Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2010 December 17

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December 17

Terrorist attack on Washington

What would happen if there was a terrorist attack on Washington (maybe an atomic bomb) which killed everyone in the federal government? --75.28.52.27 (talk) 00:00, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

It's worth noting that there are many people "in the federal government" who aren't physically located in Washington. In the context of U.S. civics, "government" is a pretty vague term, usually used to refer to the state in general. You should probably clarify whose annihilation is being postulated. Do you mean only elected officials, or everyone employed by the federal state apparatus? You'd need one hell of a bomb to wipe out every last mailman and park ranger. LANTZY^TALK 00:15, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

My thought exactly. If the question were narrower, i.e. if everyone in the Presidential line of succession were killed, that would be a bit of a dilemma, although there may be laws covering that possibility also. But realistic fears of that very scenario presumably fed the need for Cheney to be at a remote undisclosed location frequently. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:18, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Actually, come to think of it, it's simpler than that. Let's suppose that something happened to every representative and senator, every federal judge, and the president and his entire cabinet. Assuming no one else was affected, the individual states' governors could make appointments to fill all those house and senate positions. Now you've got a Congress. The next step would be to determine the Speaker of the House and the President Pro-Tempore of the Senate, who are like the third and fourth in line for the presidency, as I recall. Now you've got a President, who could immediately appoint a Vice-President, a cabinet, and then fill the judiciary with appointments. This might take a little time, but in the interim, martial law would presumably kick in. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:24, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Please check on the accuracy of the statement that Governors could immediately appoint new Senators and Representatives. You are wrong. Don't many states require special elections, which might involve primary elections, taking many months? How soon could a quorum be present, in the Senate and House? A new Speaker of the House or President Pro Tem of the Senate could become President, whichever got determined first by one of the bodies of Congress. Edison (talk) 05:26, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Martial law? Why? Most of the lower-level government (ie. the part responsible for day-to-day operations) is still intact, and can carry on through sheer inertia. --Carnildo (talk) 03:13, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

When a rep dies, there is a special election for their replacement. Until that election, their seat is vacant. When a senator dies, the governor makes a temporary replacement until a special election fills the seat for the remainder of the term. Until that special election, the seat is only vacant until the governor has appointed a temp. Googlemeister (talk) 14:48, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

For further details, see the section just a little ways up the page. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:31, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Worth noting that it would certainly be less disruptive than if the same sort of erasure happened to a dictatorship, or a dictatorship clad in democratic costume, as many African governments tend to do. Highly-concentrated power creates a much more intense void than diffuse power does, and the American government is really rather diffuse. The Masked Booby (talk) 01:42, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

An excellent observation. When a dictatorial cult figure dies, you have major chaos. In the U.S., you have a small amount of chaos, but also a built-in set of processes to take care of things. The Presidency is not a kingship, it's merely a job. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:46, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

As Theodore Roosevelt put it - "The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants". Exxolon (talk) 01:58, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Of course practically speaking it is hard to imagine the US not actually enacting some kind of emergency (dictatorial) police powers in such an event. --Mr.98 (talk) 03:33, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Contrariwise, it's hard to imagine anything being "enacted" if no legislature existed. Anyway, we aren't supposed to be imagining or speculating on things here. We're supposed to be providing references. As Schuyler did below. --Anonymous, 17:15, December 17, 2010.

Here's a reference to Tommy Franks saying he didn't think our Constitutional system would survive such an attack. --Sean 17:21, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Continuity of Operations Plan may be of interest. schyler (talk) 02:45, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Also, "United States presidential line of succession" and "Designated survivor". Gabbe (talk) 08:12, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Isn't the US a federation? I'm sure that each state specific governors should be capable to deal locally with the crisis until they follow whatever procedure is arranged to appoint a new national government. And in the meantime, the confederated provinces may elect some specific province to manage the international relations in the name of all of them. MBelgrano (talk) 12:34, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Not exactly. No member of the federation would have any standing to represent the whole Federation. Individual states have no foreign relations, that is all handled on the federal level. That's why there is the "designated survivor" provision; there is never a time when all members of the Line of Succession are in the same place at the same time. There is always somebody who is a legal Successor to the Presidency who is somewhere secure, just so that, in the event of anything like this happening, there is still a clear, legally designated President who has the power to make decisions and represent the country internationally. Any of the smaller tasks the federal government handles are done in a diffuse manner; the working parts of many Cabinet departments are often not even in Washington DC. --Jayron32 15:01, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Denver Federal CenterDenver Federal Center is located in Lakewood, Colorado and is the home to about 6,200 employees for many Federal government of the United States agencies. The Denver Federal Center encompasses an area of about 670 acres (2.7 km2) and has 90 buildings comprising over 4,000,000 square feet (400,000 m2) of office, warehouse, lab and special use space. There are 26 different Federal agencies on-site, making it the largest concentration of Federal agencies outside of Washington, D.C..206.130.174.43 (talk) 20:37, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I think Washington is safe from a devastating terrorist attack, as even the terrorists must realize that eliminating all the politicians and starting over would only improve things. :-) StuRat (talk) 23:50, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Date for Japanese painting

Are there any distinguishing features on this Japanese painting which point to when it was made? --Ghostexorcist (talk) 03:25, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Well, it's a Nishiki-e woodblock print. And here's [1] another print by the same artist(with a similar stabby theme), which is dated 1886. 81.131.20.102 (talk) 05:08, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

What is the artist's name? The one I looked up Akira Higashi and he turned out to be a modern Ski jumper. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 05:17, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

It's by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. 81.131.20.102 (talk) 05:20, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I just know noticed you added the name in your original post. I should probably learn how to read. Thank you for the input. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 05:22, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

It's not a painting, but a wood block printing. According to this page, it's one of 42 prints in a series called 新撰東錦絵/shinsen higashi nisikie and created in 1885 and 1886. Oda Mari (talk) 05:28, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

(e/c) I should probably break my compulsive habit of sneaking in more information through edits. Anyway, I think the name of the series is "New Selection of Eastern Brocade Pictures", ("Brocade pictures" being the same as "Nishiki-e") because that's what I googled (新撰東錦絵) to find the other print. 81.131.20.102 (talk) 05:34, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

MY CAPTION:

"Well, isn't this perfect, you never paid any attention to me, before, and now I can't even hold your interest while you stab me to death". StuRat (talk) 05:44, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

That is a hoot, StuRat! This is a fascinating image. The guy holding the knife has stereotypically Caucasian features. I wonder if it reflects Japanese feelings during the 1880s toward the treacherous and threatening Western barbarians. Marco polo (talk) 16:54, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

The reason I asked about the woodblock print is because it reminded me of this. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 17:38, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

The man's name is 大仁坊/Daijinbō and the woman's name is 梅ヶ枝/Umegaeda. It's a scene of an old story which is widley known through a kabuki play called 昔語黄鳥墳（むかしがたりうぐいすづか）/Mukashi gatari uguisuzuka. It's a fairy tale type romance. Daijinbo is a lover of Umegaeda's step mother and he killed Umegaeda because she refused him and she knew him and her step mother were lovers. But Umegaeda was revived, instead her pet nightingale died. Here is the G-translated story. See "Ancient tomb...". The play was created from an old story of Uguisuzuka in Kita-ku, Osaka. Oda Mari (talk) 05:32, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

How can I share my Christmas wish with the whole world?

Greetings, I have a Christmas wish that I want to share with the whole world. The details are on a blog and I do not want to be a "spammer" ... how can I share this wish effectively with the whole world? (link removed by — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite) Setyourhope (talk) 19:47, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Put it on a banner. Tow that banner behind an airplane. Crash that airplane in some prominent place. —Tamfang (talk) 21:21, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Some would contend that the above method is worse then being a spammer. Googlemeister (talk) 21:36, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

It's a nice wish. Separate it from your mystical beliefs and culture, and just live it yourself in everything you do. Remember that many in the world do not share your religion, and will accept your message better if it's not packaged that way. Language provides a similar problem. HiLo48 (talk) 21:45, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Well, by posting here you seem to be halfway to your goal. Unfortunately it still makes you a spammer, but I don't think you can avoid that if you want to "share with the whole world". --Saddhiyama (talk) 22:30, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Spam is defined as unsolicited commercial messages. I don't see how the wish is commercial. Ginger Conspiracy (talk) 12:25, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Because you have a definition different from many/most other people? Spam (electronic) uses a different definition which doesn't restrict spam to commercial spam and in fact includes a section Spam (electronic)#Noncommercial forms and mentions Serdar Argic. (If you don't believe many people don't follow your definition, try spamming your own wish to a bunch of message boards and see how long you last or how effective your argument that it isn't spam because it isn't commercial is.) Nil Einne (talk) 17:09, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

How will you enforce your wish? Even, for example, just in "corporate culture" (see eg. Executive compensation)? It won't work. If you could think up a good way to implement Peace on Earth, and could package it in a catchy way, you could post it on the internet as you have your present wish in its present form, from where it might go viral on those merits without further effort on your part. WikiDao ☯ (talk) 19:21, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Get an artist to include your message on an atttractive design on a postcard and give the postcards away for free, or some other free gift (eg flower seeds). Be like the Naked Cowboy with the message bodypainted on your skin, and encourage other people to do the same in other countries. Here's a slogan for you: "Naked for peace". Hire sky-writers to write the message in the sky. Pay a farmer to 'write' the message in a large field. Do some amusing and/or spicey 'viral' video with your message that people like. Do something so extraordinary (but harmless) that it gets on tv news. Fly aropund the world in a blimp with that message on the sides. Depends how much money you are able to spend. I think you've got to think about how your wish could be implemented. Just wishing wont achieve what you want. 92.15.1.13 (talk) 19:44, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

One of the best ways to get the whole message over would be to re-write it as a song or even a hymn, and perform it yourself or get others to perform it. 92.15.13.152 (talk) 11:01, 20 December 2010 (UTC)