one from Nick the Wiki Guru: Sending webheads over to the Middle East to inspire Web 2.0 businesses in Iraq.

That's MISTER Rocket to you, pal...a seriously big, 1:10 scale Saturn V rocket gets ready to fly.

Like we didn't have enough to worry about, Charles Osgood sounds an alarm about the state of our sun...and has some interesting things to say about global warming as well.

Another article about robots in warfare.

The Chief Financial Officer at Freddie Mac is dead from an apparent suicide. Things are getting tough out there.

Twitter tips for federal agencies.

I got the following Chicago Tribune cartoon from Father Dan. It's a rip on Obama's idol Franklin Delano Roosevelt, inked in 1934. What goes around comes around.

Here's a new one: personalized photos of the Earth, taken by a camera mounted on a satellite in geosynchronous orbit.

I owe my coworker Tracy some more thoughts on education reform/improvements (she's rather surprised that she, a hard-core Democrat, and I are in agreement about several things). And I also need to comment at some point about some comments I read about Obama on Facebook. As ugly as things have gotten from my point of view--and even according to some of my friends who voted for The One and are having a wee bit of buyer's remorse--there are folks out there who think he's doing a perfectly brilliant, superb job of handling the nation's affairs. Blue State America really is different. Wow.

And much to my delight, after a week of waiting I now have a working washer/dryer unit in my apartment. My grade school/Facebook buddy Janet thanked me for helping "save the Earth." I thanked her for giving me the benefit of the doubt (asked her if she'd considered a job in marketing), but pointed out that my carbon footprint would be right back up there once I got the machines working. Anyhow, for Janet's sake, I won't run the machines until the weekend. They do have more capacity than the older units, though, so maybe they're more efficient, too. They're at least a better color--white instead of some '70s-era "cream" color--so that's an aesthetic improvement right there.

The Mess That Was George Bush

Someone griped about the "lack of outrage" at how Bush, et al., have screwed up the country and our position in the world. My response is below.

I've been complaining about Bush for awhile now, and about the bailout since September/October because it was the wrong approach to take. It's a massive, unnecessary intrusion of government into an economic cycle, and I don't like it any better under Obama. I also didn't like his attempt to force amnesty down my throat. Or the No Child Left Behind Act he developed with Ted Kennedy. Or the Transportation Insecurity Agency. Or the prescription drug benefit expansion under Medicare. Or the insane increases in pork-barrel spending. Sorry if I haven't screamed loud enough, but there's plenty of outrage to go around. I blog and point out things I don't like, policy-wise.

As for our standing in the world, quite a few of the world leaders who didn't like Bush were totalitarians: Kim Jong Il, Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez, Saddam Hussein, Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, Yassir Arafat, and Hu Jintao, to name some of the usual suspects. I would find it profoundly disturbing if anyone in that crowd actually approved of American policies (under Bush and sometimes Clinton), which have been pro-free market, pro-democracy, and anti-terrorism. If our "standing in the world" is based on getting nation-leading tyrants and corrupt, anti-U.S. bureaucrats in the UN to like us, I'll take a lower rating.

There are allies we haven't gotten along with as well as we'd like. Britain, France, and Germany come to mind, but they all continue to provide troops for Iraq and Afghanistan, as does Australia. (As an Aussie once put it, "Australia is the only ally south of the equator that you don't pay for.") They could just as easily refuse. They're not very happy with our financial system right now, because most of them were invested in it.

We could go back to the Community Reinvestment Act, which mandated that banks give mortgages to risky borrowers as a starting point for that. Now, the banks decided repackage those mortgages (polish the turds, if you will) as some sort of credit default swaps, which was legal under the law.

So what can Obama do to fix all this? A global New Deal is a nonstarter, in my opinion, because the original New Deal didn't work the first time. Quite frankly, I think much of the rest of the world wouldn't give a flip what Obama did if he'd just let America go back to making money, with a few extra rules added to the road. Government takeovers of businesses will not, Not, NOT make things better, and will in fact extend the depressed market.

