Laura

This is a thing that happens, and that I wish would not. Someone says "hey, write to your Congress critter about" or "I wrote to my Congress critter about" or "If you are writing to your Congress critter about things, here is a note of ways that make it more effective".

And then someone comes along and says "BUT you should call them to be effective."

This is true. It is a good response to "what is the best way to contact my Congress critter?" or _perhaps_ to "I am going to contact my Congress critter about X". And maybe with a "did you know?" to the first or second above, maybe. To the third it is not germane.

I mostly write my Congress critters. I save calling for the most urgent things because it's damnably inconvenient and takes time for me also. If I only call, then I will contact them about WAY fewer things.

And I'm very VERY TIRED of this to be frank. I have heard it several times. I know. And it comes across as criticism.

Which frankly?

If I didn't actually care as much as I do, and I took the "this is the Best Way to do it and you're wasting your time doing it that other way" message to heart, I might just _stop doing it_.

It is entirely possible that there are people you have told "should" be calling who have decided their writing isn't enough, but who lack the time, spoons, or willingness to call...and who are now thus doing neither.

I mean, that veto on the security council, maybe kinda nice not to throw away. The World Health Organization, sort of a good thing. Giving the finger to cooperation (which is how it will be interpreted no matter how it's meant), maybe unwise. And so on.

IMO, this needs to die in committee. Badly.

This is not a news site; this is the Congressional web site summary. This bill would lead us (require us) to exit the United Nations.

Their web site is currently 503'ing a lot. I don't know if they're having server issues, or just getting slammed because of this. I got lucky and the original page opened on the first try, but I've had to refresh a few times as I moved between the tabs to view different things.

Summary as currently listed on the page:

American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2017

This bill repeals the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 and other specified related laws.

The bill requires: (1) the President to terminate U.S. membership in the United Nations (U.N.), including any organ, specialized agency, commission, or other formally affiliated body; and (2) closure of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

The bill prohibits: (1) the authorization of funds for the U.S. assessed or voluntary contribution to the U.N., (2) the authorization of funds for any U.S. contribution to any U.N. military or peacekeeping operation, (3) the expenditure of funds to support the participation of U.S. Armed Forces as part of any U.N. military or peacekeeping operation, (4) U.S. Armed Forces from serving under U.N. command, and (5) diplomatic immunity for U.N. officers or employees.

From the actual text: "Except as otherwise provided, this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take effect on the date that is two years after the date of the enactment of this Act."

So, in the hopefully-unlikely event that they pass this, they're just arguing even more strongly for a turnover of every seat that voted for it in 2018....

If you're not aware of the blackout, either it's no longer Wednesday the 18th, or else you haven't opened many sites today.

A little research shows that both my senators have already come out in opposition to the bills (I knew one had, you don't get much more opposed than publicly promising to filibuster if it comes to the floor!). Because of this, I contacted them via their Twitter accounts to thank them for that opposition. (I would not count on Twitter mentions to come to their attention OR carry enough information if I were trying to persuade them to oppose, but to say 'thank you for opposing this' I think they work well enough.)

My representative's position is unknown, as far as I have been able to find (using the various information sites for these bills, and a quick scan of his own site). I went to his web site contact and I sent him an email. I may call to reinforce it, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time/energy for that. I'm wary of phones when there might be a screaming baby.

I am proud of my analogy in the email, however. I was going to compare it to swatting a fly with a Cadillac but that implies piracy is no more harmful than a fly...besides, how destructive is swatting a fly with a Cadillac anyway? It's overkill, but not necessarily detrimental to what's around it. It didn't make the point I wanted it to make, in the way that I wanted to make it, at all.

...I rather liked the modified analogy I came up with. :P

( Text of the letter, cut because it's on the long side )

So, I haven't posted since Wednesday. Eek! I do still exist.

1) My World of Warcraft mage and primary character is now level 70. First time I've ever gotten a character to max level in that game - I didn't make 60 until Burning Crusade was out. Admittedly, I only barely beat Wrath of the Lich King which will raise it to 80, but nonetheless I did beat it. (I don't push hard for the last, oh, 5 or so levels because I don't enjoy PvP or instances. It was real hard to get excited about 60 until Burning Crusade was out. 70 seemed interesting because of the flying mounts, but it was WotLK coming out that really energized me the most there. Amusingly, I think the new 'achievements' stuff in the latest patch will help because it will give me something else to focus on accomplishing, and many will be easier the higher level I am.)

