Encountering Resistance

Seasons come and go.  Just as I am finishing my electronics class at the local tech school it seems that the political season is getting warmed up.  The former runs for a semester.  The latter has become continuous.

In Electronics I learned quite a bit about resistors.  I had not known that there were different kinds, each with their own symbol.  Perhaps this will carry over to the political arena.  In each case if you overload the system you get plenty of heat and smoke.

Let's start with a photo resistor.  

Symbol:  

Example:

Fixed resistors are the most common ones used in electronics.  And while rare, they do exist in the world of politics also.

For many years, and through assorted Presidencies there has been a small group in our town who get together every Saturday morning to protest U.S. foreign policy and militarism. I have stopped by and sipped coffee with them once or twice.  In a past career I've worked with several of these folks, and they're good people.  While respectful they don't cut either party any slack. This of course gets them very little press so I can't find a picture to show you.  You'll have to settle for this image of a more strident outfit who manage to be obnoxious to whoever is in power.  I guess that's something.

If I recited the mnemonic for resistor color codes in their hearing I suspect everyone but the formidable lady on the far right would keel over in a swoon.

Alas, most of what passes for protest these days is instead just a variety of activism.  Whether it is deficit spending, or overseas military involvement, or well most anything, our current political climate encourages people to vigorously condemn actions when done by their opponents even when they extol the virtues of the same actions when done by their own party.  Of course there's an electronics symbol for that too...