Summer fun
Texans are having a lot of fun with congressional districts, as their legislature redraws the map to produce more Republican seats. Democratic-leaning states, including New York, Illinois and California, indicate they may do the same thing. They want to get in on the fun.
We infer that the temptation to give one’s party an edge in an evenly-divided country is so great that out-of-season redistricting seems to be a good thing (to them!).
This is nothing new. The practice has a name, gerrymandering. And it has a history dating back more than 200 years, when Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts in 1812, approved a partisan district. Critics suggested it had the shape of a salamander, and a new word was coined.
According to Wikipedia, “gerrymandering is almost always considered a corruption of the democratic process.” But hey, if you can get by with it, why not give it a try? Fair play is for the dogs.
Summer heat
What the heck? The Environmental Protection Agency these day...