Notebook / Archives / "politics"

On Peter Saint-Andre's one small voice.

A Program:
Electioneering, or the lack thereof.

I doubt I will vote this year (or, perhaps, ever again). I am beginning to see that seeking change through politics is simply the wrong way to go about remaking the world. Besides, my views are so far outside the mainstream -- or so unlikely to be brought into being through the political process -- that it is pointless to vote. If someone supported the following positions I might be tempted to vote:

* No more foreign adventures. Period. (Note from JPL: 50% agreement)
* Give the schools to the teachers (Note from JPL: 50% agreement, but nevertheless, interesting thoughts)
* Give the courts to the judges. (Note from JPL: 50% agreement)
* Replace fiat money with gold. (Note from JPL: 0% agreement)
* Replace standing armies with local militias. (Note from JPL: 50% agreement)
* Abolish the federal government. (Note from JPL: 0% agreement)

And that's just for starters. :-)

Freedom After Speech:
A day in the life of the USA.

The constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics included the same protections as the constitution of the United States of America (that's plural, thank you very much). The only difference: the Soviet constitution was the political equivalent of toilet paper. There used to be a joke about the Former Soviet Union that they had freedom of speech, too -- they just didn't have freedom after speech. The scary thing is that we're approaching that state in America now. Here is proof positive. Read it and weep for America and what it once stood for, because those days are long gone and we are all part of the system now (Note from JPL: I did not understand all). United Soviets of America?

On Peter Saint-Andre's weblog (one small voice: Aristocrats All):

I wanted Howard Dean to write on a blog. He will do it: “Howard Dean is going to guest blog for Lawrence Lessig while he is away on vacation” (on "Joi Ito's Web": Howard Dean is Larry's guest blogger).
Can you imagine: the american wired candidate writing on the blog of the cyberlaws' pope!!

Howard Dean seems to be what we can call a “wired candidate”.

On "Russell Beattie Notebook": Howard Dean.

“Movable Type - the choice of presidents”... Hum... I am waiting for those candidats to really WRITE on their weblogs...
As a delightful comment on Kasia's weblog said it: “I wonder when AL Gore is going to get one... considering the fact that he invented blogs/blogging.” (joke). Wait and see!
But for the moment it looks uneasy to see that in France...

(On "kasia in a nutshell": “The first presidential candidate with a weblog”.)

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

(On "Raw Blog": “Happy July 5th”.)

From Kuro5hin: “French Influence to be Removed from American English”:

WASHINGTON, DC, April 3 - In the wake of French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's scathing comments condemning the United States' attack on Iraq, the House today unanimously passed a bill which would undo centuries of French influence on English and officially revert the spoken and written language used within the United States to English in its pre-French form. "Renaming foodstuffs like `Freedom Fries' and `Liberty Toast' is definitely a step in the right direction, but my colleagues and I decided that it just doesn't go far enough. We must purge all French influence from our great language," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) at an afternoon press conference. "Us is riht micel ðæt we rodera weard."

As a reader said, the word “liberty” came from French...