Happy As Kings

Dear editor: going back where we came from

In reply to:  God bless America

The belief that America is a certain kind of country, and has been up until recent times, is dear to the hearts of many people.  A recent writer expressed the desire that the people trying to change the United States into a "socialist country" should go back to where they came from, as if no "Americans" would hold non-conservative views.

An interesting series of red/blue color-coded maps, using information from presidential elections from 1920 to the present to show political trends, demonstrates the error in the belief that the US has always been more conservative than liberal.  Between 1928 and 1948, and from roughly 1960 to 1964, the country was entirely blue, coast to coast and top to bottom.  All other times it was a mix. At no time, concerning the election of presidents, was the country completely red.

The animated map can be viewed at: Isarithmic History of the Two-Party Vote

Involuntary tweeting

I have two email addresses with two Twitter accounts attached to them.  The trouble with this is that I have never registered with Twitter.

The first Twitter account appeared about a year and a half ago.  My main email address received a notice that a Twitter account had been established for a name I didn't recognize, other than it being a recognizable first name and last name.  I made a futile attempt to cancel the Twitter account, but from what I found, once a Twitter account is established, it can't be disestablished.  This may be incorrect but, after an hour or so of searching using both the Twitter site and Google, I was unable to find cancellation information.  I can't tell if this was because there is no information to find, or if I didn't hit on the right combination of search terms to disclose the secret.

Since I could not zap the Twitter account into nothingness, I changed the Twitter password, and when I last checked, Twitter suspended the account, whether from disuse or from something else about which I know nothing.  The downside for me is that if I ever wish to have a Twitter account with the information about followers and such going to my main email address, I can't do it because the email address is now tied to the bogus Twitter account.

Now shift to an alternate email address, one that I have not used in a while.  I opened up this alternate address the other day.  Lo and behold, what to my wondering eyes, and would ya believe it, I had another Twitter account.  What are the odds? This account even had 175 (now 176) followers!  All without having tweeted a word.

Since I'd been twice-gifted with Twitter accounts, I thought that perhaps the cybergods were trying to maybe, like, send me a message?  "You Need To Tweet!"   This time I decided to play along.  I changed the Twitter account password, of course, and have "tweeted" three times:  once about what happened (involuntarily joining the Twitterati), once about being irritated by it (what good's an account if you can't vent?), and once with a homeschooling URL (may as well make it relevant). Who knows, maybe someday I'll want a Twitter account of my very own, and not one that has been thrust upon me.  I could use this second involuntary account for practice.  This morning, though, when I tried to log in (still playing along), my password didn't work -- three times my password didn't work, and since I'd copied & pasted it, it wasn't as if I'd mistyped.  Had someone hacked my hack?  The nerve!

I'm still in the dark about the reason for registering an account to an email address that you can't access -- and yes, I did change the email address's password, and no, it isn't the same as the password for any other address I have, and yes, I've re-changed the Twitter account password, and no, it isn't "password."  My writing talent may be limited, but I have a flair for inventing passwords, or I used to.  This Twitter episode may mean I will be humbled concerning my talent for password production.

I'll be keeping an eye on the Twitter account, and if you want to follow along to see whether it gets hacked again - if that is what happened - I believe you can do it by finding "@MilitaryHomesch" on Twitter.