Dear Lightlinkers, It is that time of the eon again when we need to vote our leaders into power. There is an old joke that goes "How come the Persians invented the zero?" "So we could better describe the collective intelligence of our world leaders." Seen in an ad on a Manhattan subway train back in 1965: "If the President can find the time to help the mentally retarded, what are you doing that is so important?" Scribbled underneath in magic marker, "Getting them out of Congress." Just as I did four years ago, I am writing you all now because I am having a very hard time determining who to vote for, and I would love some feedback from our very intelligent crowd as to who they are voting for and why. Our customer base is split pretty much 50/50 from far right to far left. Just about anything I would say is way too right for half our subscribers and way too left for the rest. Thus I tend to keep my mouth shut on these matters lest we lose our entire customer base over night. Now look, last time I asked who to vote for and why, I got back quite a few answers to the effect "Homer! How could you be so stupid as to not know who to vote for, it's a no brainer!" But then they didn't tell me who they were voting for or why. One friend commented that if these elections are such no brainers, its probably because the voter is a no brainer. I tend to be libertarian. I am not an anarchist because I know very well the basic purpose of government which is to professionally deal with the issues of the mint, criminal justice, public health, and defense, amongst others. In otherwords the markets and the public good. Also to run the fundamental monopolies properly and spend our tax dollars wisely. We hire the government like we hire any other professional, to do a job better done by trained full time experts than done by the masses. The basic division in politics follows the basic division between employer and employee. The right wing is looking out for the employer who is smart enough to create the jobs in the first place. And the left is looking out for the employee without whom the employer would be a waste of time. This is a basic tension in our society. There is also a fundamental problem in that we are all spiritual beings, and as such we are all prone to both good and evil. Thus there will be good and evil amongst the ruled and the rulers, the governed and the governers. There are two laws that I live by, the first is a mangling of Kant's Imperative: "Don't do anything that would be disasterous if everyone did it." This has obvious exceptions, just because it would be disasterous if everyone became a milkman, doesn't mean I shouldn't become one myself. On the other hand if everyone is becoming a milkman, perhaps I might consider some other trade to compliment the milkman lest we all go out of business drowning in milk. More to the point it doesn't take everyone littering the park to know that I shouldn't litter even if I am the only one presently tempted to do so. A more serious application is the recent request by the New York Attorney General to remove various google newsgroups from our servers named after child pornography. You can view a more detailed write up on the matter here: http://www.lightlink.com/kant/cp2.script The second rule I live by is Homer's Law: "When lawmakers outlaw criminals, criminals become law makers." This second one means that a criminal on the street is inherently in more danger of being caught than one who is in a position of power such as say a Police Chief or Senator. Thus criminals tend to bubble up into positions of power to the degree they feel the heat on the street. Or maybe we should just say that Darwinian selection wipes out those criminals on the street more easily and favors those in protected positions of power. Thus criminality concentrates in position of power. Thus those people that are elected into positions of power to protect the good people from the bad, eventually become infiltrated with criminals who protect the bad from the good. Thus too much power given to the government leads inevitably and inexorably to a criminal police state. It is a common practice for politicians to try to enhance the 'safety of the public' by limiting the freedoms of action and communication of the public. Thus basic rights of anonymity and privacy are forfeited for the "security of the nation" or "the sake of the children." Politicians consider such forfeiture collateral damage in their war against, well you name it... Some times you have to wonder if they are stupid or evil. Taken to its logical limits, one might conclude that the only way to be safe is to be in prison. Better hope your prison guards are not criminals. If such a prison gets aborning, do you have the key to let youself and your good cronies out? It's amazing how many people fall for this governmental 'protection' due to absolute trust in the intentions and wisdom of political authorities, particularly one's they voted for. Privacy is an example in point, the government says only criminals have something to hide, so let us read your e-mail to see if you are a child porner or terrorist! While we are at it, let us put a cop or all seeing eye in every room and in every computer. For $20/month Time Warner could put a camera in every room, and you could rest easy that no child was being molested in your house! Hurry for the package deal. But this assumes that in those in the government are all good, and wouldn't ever abuse all the other information they would also have access to. Do you really want the government to know who you are going to vote for BEFORE you vote? Do you really want the government to know who you voted for AFTER you voted? Do you really want the government to know what you think of the government while it is in power? Do you really think there are fewer criminals in government than in the general population? Perhaps there is a higher percentage of criminals in the general population, but the ones in government are way more powerful, entrenched and DANGEROUS. The thug on the street can rob one person at a time, a thug in the government can rob millions with a pen stroke. Thus privacy does not protect the ruled criminal from the rulers, privacy protects the ruled from the criminal rulers. So yes Goober, there is something worse than child porn, and that is the police state that aborns, when everyone wants the government to have total power, total sight, in order to be protected from criminals. The desire to be protected leads to being owned. Eventually the public finds itself protected BY criminals at the point of a gun demanding taxes to pay for the guns used by the criminals of state to protect them. And I thought slavery was illegal. Might as well pay for the privilege of digging your own grave. And remember the military thinks that every positive change that has ever happened to anyone on Earth anywhere, resulted from a military victory by use of FORCE against FORCE. If pride is a sin, then what can we say of militaristic pride? As for guns, do you really think that the world would be a better place if ONLY the government and its assigns had weapons of any kind? Do you believe the government is 'in loco parentis' to yourself and the rest of the population? Do you feel that your elected officials have the same sense of ethics and love for you that your parents did? Have we hired, in the