RashyNullPlanet

Wendy replays L. Neil Smith’s espousal of casting a blank ballot, and adds comments:

I do agree with L.Neil that it is possible to vote defensively by casting a ballot on referendums. Or, rather, it is possible as long as you vote against imposing measure on people by force…that is, by government law.

The last time I set foot in a voting booth, I wrote a notice on the ballot that was something Billy wrote many years ago:

I yield no consent to any government of any kind for any reason.

More cannibals on parade:

The best way to change the system, then, is to stick your fingers in your ear and scream “IM NOT VOTING”

A very mature political system blooming in your utopia, for sure.

My response, in its entirety, because I’ve been following this prolific cannibal for some years now:

It’s amazing the presumptions that can be fit into a single sentence.

When did you stop having intercourse with livestock?

See?

You’re screeching that I’m ignoring reality, when, in fact, you’re the ostrich plowing your head into the sand. What are you afraid of? I’ve been dragging you around here by your eyeballs for some time now, and all you’ve managed to do is be another data point demonstrating that a person can be shown concepts but can’t be made to think.

You’re also assuming that I want to change “the system”. All I want from “the system” is for it to remove the muzzle of its gun from my back and let me go about my life without duress. I don’t care if “the system” continues apace, slowly withers, or inevitably blossoms into an orgy of cannibalism, as long as you and your fellow votistas leave me and my life the hell out of it.

Perhaps the dumbest assumption you’re making is that I aspire to some utopia. I don’t. Humans are fallible. Anything humans do will have flaws, however, when those flaws are instituted as centralized process and “law”, there is no escape. On the other hand, when those flaws are part of decentralized associations, they victimize many fewer people.

I would never presume to make decisions about your life. That’s part of why I don’t vote. I don’t know what’s best for you. Why would you do that to me? You have no way of knowing what’s best for me. Do you have the balls to make me comply with your decisions about my life in person?

Would you dare attempt to make me comply with your preferences for my life, face to face? There is only one answer to that question, and that answer defines you as human or cannibal.

As usual, I expect he’ll go out like a light

Many thanks to Billy, for much of the ammo to use against such creatures.

John Walters, “drug czar”, was in Lansing, Michigan today to instill fear in the ignorant:

Walters said medical marijuana initiatives like the proposal before Michigan voters on Nov. 4 are the first step in “a clear strategy to … legalize drugs,” exploiting marijuana’s reputation as a less risky narcotic than cocaine and heroin

I heard a snippet of Walters speaking on the radio today. What’s missing from the article I linked is Walters’ equating marijuana use with using crack cocaine or meth-amphetamine, and claiming that medical marijuana users are simply trying to get intoxicated on marijuana.

Walters is trying to lump together all drugs to instill fear about a mostly harmless drug. That man is lying. Why trust anything he says?

Ernest Griglen was beaten by police.

Today, Griglen is unconscious and clinging to life with the use of a ventilator after emergency brain surgery…

The theory of six degrees of separation holds that everyone reading this is separated from Ernest by six degrees on average.

The beating of Ernest strikes me close to home, because I’m only two degrees of separation from him.

I’m willing to bet that at this point in human history, my two degrees of separation from a victim of police brutality is about average.

The single stupid premise is creeping closer to us all.

I attempted to upgrade WordPress this evening using the WordPress automatic updater plugin, and three and half hours later, I’m back where I started. The updater trashed my installation, and I had to reinstall from backups I made before I started. It took a while sort it out, and I’m glad I learned that PowWeb.com has such great user tools, but I won’t ever even try to use that plugin again.

Commenter Andrew at Radley’s place, notes, of cops:

They’ve pretty much dropped any pretense of being anything but bullies, thugs and an army of occupation.

Take a long look at that Denver PD commemorative t-shirt. That’s a mark of people who crave bullying, intimidation, control, and wielding arbitrary force. It’s telling that every cop involved in the DNC received one “free”, yet there is demand for 2000 more.

The pretense “to serve and protect” is long dead. The new premise of police conduct is this: their presumptive authority must be respected at all costs.