2) When I saw the physical therapist on Friday, the front was still irritated from the last taping. Back was okay so we taped it. So far, I still only have the back taped. I should have, without any taping, started hurting late last night, I suspect. Instead I felt only strain - the back tape helps, but it doesn't completely take care of it. Sleeping last night was not fun, positions that normally work didn't, and I woke up more often even though I wasn't in pain in any way I could define. So the front tape is definitely important. However, I'm planning to go the rest of today without it since I am not in pain. We can then tape tonight (so I can sleep, please, and thank you). The back tape will have to come off Monday night at the latest, but I can carry the front through to Tuesday night if it doesn't go on until tonight. Which means only one day completely untaped - the back will be fine to retape by Wednesday night. I could go longer than that if pain were my only concern, but the first thing that got me wasn't the pain, it was the sleep screwups. There's normal pregnancy sleep woes and then there's the waking-exhausted which has only happened to me with this, unless I was dumb enough to actually stay up late, which duh. The difference in the pain is still huge. I may have as much as a 1, maybe a 2, when it spikes right now. (Last week, by the end of the second day completely untaped, it was spiking to 4. Hence my assumption that having the back taped is providing some benefit. It could also just be that the muscles and ribs are further adjusting, of course. Hard to tell if the change in taping or the time factor is the important one.)

3) Still mostly pleased with the way the local elections went, now that the results are more solid.

4) Ray has TOO MUCH energy and Apple is back to doing things she shouldn't too. He's a bad influence. (Although if something gets damaged or destroyed, the odds are good it was Ray. Apple seems to be limiting herself to sleeping on the kitchen table. Sigh.) He is cute, though. And he levitates, the way Apple used to, for feather toys.

5) That's...really kinda it. There's a reason I haven't been posting much. That reason owes a lot to my days being work, come home, get done household chores, read LJ, flop. But. At least I am mostly comfortable when I flop; that is a Very Good Thing.

And now I go do laundry (so exciting!) and flop for a bit, maybe with a book, to try to keep the ribs from yelping too much. I really don't want to tape until tonight.

Yes, this is political, but no, I'm not stating any positions on candidates or issues here. I'm taking a moment to, once again, express glee at Oregon's vote-by-mail system. I love it. I love having the time to research things and then vote on them, without having to write down a list to take to the polling place with me. (Frankly, I am NOT one of those people who can remember the name of every candidate they want to vote for in every race. And I can't just look at party because, while I have a tendency to vote more toward one party, I don't vote party lines. It's just that party tends to field candidates closer to my personal views. Some years they don't get as many votes as others.)

I also love that it gives so much back to the poor, the schedule-hassled, the busy. You don't have to go out of your way to get an absentee ballot if election day is when you're out of town, or you can't get the time off work because you need to pay the bills, or your polling place is somewhere inaccessible. You have a couple weeks to fill your ballot out. It DOES cost a stamp to mail it, which is a pity; on the other hand, if you can reach one of the drop-off sites (similar to "if you can reach a polling place" I suppose) then you needn't pay postage at all. There are drop-off sites all over the state, some open 24 hours a day, some not; many are at libraries and city halls, but not all. This year, Multnomah County has 24-hour drop box sites at a hardware store, a Goodwill store, a McDonald's, two library branches, Pioneer Courthouse Square downtown, and the elections office. That's just the 24-hour ones. (I pick on Multnomah instead of any other county because they have the most diverse set of drop box sites; many counties stick much more closely to library/city hall/elections office type places. Mine, for example, ONLY has those types of drop sites. Then again, we have a lot of libraries, and we don't have the bulk of the metro area including Portland proper, as Multnomah does.)

Your ballot is mailed to you. When you fill it out, you tuck it inside a secrecy envelope and seal that. Then you tuck THAT inside an outer envelope, seal, and sign that. The signature on that envelope asserts that it's you, but in theory - and I assume in practice - that envelope is separated from the inner one once they confirm you, and the inner one chucked in a pile for later counting, so your vote remains anonymous.

For bonus points, once they receive it (when they collect from the drop box, or when it arrives in the mail), they validate the exterior envelope and mark it down that you've voted. Among the interesting side effects, all the campaign ads STOP CALLING YOU shortly thereafter because they can find out that you've already filed your ballot, and they no longer have any incentive to badger you. (Talk about an incentive to vote early....)

( Ranting about things some people have done in response to views on the presidential election. No actual views or advocating for any candidate, or at least, I've tried to avoid it and I think I have. )

Rant over. I'll go back, next time, to talking about happy things. Or complaining about how hard it is to train Ray not to climb all over things he isn't allowed on. (We went through that phase with Apple, too, but Ray responds well to the water bottle. Which sucks when he's climbing on my laptop, as I'm not going to shoot water at it!)