*nailbiting*

[magid]

And in the state races... MA voted to keep income tax (as the signs said, it's irresponsible to do otherwise; I can't imagine state government is 40% pork / inessential / whathaveyou), to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana (I think alcohol has more societal effects, and we already know prohibition doesn't work.), and to ban dog racing.

I know there were other state ballot initiatives on similar topics (that didn't go the way I'd like), but it's still theoretically possible that CA's Prop 8 could be defeated (right now, this site has it 52/48, with 95% of precincts reported). I'll just hope that the remaining precincts were all around San Francisco or something...


Tangential to all this: elections are the one time when there's these interesting mathematics (the vote going X for, Y (usually 100 – Xish) against, with Z% of precincts reported (but how do precincts compare numerically? and precincts can vary widely based on neighborhood, and so on). Probability masquerading as clear-cut percents...

P.S. I'm looking forward to January 20, after which I won't do what I did a few weeks ago, when I couldn't bring myself to read the (English) prayer for the (USian) government for the kehillah. I told the gabbai (handing it out) that I couldn't read it for this administration.

Comments

[gilana]

Lord knows I can't stand this administration, but I read that prayer with extra kavanah -- they really need the help. But I suspect it'll feel very different to be able to read the prayer with some hope of it being true.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I hear you about needing the help :-)

However, since at Tehillah there's only one person reading that prayer (and their wording is not in the siddur, but on a printed sheet that's handed to someone to read), I'd rather it not be me; I'm too conflicted.
I suspect that it also doesn't help that it's in English, which processes very differently for me for prayer purposes.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

I've read it with great relish in shul, because Chimpy needs all the wisdom and good guidance he can get. Sometimes, alas, my prayers go unanswered, which is likely one reason why President teddywolf wasn't sworn in four years ago.