Evansville is located in the southwest corner near Kentucky and Illinois. It’s the third-largest city in Indiana.
To give an indication of how significant an accomplishment being the third-largest city in Indiana is, nobody in Evansville knows which city in Indiana is the second-largest city.
I coulda used to tell you what the second largest city in IN is, but not only did it change a couple years ago, here in Eville, we have realized that as small as our “third largest city” is….it doesn’t really matter which city is number two.
what about the (allegedly) haunted Willard Library? Thats something else the “city” has going for it… I’m from Florida but my dad’s family is from E-ville and I used to visit every summer. Truthfully this is the first i’ve ever heard it called a “city” and it kinda makes me chuckle a bit. then again it’s been like 6 years since i’ve been so who knows it may have grown.
We’ve actually got two universities and a technical school. But yeah there’s nothing here despite our “city” status. For some perspective, at UE during orientation they asked us “who here is from a big city” and “who here is from a small town” and the only people that didn’t raise their hands to either question were all the locals. Think one giant suburb. Actually, we do have the Fall Festival, 2nd largest street festival in the nation (behind Mardi Gras) last I checked.
I went out gerrymandering and found a couple of newts, some A. opacum, some Eurycea guttolineata, and a few Desmogs.
R
You’d be surprised how often people misuse words, especially less common words, like “polyglot.” It’d be funny if it weren’t so obvious that its a product of our education system failing…
MeHael
I still haven’t forgotten being corrected when I expressed interest in the entymology of a word. Fortunately I was corrected without mockery.
Makkabee
Silly person! *Everyone* that etymology is the study of word origins. Entymology is the study of ents.
[here endeth the silliness]
Blob Marley
Entymology – it’s a growing field of study. And it’s growing vvvvvvveeeeeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy ssssslllllllllooooooooowwwwwwwwlllllllyyyyyyyyyyy
lawzlo
You find a Gerry, and then you mander him.
wandering meme
You got it all wrong! See, first, you find Jerry Seinfeld, then you walk him around all the unimportant parts of town in a roundabout aimless way…
I bet even gun toting bible thumping bigots like slutty webcam whores, albeit in a surreptitious way…
Blob Marley
Hey, voting is anonymous. Clearly, it was some OTHER bible-thumping bigot who voted Yes to Proposition: More Slutty Webcam Whores.
Although really I should be objecting to the use of “slutty” and “whore,” because we’ve only seen Roz sleep with one person, and no monetary exchange was involved. More like a Naked Internet Political Activist with Interactive Naughty Bits. Or something.
Never mind, too much effort to type. Slutty webcam whores!!!
I always loved how the U.S. government draws districts, it makes no sense. Well, except all those politicans that re-draw them to keep their party in power. I guess it does make sense then.
Fair to one person might be that just about everybody in one district agrees with them while to another it means that every party has a fighting chance. The first means that laws are more likely to agree with you. The second means that a politician has to appease a wider variety of people.
insomniac
When they can get away with it, though, it’s pretty much the opposite of fair. Try and split up areas that oppose their party across several districts, so their opponents’ voters can’t get a majority in any one district. The idea isn’t ‘fair,’ it’s keeping the opposition out of the legislature.
Fair is based on perspective. If a republican lives in a largely republican district(such as near the borders), it’s fair to him that those who govern his area are republican. But if most of his neighbors are democrats and the district is redrawn so that his part of the area is now in a more even or even dominated by democrats, it’s no longer fair to him because he was shifted to another district that is opposed to his way of thinking. However, if the area was shifted to be more even, the democrats see it as fair because they have a possibility to sway opinion.
Not that it matters unless elections are coming up or they have money to “donate.”
I get your argument, it just only makes sense from the politicians point of view.
Mkvenner
Fair is a perspective only until your head is cut off.
Even then, it’s still dependent on which side of the axe your on.
Makkabee
@ Insomniac: that only works if you’re confident of state-wide majorities, or when your goal isn’t to eliminate opposition seats in general but to ensure the defeat of specific opposition incumbents.
Concentrating as much of the opposition as you can into a few “ghetto districts” while turning a bunch of formerly competetive districts around them into safe districts for your party is often a more effective technique.
