The Shapes Between Us Turn Into Animals
I noticed yesterday that my LiveJournal posts were not showing on my friend's Friends pages, and apparently this had been happening (or, more appropriately, NOT happening) for a few days. I finally traced the problem back to a new version of the Semagic client I downloaded last week. I had an incorrect setting in the client that was causing every new entry to be marked as backdated. Apparently backdated entries do not show on friend's Friends pages.
I was beginning to think I had finally alienated everyone.
A young married couple had just relocated to a distant city where they had no friends or family. The couple soon met some neighbors and were invited to a party at one of the neighbor's homes. The couple saw this as an excellent opportunity to make some desperately desired new friends, but they were faced with the challenge of finding a babysitter for their infant.
After many conversations and telephone calls, the couple only managed to find two babysitting candidates. Being rather conscientious parents, they naturally wanted to interview both candidates before choosing one to watch their child. To their dismay, they found neither candidate suitable. During the interviews, they caught both candidates in numerous lies. Both candidates made unbelievable, grandiose promises to the parents. Upon further investigation, they discovered both candidates had distorted facts about their past activities. They also noted that each candidate was very uncomplimentary of the other candidate, even to the point that each uncovered some rather unsavory past actions by the other.
In the end, the couple made the only rational choice: they declined to attend the party and chose instead to stay home and tend to their child.
Choosing which politician to rule you is like choosing which child molester would be the best babysitter for your kids.
"Think outside the booth," says George F. Smith. Quote: "If voting is the hallmark of a free people, why do we have far less freedom today than at our founding? People who surrender their freedom embrace slavery, whether they call it a New Deal, Fair Deal, Politics of Hope, or an amorphous War on Terrorism. Is slavery the condition you want for your children and grandchildren?"
Any time I discuss my problems with democracy and the whole voting process, the discussion invariably evolves into questioning what other system or systems I think might work better. Winston Churchill said, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." People often try to negate an argument against a system by finding a flaw (or perceived flaw) with every alternative to that system. We inevitably arrive back at the old "lesser evil" argument.
With this in mind, I offer the structure of the Anarchist society. It is a rather broad overview, but it provides the foundation.
I will admit, this is equally scary and edifying. At the very least, it makes me think maybe some of this is worthwhile. Thanks, Jessalyn.
U.S. military presence continues to expand around the world (although President Bush surprisingly announced plans to "realign" that expansion yesterday), yet the current voluntary military is very likely to see its numbers decline in the coming years. According to most sources, the likely solution is to implement forced military conscription, i.e. "the draft." A group of U.S. congressmen, led primarily by Charles Rangel, want the draft reinstated because they contend the current system is unfair to minorities and lower income people -- the group that comprises a majority of our current military forces.
In this article, Butler Shaffer does an excellent job of pointing out the fallacy in the thinking of those who view forced conscription as viable. "All political systems and ideologies have, at their base, an implicit belief that human beings are expendable resources to be exploited on behalf of whatever ambitions those in power might have."
I was beginning to think I had finally alienated everyone.
A young married couple had just relocated to a distant city where they had no friends or family. The couple soon met some neighbors and were invited to a party at one of the neighbor's homes. The couple saw this as an excellent opportunity to make some desperately desired new friends, but they were faced with the challenge of finding a babysitter for their infant.
After many conversations and telephone calls, the couple only managed to find two babysitting candidates. Being rather conscientious parents, they naturally wanted to interview both candidates before choosing one to watch their child. To their dismay, they found neither candidate suitable. During the interviews, they caught both candidates in numerous lies. Both candidates made unbelievable, grandiose promises to the parents. Upon further investigation, they discovered both candidates had distorted facts about their past activities. They also noted that each candidate was very uncomplimentary of the other candidate, even to the point that each uncovered some rather unsavory past actions by the other.
In the end, the couple made the only rational choice: they declined to attend the party and chose instead to stay home and tend to their child.
Choosing which politician to rule you is like choosing which child molester would be the best babysitter for your kids.
"Think outside the booth," says George F. Smith. Quote: "If voting is the hallmark of a free people, why do we have far less freedom today than at our founding? People who surrender their freedom embrace slavery, whether they call it a New Deal, Fair Deal, Politics of Hope, or an amorphous War on Terrorism. Is slavery the condition you want for your children and grandchildren?"
Any time I discuss my problems with democracy and the whole voting process, the discussion invariably evolves into questioning what other system or systems I think might work better. Winston Churchill said, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." People often try to negate an argument against a system by finding a flaw (or perceived flaw) with every alternative to that system. We inevitably arrive back at the old "lesser evil" argument.
With this in mind, I offer the structure of the Anarchist society. It is a rather broad overview, but it provides the foundation.
I will admit, this is equally scary and edifying. At the very least, it makes me think maybe some of this is worthwhile. Thanks, Jessalyn.
U.S. military presence continues to expand around the world (although President Bush surprisingly announced plans to "realign" that expansion yesterday), yet the current voluntary military is very likely to see its numbers decline in the coming years. According to most sources, the likely solution is to implement forced military conscription, i.e. "the draft." A group of U.S. congressmen, led primarily by Charles Rangel, want the draft reinstated because they contend the current system is unfair to minorities and lower income people -- the group that comprises a majority of our current military forces.
In this article, Butler Shaffer does an excellent job of pointing out the fallacy in the thinking of those who view forced conscription as viable. "All political systems and ideologies have, at their base, an implicit belief that human beings are expendable resources to be exploited on behalf of whatever ambitions those in power might have."
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