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Gosling's Big Book O' Political Advice- (HOPEFULLY) FINAL DRAFT
Gosling
Looking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered User regular
Looking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered User regular
By popular request, knowing pretty much intuitively that there's no way in hell I'm going to be able to stick this in an existing thread and then ever hope to get the thread back on topic.
UPDATED OP:
If you've been following the political threads, you may have seen me quote from 'Gosling's Big Book O' Political Advice' at some point. Or several points. At the urging of several formers, I've been working for some months on turning the concept into a book.
The entries have been divided into chapters, in the following order:
States
Presidency
Downballot (defined as any non-Presidential office)
Legislating
Debate
Domestic Issues
Foreign Issues
Campaigning
Gaffes
Career-Killers
Ethics
Partisanship
Volunteering and Job-Seeking
Voters
Media
Misc. (anything that didn't fit anywhere else)
Philosophy (entries I figured would best be used to close the book out)
The intro's not my strong suit, but it serves the purpose. The aim in the ordering of entries was to create as much of a flow as possible; a single train of thought. (The train inevitably derails a bit when it comes time to deal with the leftover entries in each chapter that didn't really fit anywhere in the flow. I stuck them in the middle of each chapter where I figured they disrupt flow the least.)
That all established, this is the document.
It will be up for a little bit while we work out trying to get a publisher in line. Ask for access and I'll grant it. If you have notes on an entry, feel free to say so, but do not copy/paste the entire entry. Post the number only, then leave your comments. (If you had previously been given access, you'll have to request it again.)
UPDATED OP:
If you've been following the political threads, you may have seen me quote from 'Gosling's Big Book O' Political Advice' at some point. Or several points. At the urging of several formers, I've been working for some months on turning the concept into a book.
The entries have been divided into chapters, in the following order:
States
Presidency
Downballot (defined as any non-Presidential office)
Legislating
Debate
Domestic Issues
Foreign Issues
Campaigning
Gaffes
Career-Killers
Ethics
Partisanship
Volunteering and Job-Seeking
Voters
Media
Misc. (anything that didn't fit anywhere else)
Philosophy (entries I figured would best be used to close the book out)
The intro's not my strong suit, but it serves the purpose. The aim in the ordering of entries was to create as much of a flow as possible; a single train of thought. (The train inevitably derails a bit when it comes time to deal with the leftover entries in each chapter that didn't really fit anywhere in the flow. I stuck them in the middle of each chapter where I figured they disrupt flow the least.)
That all established, this is the document.
It will be up for a little bit while we work out trying to get a publisher in line. Ask for access and I'll grant it. If you have notes on an entry, feel free to say so, but do not copy/paste the entire entry. Post the number only, then leave your comments. (If you had previously been given access, you'll have to request it again.)
I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
Gosling on
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Posts
You're a failure.
...how do I fix that?
Check the box next to the doc and hit the "share" button?
"share" is with specific email addresses/users.
EDIT: Hang on, found it. Try it now.
I would buy this book.
Twice.
Because there is also a chance that they will also call Homeland Security to track you down and drag you back (see: 2003 redistricting).
The Presidential inauguration will cost a buttload of money. You will catch hell for it regardless of how efficiently or inefficiently you spend the money, or where the money actually comes from. Nobody cares a week after it happens and nobody will care again until the next inauguration.
People bitched about the inauguration and Barbara Boxer made a stink about how she was going to investigate how people with tickets got turned away and all that. Haven't heard much about it since. It was one hell of a party though.
to this:
as it makes more sense that way.
but that might just be my work...
"Montana really doesn't like government getting involved. That's why the gun nuts move to shacks here, there wasn't an open container law until 2005, and banning smoking in restaurants and bars was a multiyear fiasco. Woe be to the politician that forgets this."
EDIT: I did credit Godwin. I even labeled it 'Godwin's Law'.
Also, we need one for Sessions' other silliness.
Something like: Never claim you don't know a corrupt public figure when there are photos of the two of you together.
- You need a lot more to make this a book, unless it's one of those cheesy little books with one sentence per page. I read half of what you have in 30 minutes. Books people can complete in an hour tend not to go far.
- The writing is inconsistent - sometimes it's more folksy, sometimes more formal. If you do actually plan to do something with this, pick a tone and stick with it. Me, I like the dry wit established in the more formal tone, but that's just one dude.
- Depending on your goals, you may want to cull some of the more partisan stuff (swipes at Bush, the law on global warming, etc). Mocking certain universally-agreed-to-be-ridiculous people or events is cool, and there are plenty of folks of all political persuasions that you can mock. But if you want to steer clear of being a "Big Book of Political Advice For Liberal People", you'll want to watch this. And I say this as one who agrees with most of your swipes.
- Some of your rules require a paragraph of explanation before they make sense. This isn't bad in itself, but it makes the list somewhat inconsistent. One tack would be to cull any points that require hefty explanation before they even begin to make sense. The other would be to devote a paragraph of explanation to each item. Personally, I'd prefer the former, but it's not my baby.
I still think this is definitely something I could read and enjoy. Getting any publisher to take you seriously will be an uphill climb, but with the right book and the right sales pitch, who knows?
Edit: I also agree with eljeffe, but I say you can trash whoever you want as long as you trash Dems and repubs equally. (or liberals/conservatives if you will)
2nd edit: actually maybe have a 1line rule at the top of each page and then the person or people who violated said rule and smell of failure as a result. I also like dry wit.
Beware it being stolen, I imagine it working it's way to Kos or similar and you not getting any credit.
To make it a book, my suggestion would be to have some explanation or examples for most of the rules (spend no more than a page on any given rule). The rules should still make some sense without an explanation, though.
To do this for all 500+ rules would be ridiculous, but having that many would allow for a lot of flexibility (Either pages of rules without explanation and/or culling some).
EDIT: AngelHedgie, see #480 in Domestic Issues.
I think the ones with an explanation are a good model. Establish the rule in a short sentence that's as dry as possible, then use a paragraph or two to explain the origin of the rule and whatever else you can think of.
Though really what this should be is a blog. Post two or three a day, build a readership, and then use that as leverage to get published in book form.
Also, may I suggest a personal pet peeve of mine:
(Broder's Law) Oftentimes, a columnist based in New York or Washington will make a statement about "what Americans think." This is always a code for "what I think" and usually directly contradicts polling information. They don't care.
The thing, Gos, is that the two are pretty much joined at the liver like a set of conjoined twins. Besides, I think the fact that it took us till 2005 to actually pass an open container law to be very hilarious, in a dead baby comedy sort of way.
I still think you should mention something like, "Note: First proposed by Mike Godwin in 1990" just to be fair.
Pretty much every major battle of the American Revolution was fought in the European style. The Americans were not a scrappy little band of guerrilla fighters no matter how much that image got romanticized later.
They were perpetually under equipped, clothed, fed and armed but they still fought by the general standards of 18th century European warfare and almost universally gave better than they got against the best trained and equipped army in the world.
I'd definitely say try to go more Devil's Dictionary with it, but so far :^:
You do need to come up with a better/more biting title, though. This is less like Safire's Political Dictionary and more Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy.