Chosing to believe that government is inherently evil and cannot fix anything, would have led to the US doing nothing in the S&L scandals of the 1980'... I guess that's where the whole "specific, minimal government intervention" thing that you completely ignored comes into play. Given that the Founding Fathers talked about government assistance in the cases of illegal force, fraud, and monopolies, for example, could it be that they were a little more on the ball than you give them credit for? Why do you think they created the Electoral College? It was BECAUSE they actually didn't trust the judgment of the 'common man'. And of course, the 'common man' meant: white, Anglo-Saxon male landowners. Women and minorities need not apply, thanks. First and foremost, the College forces candidates to spread their attention to a much larger area than if they just pandered to large population centers. Additionally, during any given cycle, it is possible that low population areas would end up being "battleground states" and receive more attention than they EVER would if it were strict popular vote. Second, the College does a much better job at keeping fraud from affecting the outcome of an election. The only time this whole Electoral College / Direct Popular vote come into question is when the vote is close. As such, even minor changes in the popular vote could send a different candidate to the White House. Let's assume that Illinois, home to the phrase "Vote early, vote often", submitted thousands of fraudulent votes. Under the College, they've diluted the vote of just those in their state. However, under a popular vote they've diluted the votes of everyone in the country. Third, it comes to our favorite election subject, recounts. The Electoral College isolates recounts to those states where the outcome is in question. Take a scenario where in each state the popular vote was split 60/40 for one candidate or the other. Not a single state has its outcome in question. However, the national popular vote is within a few hundred thousand - a statistical tie. Each state would have to do a recount because even the smallest change across a few states could affect the outcome. You end up with a situation that is 50 times worse than the Minnesota Senate race, which, by the way, is STILL not resolved. Of course, you still need to account for the fact that the Federal government has no jurisdiction to force a state to do a recount. Finally, about half our states have laws to prevent or punish faithless electors. I guess those states didn't get the message about not trusting the judgment of the common man. The past may be a more comfortable place - especially if you're going to pick and choose which parts of it you like - but we can't and shouldn't try to live in it. Who said that the past was all hugs and puppies? Not I. If anything, we should learn from the past, lest we be forced to repeat their mistakes.

IMO the shaded chandelier will date itself very quickly. Although I too am drawn to the look of the shaded chandelier I wouldn't buy one unless I could, at some point, remove the shade. But from a looks perspective alone, I like the chandelier very much, and I also like a living room look in the bathroom so I think the chandy would work well from that perspective.

I'm glad to hear that the LED lights are working for you. It sounds like you have a much bigger space than we do, with only 2 more lights. I think this was perhaps our biggest mistake -- just too many of these lights. (As I mentioned, I was worried that LEDs wouldn't put out enough light). Maybe if we had only installed 4 of them, the amount of light would be ok. To reduce the number to 4 at this point would require completely re-placing the lights and rewiring. I wonder also if the increased number of lights in our smaller space is amplifying the effect of the flickering? i.e. maybe it wouldn't be noticeable if the lights were further apart? The housing and dimmer switch we have are both on the compatible list on the Cree website. All 7 of the lights are connected to the same dimmer switch. So I'm not sure what the problem is. When they are on at full power, they don't buzz or flicker. We had friends over yesterday and at full power they thought the lights looked great. (It wasn't too bright for them). Then I dimmed them and they didn't think the buzzing was too bad. They also didn't really notice much flickering. But then I started waving my arms around and they were shocked. The strobe effect when the lights were dimmed made my kitchen seem like a disco! Cbjmidwood, when you dim your lights and wave your arms around, is there any strobing?

I know how difficult the question of fixtures can be. There are so many options with ceiling fixtures for over the sink: mini-pendant, semi-flush, recessed, rail or track, etc. Depending on how far your sink light fixture will be from the island, you might consider task lighting that is very different from you island lights. Does your sink back a wall or windows? I might not get another glass globe fixture, but rather look for something in a metal finish that goes with your appliances or cabinet hardware and the overall style of your kitchen. Small enough that it doesn't compete with your beautiful glass lights.