Letter to Mr. Bush

I will cross-post this to beetiger's forum for the same, and send it to Mr. Bush, very soon.

Dear Mr. Bush,

I am not actually American. I watched the election process this past week, asked questions of my American friends when something confused me, and generally learned a great deal about your electoral process in the States. I would like to offer a suggestion from Canada that might eliminate some problems in your next general election.

The biggest problem you seem to have is transparency. A significant portion of your people believe the vote was rigged, and the election was therefore invalid. Frankly, at this point, it does not matter if that is true or not. What matters is that it is perceived to be true. An election is exactly as valid as the people believe it is. Democracy in the West suffers when elections are seen to be invalid by their own people. If many Americans believe that, there are even more people overseas who probably believe it, and they will lose faith in democracy as a result. You cannot afford that if you are trying to spread democracy.

I believe the solution lies in an office we have in Canada, that of the Chief Electoral Officer. The person who holds this office is:
1) not known to be a supporter of any political party;
2) not permitted to vote, as that would indicate leanings towards a party;
3) considered to be above reproach and bribes by all the players and the public, insofar as such a thing is possible.

You need a chief electoral officer. You need someone whose job is to see that the election is fair, valid, and transparent from the top down to the very last voter. You need this person to establish standardized voting procedures for federal elections, and to enforce them and undertake any recounts that turn out to be necessary.

You are now in a perfect position to do this. You yourself cannot be elected for a third term, so your personal stake is lower now. It would increase your credibility with your own people. Most importantly, it would begin to build bridges in your sharply divided nation.

I hope you will consider this as a valid suggestion from a concerned neighbour.

Pudding Party

Well, our pudding party is over and it was a resounding success.

Each of the three participants came out of it with three puddings of varying sizes. Note to anyone trying the recipe: one recipe will make three puddings, the smallest of which will feed six or more people on Christmas day. The largest one will feed upwards of ten, with leftovers. Next year, we'll make two recipes for three people and still have enough.

We used cherry brandy, because kirsch was not available at the time. As the puddings began to steam, sassy_fae and I finished off the last half a cup of brandy. It was yummy. I'm telling you, I've never understood before why alcohol holds such a pull for some people, but that stuff convinced me. I'm not going to keep it in the house, but I'm using it again next year - and buying the larger bottle. :) Two tablespoons of it was enough to have me happy. Imagine the effect of two fingers!

The muscatel raisins in the recipe are more commonly called lexia raisins, and can be found in the section of your bulk food store that has other specialty candied fruits for Christmas baking. We used those, as well as Thompson, Sultana, and Golden raisins, a mixed chopped candied fruit instead of peel, a few figs, some dried apricots, some currants, and glacé fruit mix that included pineapple. Also very yummy. The suet was gross. For the sake of the sqeamish among you, I will not go into detail. Suffice it to say that it's a good thing these aren't to be eaten for six more weeks - I will have forgotten what that stuff is like by then. (sassy_fae, we forgot to send it home with you for the ferrets. Shall I freeze it until Friday?)

One of the puddings I steamed was dropped into water that was just slightly too deep for it, and the water splashed over the side of the mold. The result was some discoloration around the edges, and just at the top. It should come out looking uniformly dark and cakey - the spots on this one were a pale beige, and spongy. This has happened to me before, and it's not a big deal. it keeps okay and tastes okay, it just doesn't look as good.

We had to go out to buy the glacé cherries and a few figs when we all got together, compared ingredients, and realized we had none. Then we sent pyat out to get breadcrumbs, when we realized no one had those, either. Through it all nottheterritory, etherlad and pyat played with Elizabeth and the bunny, who are exactly the same age, watched Dora the Explorer and Dr. Who, discussed various and sundry topics of gaming geek interest, and tried to stay out of our way. We did make them all stir the puddings, though.

My windows are all steamed up, the heat is turned way down, and I'm likely to have condensation problems for the next couple of days. But I have two beautiful puddings wrapped in my fridge, the place smells heavenly, and there's one more pudding in the fridge awaiting steaming. anidada took all three of her puddings home to steam them, and [Bad username or site: sassy fae @ livejournal.com] and I did some of ours here. We had a deli-style sandwich lunch and pizza for supper, since the stove was completely tied up with puddings. The little girls played mostly well together, though the bunny's more aggressive personality showed through in the way she liked to take toys right out of Elizabeth's hands. My little darling needs to learn something about doormats and how not to be one, but it'll come. They both showed off their extraordinary intelligence all day long. We're raising good, smart kids.

Merry Lead-up to Christmas!

Oh, and to anyone on my friends list who lives close enough to get here: you're invited to a New Year's Eve celebration here, at which one of the puddings will be the primary dessert (there will be others for those who are grossed out by the thought of suet.) The more-or-less annual Christmas party is becoming a New Year's Party because of the scheduling this year; I go back to work on January 3rd. Please RSVP when possible.

And now, I'm going to bed. Good night!