For instance, in Virginia the Republican legislature shifted heavily democratic precincts in Norfolk and Portsmouth from the 2nd and 4th Congressional districts to the already strongly Democratic 3rd, which, like the original gerrymander, is a long, thin, twisty district (the 3rd covers parts of cities and counties from Norfolk in the east to Richmond in the West, about 90 miles long and only a couple wide). The 3rd is a Democratic safe district, but the districts around it are ALL safely Republican now. Giving the other side one safe seat and getting three or more yourself (the “more” depends on how safely Republican some of the the other neighboring districts were before the gerrymandering) is a good deal, politically.
Mkvenner
So fixed fights are fair?
fogel
DC horror says fixed = fair to the fixer. DC horror also says that war is peace & hate is love.
Actually the US government proper, the federal level, doesn’t do any districting. That’s up to the state legislatures, which get to draw their own districts and those of the state’s House Representatives, for the benefit of whichever party has a majority after the census. Or at any time, due to innovation by the Texas GOP. Though Iowa and recently California have non-partisan commissions to do this instead.
Congress might have the authority to draw its own districts, as it specified that the House would be elected from single-member districts by law, but AFAIK it’s never tried.
Ah, to be stuck in the early 1800s. Smells like flawed democracy!
“Flawed democracy” = Federal Republic = NOT democracy. Heck, the US doesn’t even hold elections, fair or otherwise. President is elected by the Electoral College, which is elected state by state on the principle of disproportional representation. Likewise the Senate. House is elected district by gerrymandered district. President can and has been elected more than twice with fewer votes for his Delegates than for is opponent’s. Senate and House are both controlled currently by the Party whose candidates received fewer votes, overall. AND we have a major movement to effectivel disenfranchise voters added to the grand american princiole of making it more difficult to vote. Whether or not the state-level & district-level elections are democratic, the US is not a democracy.
But notice carefully- suck up to the voters only during voting season… otherwise, fuck the voters and do whatever the lobbyists want. Hell, half the time take the money, lie consistently to everyone and then get busted for either drugs, drinking, rape or shitty driving…
Or go for the gold and see Russia from your back porch!
Somehow, I see Robin having a map of the state with her little district outlined, and all the surrounding areas scribbled out and written over in speedily crafted letters reading “People I don’t have to care about.”
That’s actually pretty common in campaign offices (minus the text that says “People I don’t have to care about.”) There are always several large, detailed maps that show the exact geography of the district.
Oh, and there are many constituent offices where if you go to the office of a neighboring district, even if that office is much closer to you than your district’s office, the staff won’t even talk to you. It’s very sad.
194 thoughts on “District”
Jacob
Oh, Evansville.
Wait. What’s Evansville?
awa64
Evansville is located in the southwest corner near Kentucky and Illinois. It’s the third-largest city in Indiana.
To give an indication of how significant an accomplishment being the third-largest city in Indiana is, nobody in Evansville knows which city in Indiana is the second-largest city.
meanderling
A small city outside Chicago, home to some stuff and Northwestern U.
Scaradango
No, that’s Evans*ton*. Evansville’s a city in Indiana, pretty close to Louisville.
Sarah
If by pretty close you mean a good three hours, then yeah. Well, it’s probably 2 due to the time change.
Croaxleigh
Evansville’s around Owensboro, isn’t it? Or am I thinking of the wrong Ville?
Alex C
Owensboro is east and across the Ohio River from Evansville.
johannhowitzer
Good lord, people, Google maps!
awa64 is correct, it’s in the “toe” of Indiana’s boot, closer to Paducah than Louisville.
Scaradango
When you live in a cornfield in southern Indiana (as I do), two hours to a larger city is pretty durn close. 😛
Sarah
Corydon is only slightly larger than a cornfield. So I understand. 🙂
Izzy
I coulda used to tell you what the second largest city in IN is, but not only did it change a couple years ago, here in Eville, we have realized that as small as our “third largest city” is….it doesn’t really matter which city is number two.
Henry
I think it’s South Bend. Don’t quote me on that, though.
carl320
Ft Wayne is the second. South Bend is fourth.
Bicycle Bill
And Bloomington is currently #6.
Andy
It’s got a decent college (University of Evansville) and about nothing else to recommend it. This is from first-hand experience.
DeWeese07
what about the (allegedly) haunted Willard Library? Thats something else the “city” has going for it… I’m from Florida but my dad’s family is from E-ville and I used to visit every summer. Truthfully this is the first i’ve ever heard it called a “city” and it kinda makes me chuckle a bit. then again it’s been like 6 years since i’ve been so who knows it may have grown.
