At the time I first saw this article, I'd not heard of the Justice Party. Sally wondered if it was yet another stalking horse for the evil white supremacists. Then I found out that they have also collected about 181 signatures in California, not much of the way towards the 98,000ish they need to get a ballot line here. More recently Gerry said that Rocky Anderson is trying to get on the Presidential Ballot, and the Justice Party is his chosen vehicle. Mississippi is the first because all a Party has to do to get on the ballot there is "be organized", whatever that means. I'm still wondering why the former Mayor of Salt Lake City is running for President as a third party candidate. Do they know something in Utah that we don't?

These two books fascinate me in their differences and similarities and what that says about us. Kurt Vonnegut (Mark's father) was forced onto the global stage by his writing. Growing up behind the scenes on that, Mark's ideas of reality weren't quite what works for adults now, as he found out in the course of the book. John Harter was a bit younger than Kurt Vonnegut, but still the same generation. He negotiated on behalf of the US Govt. on commodity issues, and the kids eye view of that was where I opened my eyes. I'm younger than Mark by quite a bit, but still our generations are very similar. Obscure as the Eden Express is, it's a wildly successful book compared to Pieces of History, which is very obscure.

I remember two States having elections where the question was "should we recall the Governor?" In California Gray Davis got replaced with Arnold Schwarzenegger. In Wisconsin nothing changed. That Wisconsin election happened the same day California had our primary this year.

On vacation I went to the Green Party Convention in Baltimore, MD. Turns out that hurrying out the door on my way eastbound I forgot my reading glasses. That made reading on the outbound leg difficult. After I left Baltimore I stopped at my brother's house. Brandy's mother heard me complaining about my eyes and gave me this pair of reading glasses. I made good use of them on the way home, absorbing a large percentage of Jared Diamond's Collapse. I'm going to have reading glasses with me most of the time from now on.

That coin is the first Chickasaw quarter I've seen. I got it in my change at the farmers market about twelve hours after I got home.

Katie told me the stories behind each of these coins as she gave them to me. The 50 ore Sverige is the Swedish fifty cent piece. It once had a cash value of about seven cents. She had accidentally brought it home with her from her trip there a decade ago or something like that. She'd taken it back to spend this trip, but when she tried the shop keeper told her "these aren't legal tender anymore." She gave me the other Swedish coin so I could have a legal Swedish change experience with my "illegal" one. The Espana coin was a Euro she got in Germany. The Danish coin is worth a bicycle at the public bicycle racks. You put the coin in the vending machine and it releases the bicycle. You return the bicycle to any public rack in Copenhagen and it gives you the coin. Anybody with one of these in Copenhagen has all the access to bicycling capability they need.

This was the first 2012 coin I found in my change, midway through October when my sample ballot was fresh. I still think it's funny that I had no choice but to vote for a Democrat for State Senator. Good thing one of the choices was Sally Lieber!

Gordon only had to gather 50 signatures, I'm not sure why he found it hard. San Francisco occasionally elects somebody with write in votes, but it's VERY UNUSUAL. Gordon didn't win. I see stories like this one and Gary Johnson, this years Libertarian Party Presidential candidate as signs that maybe the Republican Party is starting to figure out that maybe the walls around their "ivory tower" are just a little bit too good at keeping others out. For sure the Libertarians took a step up by having a former State Governor as their Candidate.