Mock up of a possible Apple iPhone
Friday, November 24th, 2006Real? Almost certainly not. Cool? Well, yeah.
Real? Almost certainly not. Cool? Well, yeah.
The US is, as far as I know, the only industrialized country that still uses a bill for its BUC (Basic Unit of Currency). In Europe the Euro is a coin, as is the £1 coin in the UK and the CA$1 coin in Canada, and so on around the world. The US prints $1 bills at an astonishing rate, since the average lifespan of a dollar bill is about 14 months. In contrast, the average lifespand of a coin is 10-20 years.
The $1 coins in the US have been resounding failures because not enough have been printed. The Sacagawea dollar was very popular with people, but it never had a prayer as long as there were 100 times as many $1 bills around.
So, my idea is this, design 2 new coins, a $1 and a $2 coin. For every $1 coin the mint manages to make, the Bureau of Engraving has to not print four $1 bills. For every $2 coin, they have to not print eight bills. After 5 years, require the BoE to stop printing $1 bills completely.
Now, to ensure that the $2 coin is popular, I say we put someone on it that a huge section of the population admires and who has not previosuly been honored. So that leaves out any presdient because they’re all either already on coins/bills or are by and large vile and reprehensible people. So, my idea is to put Rev Dr Martin Luther King on the $2 coin.
OK, the Dems won resounding victories taking control of the US House and the Senate. The margins of victory in the Montana and Virginia Senate races were razor thin, but everyone has called the elections for the Democratic challengers. I have to say, I think MoveOn.org’s Call for Change campaign made a huge difference, making over 7,00,000 calls to voters in most of the close races.
Hopefully now we will start seeing some congressional oversight, investigations, and a real examination of the myriad problems with the electronic voting systems in this country.
Nearly as important, the dissatisfaction with the Republicans (or, as I like to call them, the fascist-torture-loving-assholes) extended to the gubernatorial races as well, and 28 of the 50 Governors are non-Republican.
YouTube of John Stewart
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