Strife
We’ve actually got two universities and a technical school. But yeah there’s nothing here despite our “city” status. For some perspective, at UE during orientation they asked us “who here is from a big city” and “who here is from a small town” and the only people that didn’t raise their hands to either question were all the locals. Think one giant suburb. Actually, we do have the Fall Festival, 2nd largest street festival in the nation (behind Mardi Gras) last I checked.
Mkvenner
Damn gerrymandering.
addude
Wow that the first time I’ve heard that term used correctly on internet comments. Congrats!
Jacob
Well, how else would someone use jerrymandering?
OneTwentySix
I went out gerrymandering and found a couple of newts, some A. opacum, some Eurycea guttolineata, and a few Desmogs.
R
You’d be surprised how often people misuse words, especially less common words, like “polyglot.” It’d be funny if it weren’t so obvious that its a product of our education system failing…
MeHael
I still haven’t forgotten being corrected when I expressed interest in the entymology of a word. Fortunately I was corrected without mockery.
Makkabee
Silly person! *Everyone* that etymology is the study of word origins. Entymology is the study of ents.
[here endeth the silliness]
Blob Marley
Entymology – it’s a growing field of study. And it’s growing vvvvvvveeeeeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy ssssslllllllllooooooooowwwwwwwwlllllllyyyyyyyyyyy
lawzlo
You find a Gerry, and then you mander him.
wandering meme
You got it all wrong! See, first, you find Jerry Seinfeld, then you walk him around all the unimportant parts of town in a roundabout aimless way…
Oh wait. That’s Jerry-meandering.
Roborat
Is that something like Joeing someone?
wandering meme
Vote Desanto!
Or she’ll gerrymander you till you do!
Zaratustra
I wouldn’t gerrymander her even if she asked me to.
joeyo
If you want to talk about gerrymandering, THIS is my congressional district: http://api.ning.com/files/Apx093rhBK1rLYze-6nxjkBH5c-QX2YmO7242Cgc6dLvjDX7RcY6VwBDnvVvHxXtupQBWNUabmvkfbObsiTRuYrny9lRa85c/NorthCarolinas12thcongressionaldistrict.gif
joeyo
That’s actually an improvement over what it looked like before 2010, the old line extended another 50 miles all the way to Durham.
Jen Aside
“Am I offended? …eh, too much work.”
Jamal K.
“Offend me once, shame on you. Offend me twice…. eh, screw it. Sticks n stones….”
wandering meme
Vote Desanto!
She can change the blackened hearts of hell bound sluts to please you hicks!
Plasma Mongoose
Vote Desanto!
For more slutty sister webcam whores!
wingsofwrath
That could actually work.
I bet even gun toting bible thumping bigots like slutty webcam whores, albeit in a surreptitious way…
Blob Marley
Hey, voting is anonymous. Clearly, it was some OTHER bible-thumping bigot who voted Yes to Proposition: More Slutty Webcam Whores.
Although really I should be objecting to the use of “slutty” and “whore,” because we’ve only seen Roz sleep with one person, and no monetary exchange was involved. More like a Naked Internet Political Activist with Interactive Naughty Bits. Or something.
Never mind, too much effort to type. Slutty webcam whores!!!
Deuecebag
I always loved how the U.S. government draws districts, it makes no sense. Well, except all those politicans that re-draw them to keep their party in power. I guess it does make sense then.
dchorror
It’s supposed to make it fair, it’s just that no one agrees what fair is.
Mkvenner
Actually its to maintain a majority of seats in the legistlature. Fair never really entered into it at all.
dchorror
“No one agrees what fair is.”
Fair to one person might be that just about everybody in one district agrees with them while to another it means that every party has a fighting chance. The first means that laws are more likely to agree with you. The second means that a politician has to appease a wider variety of people.
insomniac
When they can get away with it, though, it’s pretty much the opposite of fair. Try and split up areas that oppose their party across several districts, so their opponents’ voters can’t get a majority in any one district. The idea isn’t ‘fair,’ it’s keeping the opposition out of the legislature.
dchorror
Fair is based on perspective. If a republican lives in a largely republican district(such as near the borders), it’s fair to him that those who govern his area are republican. But if most of his neighbors are democrats and the district is redrawn so that his part of the area is now in a more even or even dominated by democrats, it’s no longer fair to him because he was shifted to another district that is opposed to his way of thinking. However, if the area was shifted to be more even, the democrats see it as fair because they have a possibility to sway opinion.
