From Scott Adams: End of the Republic? I wonder if today will be remembered as the last day of the Republic. If Obama gets elected, lots of McCain supporters will be displeased, but I would expect an orderly transition of power. That’s one possibility. The other possibility is that McCain is elected and there is [...]

From Scott Adams: End of the Republic?

I wonder if today will be remembered as the last day of the Republic. If Obama gets elected, lots of McCain supporters will be displeased, but I would expect an orderly transition of power. That’s one possibility.

The other possibility is that McCain is elected and there is widespread suspicion, founded or not, that the election was rigged. That, for all practical purposes, will be end of the Republic. Citizens will take to the streets, the lame duck administration will declare martial law, half the country will stop paying taxes, and we will begin the long slide toward a Mad Max economy.

Okay, slight hyperbole — but maybe not that much. It’s hard to get a good objective view here in Bluest-of-the-Blue California, but I have to think that no reasonable person really thinks McCain is likely to win. If he does, and there’s any hint of Florida-2000 or Ohio-2004 style shenanigans, I would expect some massive civil unrest. And I might even take part in it.

We’re laying in emergency supplies for us and the cats to last a week or so. Just in case.

Basic Instructions is a very funny Web comic I originally found when Dilbert creator Scott Adams started working with the artist to improve the strip’s commercial appeal. There’s an associated news/updates blog, and today’s entry in Basic Instructions News includes the following: One advantage to living in Orlando is that there’s an abundance of fireworks. [...]

Basic Instructions is a very funny Web comic I originally found when Dilbert creator Scott Adams started working with the artist to improve the strip’s commercial appeal. There’s an associated news/updates blog, and today’s entry in Basic Instructions News includes the following:

One advantage to living in Orlando is that there’s an abundance of fireworks. I got to see a display at one of the local theme parks the other night that was a tribute to the cultures of the world and how they interplay with each other. The show began with a mammoth fireball that caused an uncomfortable amount of heat from hundreds of feet away. The grand finale was a giant globe cracking apart and exploding in a shower of sparks.

I don’t think I took away the message that the show’s creators had hoped I would.

I always thought pretty much the same thing.

The Dilbert Blog: How to Get Elected President: If I ran for president, I’d have to get past the country’s distaste for atheists. That’s a big problem. I would handle it by manipulating the media with a sound bite so catchy the pundits would have no choice but to repeat it until it started to [...]

The Dilbert Blog: How to Get Elected President:

If I ran for president, I’d have to get past the country’s distaste for atheists. That’s a big problem. I would handle it by manipulating the media with a sound bite so catchy the pundits would have no choice but to repeat it until it started to sound sensible. I’d hold a press conference and say that ONLY an atheist should be president, in the same way you want a eunuch to guard your harem. (That’s the sound bite. It’s like catnip for pundits.)

I would suggest that a truly religious president might try to convert your children to his religion, either overtly or by example. In this election alone, you have a Mormon, a Baptist or two, and if Bloomberg enters, a Jew. Moreover, a scary percentage of the South believes Obama is a Muslim. I’d play the fear card.

I’d vote for him. The only problem would be that we’d be deprived of more Dilbert, because even the truly ideal President wouldn’t have time to be a cartoonist as well.

Dilbert creator Scott Adams posted about a new “Daily Dilbert” widget, still in beta testing, that anyone can use to show Dilbert strips on their Web sites. I’ve added it to my sidebar (over there —–> ) so take a look and see if you like it. Click the middle of the widget to get [...]

Dilbert creator Scott Adams posted about a new “Daily Dilbert” widget, still in beta testing, that anyone can use to show Dilbert strips on their Web sites. I’ve added it to my sidebar (over there —–> ) so take a look and see if you like it. Click the middle of the widget to get started, then use the buttons inside the widget to see each panel and move forward and back to other strips.

The Dilbert Blog: Pragmatic Party: In my fantasy I form what I call the Pragmatic Party. All of my policies would be based on what is most practical. I would accuse my opponents of basing their policies on superstition, i.e. the belief in supernatural beings. That’s called framing the debate. It’s also why I could [...]

The Dilbert Blog: Pragmatic Party:

In my fantasy I form what I call the Pragmatic Party. All of my policies would be based on what is most practical. I would accuse my opponents of basing their policies on superstition, i.e. the belief in supernatural beings. That’s called framing the debate. It’s also why I could never be elected. Well, that plus the parts about being unattractive, unqualified, and morally bankrupt. I’d get a ding for those things too.

You need one Big Idea when you run for President. I would explain that our current system of government was conceived prior to the Internet, electronic mass media, and sophisticated polling methods. 200 years ago the only practical form of government involved voting for a small group of individuals that would pretend to represent you. Now we have better tools and we should use them. I would thus infer that my opponents are hole-pooping cavemen desperately clinging to the past. Again, that’s called framing the debate. I’d get lots of TV time because the media would consider me a loose cannon. They like that.

The problem being that most people (not you, of course; you’re the exception) are too stupid to know what their best medium- and long-term interests are, and so the polls tend to reflect the most attractive short-term goals. That’s not a recipe for success.