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."

     Back in 1965, I saw in an ad on a Manhattan subway train:

     "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 complement 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.clearing.org/cgi/archive.cgi?/homer/cp2.script

     The second rule I live by is Homer's Law:

     "When law makers 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."

     The government's motto is: "Peace and Security through
Silence and Compliance."

     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 yourself
and your good friends out?

     It's amazing how many people fall for this governmental
'protection' racket 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 is a lower concentration of 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 criminals from the rulers,
privacy protects those who are 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, at the point of a
gun, BY criminals, demanding taxes to pay for the guns used by the
criminals of state to protect the public.

     And I thought slavery was illegal.

     Might as well pay for the privilege of digging your own grave.

     And Lord shiver me timbers should the populace have any guns
to point back at the police who have come to take your wealth
at the end of your life to divide it up amongst the 'needy', namely
themselves.

     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?

     Anyhow the point of guns is not to fight it out with the police or
take out the government, the point of guns is when there IS government
or police due to catestrophic economic or physical disaster.

     And did you know that it isn't the policeman's job to protect
you from crime in the streets?  It's his job to bring the criminal
to justice after the crime is committed.

     So if the cop isn't going to protect you from crime, who is?

     Ask the Harris family.  Robbed, raped and burnt to the ground in
Ithaca maybe 20 years ago, they might have appreciated a gun or two at
the time.

     We know that whereever there are guns where will be stupid
collateral damage, accidents involving children, friends, even cops.
 
     During times of peace and tranquility this collateral damage can
seem to be a ravage upon society.
 
     But when and if the time to have a gun arises, the collateral
damage falls beneath the noise floor of the cries to have a gun and be
properly armed.

     So 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 50 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 wasted millions but found it too hard to
merge Anthrax, Plague, Polio and Small Pox into a single killer organism
that would float properly in the wind, have no antidote, and turn the
infected against their own kind, the ultimate zombie bug.

     The government bean counters, keeping watch over our well being,
said screw that, let the mercenary mosquito carry the genomicide
instead, mosquitos work for cheap.

     So for every million we spend on wiping out malaria, we spend 20
million to wipe out humanity.

     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
morning 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.

     Then there are the meds.

     Oh my god did you know the powers that be want EVERYONE on some med
or another before 2050?

     It used to be good nutrition they wanted, eat something from the 4
food groups every day.

     Now its take our meds for good mental nutrition.  One for our
pain, one for our anger, one for our fear, one for our sorrow, and
one for our apathy and one for our attitude.

     Meds are GOOOOOOOOOOD for you.

     Watch out for the guys who want to classify 'distrust of the
government' as a socially dangerous psychiatric disorder.

     And to classify those who are not enthusiastic about dying
in foreign wars as sociopaths.

     Did you know there is a new med they are working on that alleviates
the intolerable worry caused by chronic ethical conflict and cognitive
dissonance?

     You know, a person can't decide what is right or wrong and it is
driving him nuts?

     Well this new med apparently allows the person to feel good again
around an AUTHORITY FIGURE that will make the decision for him, right or
wrong.  He feels so good that SOMEONE has solved the conflict that he
ceases to care about whether it is right or wrong!

     Scientists have no idea how it works, but its called Milgram HCL.

     The single most dangerous issue facing our planet today, aside from
the asteroids, the diseases, the atomic waste, the pollution, Las
Palmas, that mountain in the pacific that is about to split in half
causing an 1800 foot tidal wave, global warming followed by global
freezing, 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.

     Religious insanity is defined as "Who or what is cause
around here, and why is it such an asshole!"

     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 so also that religion can't mess around with the state.

     Having a state and its military at your disposal is only for mature
grown ups, 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
the best bet there is for long term increase in equity.

     If you are going to be around to collect on it.

     Better yet, start a war between two groups and sell arms
to both sides.

     How that for a Get Rich Quick Scheme?

     Every technological civilization goes through this test, and we
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 for a WHILE, only until
the bigots give it up.

     God is merciful, even though bigots may not be.

     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 in the year 2106, and that pesky
mountain in the pacific about to split in half...

     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 your 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 an
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?

     Here is a list of the issues, (in no particular order):

     Vote counting confidence
     Economy
     Climate
     Freedom of Speech
     Anonymity and Encryption
     Supreme Court nominees
     Employers and Employees
     Minimum Wage, minimum standard of living.
     Population control, license/training to breed.
     Resource Based Economy, abolishment of money.
     Privatization of prisons, armies and police forces.
     Privatization of water and air.
     Martial Arts training in schools instead of 'ball' games.
     Gun Control/Training
     Pro life, Pro choice
     Universal medical insurance
     Universal Housing, Education, and Food
     Universal Draft and Military Service
     War, conventional, chemical, biological, nuclear, genomic
     Weapons of mass destruction.
     Space exploration, colonization and mining.
     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
     Anonymity and Encryption
     National security, secrecy, spying and privacy
     Credit Markets
     Communism, FAscism, Capitalism or Mixed Socialism
     International relations, China, Russia, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran
     Israel
     Atomic, 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 or adoption.
     Taxation/Wealth redistribution
     Child's Bill of Rights
     Special needs children
     Equal Duties, Equal Rights
     Women and the military
     Stock market oversight
     America's role in the world
     United Nations
     Genetic research and warfare
     Balanced Budget
     Terrorism of the government against the people
     NSA surveillence of everyone.
     Free Trade Agreements
     Kyoto treaty
     Per capita carbon emissions
     Hybrid, electric, hydrogen cars
     Carbon or Nuclear power
     Fusion power
     Control and freedom of the internet
     Equal work, equal pay
     Planned Parenthood and abortions
     Sale of body parts or incubated babies.
     Instutionalized bigotry.

     Who you gonna call if you make the wrong decision.

     Homer

------------------------------------------------------------------------
HomerWilson 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
MonNov  3 21:45:17 EST 2008