Not that it matters unless elections are coming up or they have money to “donate.”
I get your argument, it just only makes sense from the politicians point of view.
Mkvenner
Fair is a perspective only until your head is cut off.
dchorror
Even then, it’s still dependent on which side of the axe your on.
Makkabee
@ Insomniac: that only works if you’re confident of state-wide majorities, or when your goal isn’t to eliminate opposition seats in general but to ensure the defeat of specific opposition incumbents.
Concentrating as much of the opposition as you can into a few “ghetto districts” while turning a bunch of formerly competetive districts around them into safe districts for your party is often a more effective technique.
For instance, in Virginia the Republican legislature shifted heavily democratic precincts in Norfolk and Portsmouth from the 2nd and 4th Congressional districts to the already strongly Democratic 3rd, which, like the original gerrymander, is a long, thin, twisty district (the 3rd covers parts of cities and counties from Norfolk in the east to Richmond in the West, about 90 miles long and only a couple wide). The 3rd is a Democratic safe district, but the districts around it are ALL safely Republican now. Giving the other side one safe seat and getting three or more yourself (the “more” depends on how safely Republican some of the the other neighboring districts were before the gerrymandering) is a good deal, politically.
Mkvenner
So fixed fights are fair?
fogel
DC horror says fixed = fair to the fixer. DC horror also says that war is peace & hate is love.
Bishop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering
drs
Actually the US government proper, the federal level, doesn’t do any districting. That’s up to the state legislatures, which get to draw their own districts and those of the state’s House Representatives, for the benefit of whichever party has a majority after the census. Or at any time, due to innovation by the Texas GOP. Though Iowa and recently California have non-partisan commissions to do this instead.
Congress might have the authority to draw its own districts, as it specified that the House would be elected from single-member districts by law, but AFAIK it’s never tried.
Ah, to be stuck in the early 1800s. Smells like flawed democracy!
fogel
“Flawed democracy” = Federal Republic = NOT democracy. Heck, the US doesn’t even hold elections, fair or otherwise. President is elected by the Electoral College, which is elected state by state on the principle of disproportional representation. Likewise the Senate. House is elected district by gerrymandered district. President can and has been elected more than twice with fewer votes for his Delegates than for is opponent’s. Senate and House are both controlled currently by the Party whose candidates received fewer votes, overall. AND we have a major movement to effectivel disenfranchise voters added to the grand american princiole of making it more difficult to vote. Whether or not the state-level & district-level elections are democratic, the US is not a democracy.
Plasma Mongoose
Sucking up to your voters is important, even if they might be trailer-trash.
wandering meme
Vote Desanto!
because her whole family values sucking!
Magnus369
But notice carefully- suck up to the voters only during voting season… otherwise, fuck the voters and do whatever the lobbyists want. Hell, half the time take the money, lie consistently to everyone and then get busted for either drugs, drinking, rape or shitty driving…
Or go for the gold and see Russia from your back porch!
ilvos01
It’s worthwhile to be able to accurately draw your district.
Daeva
Somehow, I see Robin having a map of the state with her little district outlined, and all the surrounding areas scribbled out and written over in speedily crafted letters reading “People I don’t have to care about.”
Stephen
That’s actually pretty common in campaign offices (minus the text that says “People I don’t have to care about.”) There are always several large, detailed maps that show the exact geography of the district.
Oh, and there are many constituent offices where if you go to the office of a neighboring district, even if that office is much closer to you than your district’s office, the staff won’t even talk to you. It’s very sad.
NCP19
Am I the only one who felt like Walky was breaking the fourth wall and addressing us directly?
milk experiment
Is it just me, or does Leslie seem to be developing a little crush in panel one?
buttsbutts mcgee
She might just be intimidated by Robin’s authority
Jacob
Her “authority,” if you know what I mean.
Bickendan
Leslie as your gravitar makes it perfect.
Jacob
I live to please.
ryan
…robin.
calendarman27
with your penis…wait…
DeWeese07
for a nickel
Kernanator
Her “assthority”.
iSaidCandleja-
Leslie was thinking something totally different Robin asked to “borrow some chalk” until she remember this is a classroom.
A. Colunga
I read Robin’s lines with a Sal voice in my head just now. =/ ?
Undrave
Where’d you get a Sal voice in the first place?!
Rikushadow5