I've been told that it's unfair to pick on Obama and "the mess he's inherited" less than 100 days after his election. Fine. But I'll ask again: when is he expected to be held accountable for results? If you're in a hole, you stop digging. Obama was dealt a bad hand. That doesn't mean you double down and make things worse. That's what his policies and budget are doing.

Another thing Obama could do is ease up on all the strings attached to bailouts. Governments do not know how to run businesses, as GM, AIG, etc., demonstrate. Suppose a company wants to fly the CEO down to a convention in Las Vegas in the corporate jet to announce a new product that will greatly improve the company's fortunes in the future? Well, right now, the jets are out, Vegas convention hotels are cutting staff, and the press will frown on any signs of public funds being invested in frivolities like food and beverage, which are a standard part of getting people to attend big publicity events. Some corporations would be better off just declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy until they can get their collective heads back together. That has to be less painful than knuckling under all the "necessary" government controls and strings that come with a bailout.

What drives me up the wall most about Bush is that most of the things that flopped were liberal (read: neocon) policies--Bush "reaching across the aisle" to work with Kennedy, et al.--and if they had been done by a Democrat, they would've been seen as great legislative achievements. So, once more this needs to be said: George W. Bush was not a conservative, except on cultural and (some) defense issues. Invading Iraq wasn't a conservative act. All the stuff I mentioned in the second paragraph was not conservative. It was big-government liberalism with a GOP/neocon sticker on it. Basic conservatism, for those who have forgotten, believes in a few basic principles and policies:

• A common civil society, deriving its principles from Judeo-Christian, Greek, Roman, and Enlightenment notions of freedom of conscience, association and religion, individual liberty, private property, and personal responsibility.
• Respect for individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
• Limited government that provides law & order and basic infrastructure, alllowing individuals to prosper.
• A strong national defense capable of protecting America's vital national interests.
• Low taxes and a limited government sized to match limited means.

Bush did not favor limited government intrusion or spending, and neither did the GOP during most of this decade. Obama is increasing both. We are paying the price for that lack of vision now.

Book Reviews: Inferno and Inferno

No, I haven't gotten my books wrong. There are, in fact, two books named Inferno: one by the medieval poet Dante Aligheri (translated by John Ciardi), and one by contemporary science fiction writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

Dante's Inferno is well known, starting with his warning above the gates of Hell: "Abandon all hope ye who enter" to its circles and increasingly creative ways of punishing sinners of various sorts. As a work of poetry, Dante's Inferno is one of the legendary pieces of Western literature. Not being able to speak Italian very well, I picked up the Ciardi translation of this piece of the "Divine Comedy," as well as Purgatorio and Paradiso, all of which were dedicated to Dante's great love, Beatrice. All three books, I am told, are written in superb Italian. I cannot speak to that, but I can say that Ciardi has done a master's job of putting these works into well-spoken and rhyming English.

What, then, is the Inferno? It is, quite simply, a travelogue through Hell. Dante, writing as himself, is taken on a guided tour of the infernal reaches by Virgil, the Latin poet he most admired. It starts in lighter realms, among the virtuous pagans, who obeyed the Ten Commandments, but were never baptized into the Christian faith, and moves its hideous way down to the Devil himself. Along the way, Virgil explains to Dante what the various levels or "Circles" of Hell mean, and why people are punished they way that they are. The sins start mildly, with the carnal and the gluttonous, and work their way further down through heresy, violence, blasphemy, and eventually betrayal of benefactors (think Judas Iscariot).