government, professional surrogate parents to raise us as children? Do you believe that people are cows on the government's cow farm? Who owns you? Who owns your DNA? Who owns your genetic code? Y'all worry about chemical, biological and nuclear warfare. Do you have a clue what genetic warfare is about? Forget genetic warfare for a moment, do you know that in 10 to 20 years they will be able to stop aging, even reverse it to an ideal body age? Science fiction? Nope, fact. Don't know what to tell you, I guess some people fear the after life. Are you ready for a social striation based on mortal/immortal bodies? Are you ready for a licence to breed? Ok, back to genetic warfare. $30 of hypothetical agent HXV-45CN dumped in ponds, and carried by mosquitos, will cause your childen to come out sterile in 3 generations. You *KNOW* they are working on it don't you? And these agents can be tuned towards any particular species or sub species because they react with the elements of that species' genetic makeup that are specific to that species alone. The agents are called genomicides, because like a herbicide, they kill genomes. If they can make a genomicide that can wipe out a worm in a cat without touching the cat at all, you can bet they can make one that will wipe out the digestive e-coli in your intestines. Who you gonna call then? But there is no need to wipe out humans, just wipe out corn or wheat, or cows. The boys in the back sheds found it too hard to merge Anthrax, Plague, Polio and Small Pox into a single killer organism that would float properly in the wind and have no antidote. The government bean counters, keeping watch over our well being, said screw that, let the mercenary mosquito carry a genomicide instead, mosquitos work for cheap. The cost to destroy the planet, either literally or economically has dropped precipitously over the years. $25 of Anthrax can cause entire nations to convulse with the dry pukes. Russia used to use radioactive Cesium-137 to sterilize their wheat during the winter so it wouldn't rot from fungus. Over the years they stopped doing this leaving THOUSANDS of containers of Cesium-137 around the country side in rotting sheds where the land isn't even farmed any more. Many canisters are buried under wind blown dust and dirt. This stuff is so radioactive it will keep you warm in the winter if you sleep close to it. You won't live long enough to report in the next day though. Most of these canisters are now missing, having been collected by only God knows who. You can't build an atom bomb out of it, but you can build a dirty bomb that would shut down New York for *YEARS*. Half life? 30 years. The single most dangerous issue facing our planet today, aside from the asteroids, the diseases, the atomic waste, the pollution, that mountain in the pacific that is about to split in half causing an 1800 foot tidal wave, global warming, the magnetic field of the Earth disappearing in 500 years replacing the aurora borealis with the glow of burning humans, is plain old down to earth human insanity, particularly religious insanity. There is nothing more insane than a religious fanatic who thinks everyone is going to hell forever but him, and nothing more dangerous than a religious fanatic with the power of the military and state behind him to make sure you do. Although many haven't noticed, this is WHY we keep religion and state separate, so that not only can't the state mess around with the religion, but also so that the religion can't mess around with the state. Having a state and its military at your disposal is only for mature grownups, particularly an atomic endowed military. Human insanity is beyond the understanding of human beings on this planet at this time. Anyone who pretends to know how it comes about and what exactly to do about it, is whistling past his own grave yard, and probably yours too. They should be taken out quickly by any laws allowing, and certainly not elected into a position of power. Earth is presently in a stage of evolution where it CAN destroy itself very easily. Given that the cost of total anihilation is coming down to the cost of a dinner, and that every nut case that walks is walking towards the little red button to bring it about, the probabilities that Earth will not survive this stage are very good. Forget the stock market, right now short selling Earth is probably about the best bet there is for long term increase in equity. If you are going to be around to collect on it. Every technological civilization goes through this test, haven't heard from too many aliens recently have we? We may survive all this, and evolve into a world community that can handle the physical disasters with out wasting time or energy trying to wipe each other out in a race for God's favor. Bigotry is the belief that some people are irredeemably morally inferior to the rest of us. If there is a hell, I assure you it is filled with the bigots, not the allegedly irredeemable. And even then only until the bigots give it up. God is merciful, even though bigots are not. But except for luck, surviving this global test will take more wisdom than had by any man alive at this time. Even if, God forbid, we all made friends with each other, there is still that asteroid with our name on it, and that pesky mountain in the pacific... Who we vote for then goes way beyond their sex, color of skin, taxes, or whatever other shorted sighted worries we have at this time, Most of the candidate's rhetoric is an effort to avoid the real issues which they don't want to be embarrased by. "Mr. President, what are you plans to..." "You know I haven't a clue what to do about that...uh pardon me I suddenly have to take a crap real bad..." Who ever you vote for will neither be a Messiah, nor anti-Messiah. But they may lay the way for the right people to come along who can figure all this out if given half a chance. Who then are you going to vote for? OK, so the issues are difficult here, (in no particular order): Vote counting confidence Supreme Court nominees Gun Control/Training Pro life, Pro choice Universal medical insurance War, Draft Economy Citizenship/Aliens/Borders War on Drugs, forfeiture Decriminalization of Marijuana Oil free economy in 10 years. Hey we got to the moon in 10 years. War on crime Free Speech/Privacy issues National Security Credit Markets Communism, Capitalism or Mixed Socialism International relations, China, Russia, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran Israel Atomic Power, Wind and Solar Power Child leave for pregnant women Safe Tyranny vs Dangerous Free Society Obscenity Laws Child abuse Religion and State Education Pandemic diseases General preparedness National Service Space exploration Funding for the sciences and pure research Gay and Lesbian marriage Taxation/Wealth redistribution Child's Bill of Rights Special needs children Equal Duties, Equal Rights Stock market oversight. America's role in the world United Nations Genetic research Balanced Budget Free Trade Agreements Kyoto treaty Per capita carbon emissions Hybrid, electric, hydrogen cars Control of the internet Who you gonna call? Homer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Homer Wilson Smith The Paths of Lovers Art Matrix - Lightlink (607) 277-0959 KC2ITF Cross Internet Access, Ithaca NY homer@lightlink.com In the Line of Duty http://www.lightlink.com Mon Nov 3 21:45:17 EST 2008