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Hiram Foster

Crystal, MN
Commenter for
5 years 27 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 01/16/13 at 03:49 pm in response to NRA video: Obama thinks his kids deserve protection, not yours

The fact these politicians and media figures in Washington who send their kids to what my NRA friends describe as schools which are in effect armed enclaves is in no way relevant to the rest of us, who do not have the means to arrange round the clock protection for our children.

Posted on 01/16/13 at 04:06 pm in response to Pitches to extend sales tax to online purchases and clothing aired

The fact that the sales tax is not applied to many internet transactions has always been one of my pet peeves. It always seemed to me that such a policy has it exactly wrong. It discriminates against local corporate citizens, companies that are present and invested in our community, that provide wonderful places for us to shop and work. Such policies benefit companies that make it a point not to be present in our community, who never in any way make the contribution to our local well being...

Posted on 01/15/13 at 01:59 pm in response to Electronic pull-tab revenue is nowhere near projections

Isn't it good news that gambling is lagging behind expectations? And the question I have here, is why would anyone choose a method of gambling that benefits a private, profit making company, as opposed to a charity?

Posted on 01/15/13 at 09:53 am in response to MN Orchestra cancels another week; 'Prairie Home' to throw masked ball

I think we may be reaching the moment where we have to think about whether the current Minnesota Orchestra model is viable and worth saving. It might be time to start fresh with a new orchestra and a new orchestra structure, one not bound by the no longer viable assumptions of the past and one capable of responding more flexibly, and one would hope, more flexibly, to the challenges of the future.

Posted on 01/16/13 at 01:24 pm in response to MN Orchestra cancels another week; 'Prairie Home' to throw masked ball

My own thought is that maybe the Orchestra needs to get away from this downtown institutionalized model that doesn't seem to be working anywhere in the country. If we have learned anything in this conflict, we have learned that it's the people who matter, not the institutions and not the buildings. We lost track of that over the years.

Posted on 01/17/13 at 05:44 pm in response to MN Orchestra cancels another week; 'Prairie Home' to throw masked ball

what exactly are these "no longer viable assumptions of the past" and exactly what kind of "flexibility to the challenges of the future" are you talking about?

It's hard to say. I think in this internet age, the whole notion of music as performed in enormously expensive downtown buildings before audiences of the elderly just may not be viable anymore. It's a model that has never worked well, and now as evidenced by the fact that both of our local orchestras are being locked out by...

Posted on 01/09/13 at 12:51 pm in response to Do members of Congress work hard?

They work incredibly hard often to no effect. Quite honestly, I don't know why anyone would want the job.

Posted on 01/09/13 at 02:11 pm in response to Do members of Congress work hard?

Sure, it's a miserable life. A friend of mine ran for Congress a while back and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why. Their lives become nothing more than fund raising and plane trips. And you have to be in Congress about thirty years before anyone pays attention at all.

Posted on 01/07/13 at 09:36 am in response to Ranked choice voting is achievable and effective

This is really a procedural response to a substantive problem which may or may not exist. The assumption underlying ranked voting is that voters rank their voting preferences. If they do, a ranked voting process could reflect that internal thought process. But I doubt if very many voters do that. I certainly don't, For me, most elections represent a clear choice. I favor one candidate, and all the others are an afterthought. An insistence that I rank them represents a fundamental distortion...

Posted on 01/07/13 at 10:46 am in response to Ranked choice voting is achievable and effective

Another sign of our increasingly troubled electoral system is the rise in plurality winners, electoral winners who garner less than 50 percent of the total votes cast.

If plurality winners are a problem, manufacturing a system designed to artificially produce majoritarian results doesn't solve it.

"RCV also helps mitigate excessive partisanship; to win a single-seat RCV election, a candidate must win a majority – not just most – of the votes."

By mitigating partisanship...