During this tour, Dante also encounters people he knew in life who have since passed on, to make clear to his 14th century audience (he completed the Comedy in 1308) what sorts of people he thought would end up in which circles. Given that Dante was already in exile at this point in his career, it is not surprising that he takes potshots at many who put him into that situation, not omitting a few Popes. The Purgatorio and Paradiso take the reader on similar guided tours through Purgatory and Heaven itself. Inferno is always described as the most interesting of the three works, perhaps because it is the most colorful or pernicious. Individuals unable to control their baser instincts are chased around great circles, whipped along by demons, while liars and bad counselors are forced into rivers of excrement and spout as much whenever they open their mouths. It is grotesquery with a purpose, and the purpose is to turn the reader away from sin. The concerns of the Comedy are mostly those of the Middle Ages, and the description of Hell is as "scientific" as one can make it--it is written about a generation after St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica, which attempted to reconcile faith and reason.

What, then, is one to make of a work written by a couple of science fiction writers neary 700 years later? Try to imagine, if you will, a 20th century science fiction writer (who falls from a hotel balcony after drinking too much at a science fiction convention) finding himself in the Hell described by Dante. You might think you're in for a bit of depressing literature. Such is not the case. Inferno is hilarious, if one has a sense of humor tuned to the dark and slightly twisted side.

Niven and Pournelle's character, a man named Allen Carpentier (a fancy way of restyling his actual name, Carpenter), does not accept Hell. Nor is he terribly accepting of Heaven, for that matter. He spends most of the novel trying to understand where he is, and what's going on. He is vaguely familiar with Dante, and so assumes that someone or someones have recreated it for strange purposes of their own. And yet along the way, Carpentier's guide Benito shows him 20th century equivalents to the sinners of Dante's era.

Who would have thought that individuals who prevent bridges being built (environmentalists) might end up in the circle of hell designated for Wasters or individuals offering divinity degrees through the mail might end up in the circle set aside for simony? (Don't chastise Niven and Pournelle too much for conservative-mindedness: they also have a special circle of hell for individuals who destroy the environment.) And yet it's not just this retelling and recontextualizing of Dante's Hell that makes this book enjoyable, it's the way their character reacts to it. Where a religious-minded person might see the terror of demons and furies of Dis, the authors' SF writer sees updrafts, upon which he might build a glider to fly out of Hell. Or, in the circle where one previously found vicious dogs, one now finds self-guiding attack sports cars, which Carpentier and his companions decide to drive to get where they want to go. And there's also some of Carpentier's wilder speculations on where he actually is that make the humor that much grimmer. The SF writer's desire to use what's available to solve problems is so typical, so wonderfully goofy, that one can only admire Niven and Pournelle's chutzpah for suggesting them.

And yet the authors have a purpose here. As Carpentier travels deeper into Hell, he starts asking more and more serious questions--why are people forced to suffer in this way? Why would (a) God allow such a place? What purpose would such a Hell serve?

I fear such a retelling of Inferno will offend believers, and yet the book offers good lessons for the questioners in the SF community. It's a book, oddly, that provides a route through to faith for someone who might be questioning otherwise.

I highly recommend Dante's Inferno, as well as the Niven and Pournelle version (there's a sequel coming out soon). The two books, together, just might scare the Hell out of you.

Tired of Voting for the Lesser of Two Evils?

Now you might have differing opinions from mine on which political party constitutes the lesser evil, or has the less-informed candidates, but odds are you're not happy with either party in Washington right now. So, what's a concerned voter to do? If you're irritated enough, perhaps you could push for voting citizens and candidates to pass the same citizenship test that new immigrants must pass if they wish to become legal citizens.

Quick! Without using Google or a textbook or asking anybody, see how many of the following questions you can answer:

A: Principles of American Democracy
1. What is the supreme law of the land?
2. What does the Constitution do?
3. The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words? 4. What is an amendment?
5. What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?
6. What is one right or freedom from the First Amendment?
7. How many amendments does the Constitution have?
8. What did the Declaration of Independence do?
9. What are two rights in the Declaration of Independence?
10. What is freedom of religion?
11. What is the economic system in the United States?
12. What is the "rule of law"?
B: System of Government
13. Name one branch or part of the government.
14. What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful?
15. Who is in charge of the executive branch?
16. Who makes federal laws?
17. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?
18. How many U.S. Senators are there?
19. We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?
20. Who is one of your state’s U.S. Senators now?
21. The House of Representatives has how many voting members?
22. We elect a U.S. Representative for how many years?
23. Name your U.S. Representative.
24. Who does a U.S. Senator represent?
25. Why do some states have more Representatives than other states?
26. We elect a President for how many years?
27. In what month do we vote for President?
28. What is the name of the President of the United States now?
29. What is the name of the Vice President of the United States now?
30. If the President can no longer serve, who becomes President?
31. If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President?
32. Who is the Commander in Chief of the military?
33. Who signs bills to become laws?
34. Who vetoes bills?
35. What does the President’s Cabinet do?
36. What are two Cabinet-level positions?
37. What does the judicial branch do?
38. What is the highest court in the United States?
39. How many justices are on the Supreme Court?
40. Who is the Chief Justice of the United States now?
41. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?
42. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of the states?
43. Who is the Governor of your state now?
44. What is the capital of your state?
45. What are the two major political parties in the United States?
46. What is the political party of the President now?
47. What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now?
C: Rights and Responsibilities
48. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them.
49. What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens?
50. Name one right only for United States citizens.
51. What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?
52. What do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance?
53. What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen?
54. How old do citizens have to be to vote for President?
55. What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy?
56. When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?
57. When must all men register for the Selective Service?
AMERICAN HISTORY
A: Colonial Period and Independence
58. What is one reason colonists came to America?
59. Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?
60. What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves?
61. Why did the colonists fight the British?
62. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
63. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
64. There were 13 original states. Name three.
65. What happened at the Constitutional Convention?
66. When was the Constitution written?
67. The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.
68. What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?
69. Who is the "Father of Our Country"?
70. Who was the first President?
B: 1800s
71. What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?
72. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s.
73. Name the U.S. war between the North and the South.
74. Name one problem that led to the Civil War.
75. What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?
76. What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
77. What did Susan B. Anthony do?
C: Recent American History and Other Important Historical Information
78. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s.
79. Who was President during World War I?
80. Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II?
81. Who did the United States fight in World War II?
82. Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?
83. During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States?
84. What movement tried to end racial discrimination?
85. What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?
86. What major event happened on September 11, 2001, in the United States?
87. Name one American Indian tribe in the United States.
INTEGRATED CIVICS
A: Geography
88. Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States.
89. What ocean is on the West Coast of the United States?
90. What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States?
91. Name one U.S. territory.
92. Name one state that borders Canada.
93. Name one state that borders Mexico.
94. What is the capital of the United States?
95. Where is the Statue of Liberty?
B: Symbols
96. Why does the flag have 13 stripes?
97. Why does the flag have 50 stars?
98. What is the name of the national anthem?
C: Holidays
99. When do we celebrate Independence Day?
100. Name two national U.S. holidays.

There are other questions I'd be tempted to ask, like:

• If the federal budget isn't balanced (that is, the government spends more than it takes in through taxes), where does the money come from to make up the difference?
• What protections does the press enjoy under the Constitution?
• What types of laws protect people from the press?
• If a business makes a profit, who owns that money?
• What are "Miranda rights?"
• How does the War Powers Act limit the actions of the President?

Regardless, you might've read those questions and felt like it was a bad flashback to high school. And at that age, you might've asked, "Why do I have to know this stuff?" Because, quite frankly, if you don't, then you deserve the leaders you get. Once you know what the United States Government was formed to do, you can better form ideas about what it shouldn't do. And that's why we vote.

This nation cannot function well without an educated citizenry. We're not the first nation to be formed based upon an idea, but we might be the first that was based on the idea of freedom and representative government, and those premises have a lot of history and context behind them, which can easily be lost if the citizens don't have a clue about where they came from or what they mean.

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Now, how would one go about getting this type of test proposed and enforced? What sorts of political difficulties would be involved? That would be an education all in itself.

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By the way, the answers to questions 1-100 above can be found at http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q.pdf. If you want to know the answers to MY questions, well, you'll just have to go out and learn them.