In Boston, we do Tea Parties right

Although I can agree with some of the concerns about high taxes and such that spawned the "tea party" movement, I find the members of that movement frequently uncivil and rather hate-filled, often ill-informed, and generally sheeple. This bothers me, but how to counter their often nasty, angry style?

Well, suggests one Boston group, fight incivility with a pleasant time on the Boston Common...having a *real* tea party.

The group has laid out its principles on this Facebook page, detailing what makes a really good tea party. The last one is the most important:

-Inoffensiveness. This, I suspect, may be the most controversial proposal. I think that we should attempt to have the world's mildest, most inoffensive, polite counterprotest ever held. My ideal would be for the press to come up to interview people about their opinions on tax policies and health care, and have responses such as, "Oh, dear, isn't that a rather personal question?" and, "Really, I prefer not to discuss politics over tea. Would you care for a cup?"

Apparently, this group got its start on LiveJournal, even though the actual logistics are being discussed on Facebook.

I'm going to try to get to the Common for a few minutes to join them. :-)

In Boston, we do Tea Parties right

Although I can agree with some of the concerns about high taxes and such that spawned the "tea party" movement, I find the members of that movement frequently uncivil and rather hate-filled, often ill-informed, and generally sheeple. This bothers me, but how to counter their often nasty, angry style?

Well, suggests one Boston group, fight incivility with a pleasant time on the Boston Common...having a *real* tea party.

The group has laid out its principles on this Facebook page, detailing what makes a really good tea party. The last one is the most important:

-Inoffensiveness. This, I suspect, may be the most controversial proposal. I think that we should attempt to have the world's mildest, most inoffensive, polite counterprotest ever held. My ideal would be for the press to come up to interview people about their opinions on tax policies and health care, and have responses such as, "Oh, dear, isn't that a rather personal question?" and, "Really, I prefer not to discuss politics over tea. Would you care for a cup?"

Apparently, this group got its start on LiveJournal, even though the actual logistics are being discussed on Facebook.

I'm going to try to get to the Common for a few minutes to join them. :-)

UK announces bid for London in 2014

Woo hoo. The convention bid chairs are drplokta and my friend Steve Cooper (who may not be on LiveJournal). I suspect they will do a smashing job of things...as they are ably assisted by auntiealice, jamesb, and others. :-)

They have a very pretty bid page. A spiff logo. A great city.

benveniste and I have already used their ecommerce to buy friends-level pre-supporting memberships. If you want to do the same and you are in the US, there's a glitch you should know about. When you change "United Kingdom" to "United States" on the forms, you won't get a list of US states. Just fill in what you can, but deliberately leave an important field (like "surname" - but not country) blank. The system will kick your form back to you, and the states will now be US states. [They've fixed this problem, and let everyone know about it. Fast...good...responsive. I'd say this bodes well!]

Pre-supports are £12...Friends are £60. And they offer a "young person friend" membership for £30 if you were born after 14 August 1988 (to hit the under-25-at-the-con market).

They're also on Facebook, too.

UK announces bid for London in 2014

Woo hoo. The convention bid chairs are drplokta and my friend Steve Cooper (who may not be on LiveJournal). I suspect they will do a smashing job of things...as they are ably assisted by auntiealice, jamesb, and others. :-)

They have a very pretty bid page. A spiff logo. A great city.

benveniste and I have already used their ecommerce to buy friends-level pre-supporting memberships. If you want to do the same and you are in the US, there's a glitch you should know about. When you change "United Kingdom" to "United States" on the forms, you won't get a list of US states. Just fill in what you can, but deliberately leave an important field (like "surname" - but not country) blank. The system will kick your form back to you, and the states will now be US states. [They've fixed this problem, and let everyone know about it. Fast...good...responsive. I'd say this bodes well!]

Pre-supports are £12...Friends are £60. And they offer a "young person friend" membership for £30 if you were born after 14 August 1988 (to hit the under-25-at-the-con market).

They're also on Facebook, too.