tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270489Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:18:06 +0000https://wiltschko.org/bill/billsblog/bill.wiltschko@gmail.com (Bill)Blogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270489.post-5587174645837596660Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:13:00 +00002009-02-25T10:49:50.457-08:00California Constitutional ConventionThe California Constitutional Convention (CCC) "Summit" yesterday in Sacramento was revealing on several levels. First, as Joe Mathews has already stated, the politicians in attendance pleaded for inclusion as Convention Delegates. The most persuasive argument for not including them was that voters wouldn't trust such a convention and would vote down the initiative calling the convention. A https://wiltschko.org/bill/billsblog/2009/02/california-constitutional-convention.htmlbill.wiltschko@gmail.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270489.post-3005732155590527223Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:33:00 +00002009-02-21T12:40:35.276-08:00California Constitutional ConventionCitizens LegislatureCitizens AssemblyThe founders of our country were fully aware of the excesses of legislatures, but they were able to blunt only a few of them. They intended the three branches of government to check each other, reducing possible overreach by legislators and the executive (the judiciary was “the least dangerous branch”). California and other states have this three-part government structure. We know well today https://wiltschko.org/bill/billsblog/2009/02/continuous-referendum-assembly.htmlbill.wiltschko@gmail.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270489.post-115058763673454362Sat, 17 Jun 2006 23:33:00 +00002006-06-17T16:40:36.753-07:00Our constitution uses three branches and checks and balances between them to prevent tyranny. While all members of all branches take an oath to uphold the constitution, they also have specific powers that they alone exercise and specific powers to restrain the other branches. We have elites checking and balancing other elites. We'll define elites in more detail later.The constitution also https://wiltschko.org/bill/billsblog/2006/06/failure-of-checks-and-balances.htmlbill.wiltschko@gmail.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270489.post-114763043810933141Sun, 14 May 2006 16:30:00 +00002006-05-14T11:13:58.113-07:00Poverty has been defined as income below a certain amount for several decades. Several commentators have pointed out that despite rising GDP and per capita income, the number of those in poverty has changed little. This essay will concern how our policies have perpetuated poverty in fact, leaving aside whether we have perpetuated poverty by the current widely-used, income-based definition. The https://wiltschko.org/bill/billsblog/2006/05/poverty-level-income-is-irrelevant_14.htmlbill.wiltschko@gmail.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270489.post-114763021453986100Sun, 14 May 2006 16:30:00 +00002006-05-14T11:10:15.996-07:00Poverty has been defined as income below a certain amount for several decades. Several commentators have pointed out that despite rising GDP and per capita income, the number of those in poverty has changed little. This essay will concern how our policies have perpetuated poverty in fact, leaving aside whether we have perpetuated poverty by the current widely-used, income-based definition. Thehttps://wiltschko.org/bill/billsblog/2006/05/poverty-level-income-is-irrelevant.htmlbill.wiltschko@gmail.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270489.post-114038531553588764Sun, 19 Feb 2006 20:50:00 +00002006-02-19T15:52:46.106-08:00Federalist 51 is where Madison said, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary."In the very next paragraph, he says, "In framing a government that is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, force it to control itself."The great difficulty indeed. We have proof, after 200https://wiltschko.org/bill/billsblog/2006/02/federalist-51.htmlbill.wiltschko@gmail.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270489.post-111628901788952662Tue, 17 May 2005 00:08:00 +00002006-02-18T16:00:17.490-08:00"The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited."The 21st amendment couldn't be clearer. It is specific to alcohol and specific to state vs federal context.I like the result of today's 5-4 decision, because I would prefer the freest possible https://wiltschko.org/bill/billsblog/2005/05/section-2-of-21st-amendment-deleted.htmlbill.wiltschko@gmail.com (Bill)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270489.post-111568774606831017Tue, 10 May 2005 00:33:00 +00002009-02-25T09:18:47.737-08:00Leon Panetta wrote an opinion piece for the Monterey Herald this weekend under the title, "Where is the battle for ideas?" He suggested framing the left vs right debate in terms of five dualities, such as "Protect 'Guaranteed Benefits' vs. 'Private Accounts' for social security. As long as promised benefits grow faster than GNP grows, there WILL be an (unhappy) end to this short-sightedness.His https://wiltschko.org/bill/billsblog/2005/05/entitlement-society.htmlbill.wiltschko@gmail.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270489.post-111505847085393963Mon, 02 May 2005 18:21:00 +00002005-05-02T11:27:50.856-07:00Let's check out how well keywords are found. eDrama Learning is the company I founded in 1998 to build an (emotion and) conversation simulator. We designed about 20 characters that represent customer service challenges and present those characters to the learner. The learner types what s/he wants to say to the character (customer), who replies with both text and body language and facial https://wiltschko.org/bill/billsblog/2005/05/keyword-test.htmlbill.wiltschko@gmail.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270489.post-108689743493825988Thu, 10 Jun 2004 19:45:00 +00002004-06-10T12:57:14.936-07:00Nothing much new here. Kids are out of school and lounging. Alex isn't quite, actually. He and two of his friends are pursuing an idea that invoves designing a new symbol language for plotting brain function based on both brain physiology as we know it and some concepts from psychology. It's part of 'neural sceince' which appears to be a very new field of research because, 1) there are 'schools https://wiltschko.org/bill/billsblog/2004/06/news.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave W.)0