RashyNullPlanet

A poster on the local newspaper’s forums is confused about what, exactly, he’s doing when he votes. I tried to set him straight. I have no hope that it will stick.

No one takes anything from you on my behalf.

You voted, didn’t you?

Can you tell me exactly how you have?  Maybe then we can get to the root of your issues.

As of last year’s tax return, governments have taken at least $261,369.97 from me in my life.

My “issue” is people who can’t see past their infatuation with delegated coercion.

Every power pig claiming to represent you, sending bipedal rottweilers to collect from you - and me - is a direct result of your lending an air of legitimacy to their actions by your voting, for them, to act on your behalf. Ayn Rand described this as the sanction of the victim. Unfortunately, your sanction has consequences for me as well because there is no way for me to opt out of the consequences of your vote. Whether you understand it or not, the only reason to vote in a government election is the hope that one of the aspirants will act on your behalf to make your neighbors comply with your preferences. No one votes in any government election for any other reason.

Again, I’d never do such a thing to you. Why would you do that to me?

I don’t think he’ll ever understand what it is he’s doing when he punches that voting ticket.

It didn’t take long for that:

400 THOU AT WOODSTOCK FOR NEW-PRESIDENT

It was just a matter of time before someone made that comparison.

Billy asks:

What might possibly make you look like a nail to some commissar or other?

As far as I can see, the list of things that wouldn’t make you look like a nail is much shorter than the list of things that would.

We’ll see where it goes.

Madlen Read has no idea what capitalism is:

…economic professors may well point to 2008 as the year capitalism went on life support.

The local rag links Madlen, and in the print edition, it’s under the moronic headline, “2008: The year capitalism went on life support.”

Banks took stupid risks, and went crying to mama government when those risks burned them. Unfortunately, fractional reserve banking has so infected so many economies that their fall has had repercussions almost everywhere. Even more dismal is the fact that there is almost no one left who understands that a bank, or any other company no matter how large, which habitually makes poor judgments, should fail.

Anyone who points to 2008 as a failure of capitalism, has no idea what capitalism is. Capitalism is not about capital, it’s about freedom. That includes the freedom to fail because of stupid decisions.

This is the horrifying reality of how so-called courts of “justice” operate:

“…the prosecution need not prove actual impairment…”

This is no different than a witch hunt.

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.