By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The Montana Secretary of State Office approved the ballot a measure that would mandate the legislature be equally represented by men and women. Presently, women hold 41 of the 150 seats in the state legislature. There are several more processes to surmount before the ballot measure becomes listed on the general election ballot. A signature drive follows and must obtain valid signatures of ten percent of the total voters in Montana and ten percent in each of the forty legislative districts. The signature gathering with the requisite signatures must be collected by June 20th if to be placed upon the ballot.
While certainly laudable in an effort to obtain greater participation of women in the political process, which is still not at parity, the likelihood of this measure, if it becomes law, surviving a constitutional challenge is weak.
On the surface there might be districts having a mandatory gender for a position and voter or other candidates are discriminated against solely based on sex and not qualifications generally requisite with any candidate. It surely can be divisive
Some might argue having a greater percentage of women in any parliament or legislature tends to bring in a better perspective and bring about more balance. When there was the effort in years past to organize and enable a parliament in war torn Afghanistan, many NGOs, local women’s groups, and international stakeholders mandated that women be included. It certainly was a laudable goal, considering the terrible suffrage in that country and subjugation of women there. Perhaps, maybe it might lead to less testosterone fueled extremes and more a voice of reason.
But does such a model have a place in Montana or other states, or is this just a form of reverse suffrage?
What do you think?
Source: Fox News
By Darren Smith
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Porkchop: Formation skydiving takes some gymnastics and could be fun if you can stand heights, in my case,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I would have a heart attack when they shove me out the plane.
She needs that go-cam……….. Go buy one for you. I’m guessing here but I think you probably can afford it. After the ride down the mountain, If it is in one piece, the wife can sell it as you probably won’t be in any shape to use it again. Let me know how it turns out.
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Me:
It was not the low-end edition.:-(
Paul Schulte:
Apparently, it never gets old. 🙂 Actually, I believe the video is used to critique and improve flying technique — she’s involved in formation skydiving.
Porkchop: Well, you are i n a quandary. You might just have to invest in another Go Pro (as I am thinking you probably bought the one for the daughter anyway.) or you can hop in the old pick-um-up truck and do the 600 miles to visit the daughter, pick up the Go Pro Cam as you go out the door to leave for home. Then send the Go Pro back to daughter “snail mail” after your trip down the mountain.. I would guess you have some what of a lead foot so it wouldn’t be too long of a drive as you are probably quite adept at shaving off a few hours when driving on any trip. (Old people usually don’t slow down when driving, just when walking) And the good wife would surely enjoy going to see the daughter and enjoy the scenery on the way. Just a suggestion. Let me know when you finally complete the Lazy boy trip.
Porkchop – my thinking is that they are just under 200 for a low-end one, so tell the daughter she can FedEx it or it will replace her next Xmas present. I believe in tough love. 🙂 Besides how many times can you film yourself falling out of a plane. If you have seen one, you have seen them all. 🙂
Carleton – thanks for the video. There was a program on tv a couple of years ago to the 10 most dangerous landing fields in the world. They had POV of each of the landings. Personally, I would have landed someplace else and taken the bus. 🙂
When you’re 23, snail mail only works one way — Mom sends stuff, daughter 3 receives stuff.
Besides, she needs it on her skydiving helmet.
Porkchop: There is such a thing as snail mail. Maybe she would send it to you.
Paul Schulte —
Sadly, she lives 600 miles away.
Paul Schulte: Be sure to go back and and look at Charlton,’s video. It worth watching. Awesome is not the word. Gravity mountain would be nothing compared to that ride. Check it out.
a single rail ride, no brakes down a mountain in Austria 9 minutes to bottom. You probably would like it. There are a couple of videos, one with brakes (monorail style and the other) Wow.
Charlton:
The word “awesome” is overused these days, but I think it is appropriately applied to that video.