I did. Just now. And if I get a whiff that they are supporting this nonsense, I'll do it again and convince friends and family to join me. Mikulski brought home the bacon and made NASA Goddard a good place for my pop to work for thirty years... but this is more important.

Actually, it's more like a big blob of wibbley wobbley, timey wimey.... stuff.

Yeah, I laughed at a WP article about someone convicted of vote buying. The end of the article had a quote from one of the vote sellers saying he just voted how he wanted anyway and pocketed the cash. Another "sold" his vote to both sides.

FYI, even the inside of the booth is not safe. At least in MD if you are "unable" to vote alone you can bring almost ANYONE into the booth with you by both signing an affidavit that they aren't your boss nor a candidate for office. And poll workers can't question it. Of course for a vote buyer to use this as confirmation is WAY more inefficient and ineffective as your church example and leaves a paper trail. Now on an individual basis, with an over-controlling spouse, say.....

This is also the reason why giving people "receipts" to "prove" their electronic vote was counted is moronic. (Show me your receipt for my favored candidate and get X$, not lose your job, etc.)

In the off chance that the popular vote is extremely close, votes in a "locked" state can help prevent a favored candidate from winning the EC but not the popular vote, which would prevent them from having a "mandate" with its associated political clout. So it is not 100% wasted.

You obviously haven't played BL. I don't even think there is an achievement for beating it without dying because I don't think they considered the possibility. Probably only slightly easier than beating nethack.

Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn. There is still an entire Empire filled with grey-uniform-wearing Generals with Start Destroyers at their disposal. Sometimes cutting off the head creates a whole mess. It wasn't all cheering on Coruscant the day DS2 got blowed up, despite what you see in the remastered films.

Wasn't Mara a redhead? YoSafBrig had some moves on her. Just say'n.

I'd hope at least for the Thrawn (a.k.a. Heir to the Empire) trilogy by Timothy Zahn. He was an already established writer, and the "pilot program" that showed Lucas it was OK to let other writers into his pristine universe. Of course then Lucas realized he could make boat loads of cash and let any dingbat write a new trilogy--to the point where now Star Wars usually gets an entire rack in the bookstore, just like all that Star Trek rubbish, leaving just one rack for the real Sci Fi.

I tell people I am the evil twin.

I lost two friends and my father this year. I dedicated this release of cerowrt ( http://cero2.bufferbloat.net/cerowrt/credits.html ) to them. Most of the machines we have are named after someone that has passed, for example our main build box is named after http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Huchra It helped a lot to channel them all as we struggled to get the releases out. And, surprisingly, making ice cream, with liquid nitrogen as the coolant, has got to be a healing ritual, around here.

When I ran into a wall yesterday, I thought I briefly saw a black wall with yellow lines...

I preferred Sim City's [industrial] thingamajig.

But that's not how it ends! The Emperor strings the little imp up by his little boy toes for pointing out that he was not wearing any clothes! That teaches naughty little boys to point out the truth when the opposite has been "certified" and "accredited" by those selling you your new duds.