re: #150 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

I so no real problem with the citizenship rules outlined by Heinlein in Starship Troopers, (and thats ignoring all the crap the movie tried to make out of it)

I would expand those rules beyond military service. If the goal is voting by the responsible ones who cared enough to work for the common good, then that should surely include medical doctors, school teachers, scientists, both defense and prosecuting attorneys etc… who work on public projects. I would even extend it to the people who do x amount of hours helping old people. Many people have many gifts to offer. The point is that they offered and cared.

As a corollary to that, if say an issue comes up with say health care for the elderly, some contingent of the populace will have direct experience with that and actually cast votes with the benefit of knowing the issues, where as the wanks who never helped anyone get to say nothing on the matter. That would force the debate into a much higher plane and yield much closer scrutiny of the government.