POLITICIAL: Gooferment insurance!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/09/helping-unemployed.html

Monday, September 21, 2009
Helping the unemployed

*** begin quote ***

Wall Street may think we’re coming out of this recession, but there are millions of workers who may disagree. That’s why Congress is considering another extension of unemployment benefits that “would provide 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for more than 300,000 jobless people who live in states with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of September.”

*** and ***

Unemployment is designed to help people as they seek other work

*** end quote ***

“Unemployment is designed to help people as they seek other work”

Herb, herb, herb, typically muddled “liberal” (not classical liberal) left thinking.

“UNEMPLOYMENT” is the invisible hand of the marketplace telling you that it doesn’t “think” it needs what you are selling. You then have some choices. Seek other ways to server your fellow man. For which service, the marketplace will award, or reward, you suficient “Certificates of Appreciation” to reinforce that you are doing “good”.

Thus, “unemployment” is designed to TELL people to seek other work!

Unlike a beehive, we need the individual bee to figure out how to make their contribution to “the hive”. We’ve discovered that cooperation (i.e., division of labor) makes “prosperity” (i.e., support a larger number of people). “Subsistence farming”, as opposed to “division of labor”, which is in vogue in Africa, is less prosperous.

Since humans take direction very badly unless very motivated, it has been found that “liberty” seems to be a very good strategy to get those pesky humans to “produce”. It’s all very messy. And, has all the appearances of chaos. But, like a crowded city street, it does have the result of getting everyone where they want to go. With a minimum of friction.

So.

Unemployment is a necessary evil to motivate those pesky humans.

On the other hand, “unemployment insurance” is a gooferment program that PREVENTS humans from engaging in a host of beneficial behaviors. Saving, planning, training, … just to name a few. That bad gooferment program steals from every WORKER to REWARD unemployment. Also, the gooferment has bureaucrats to administer this supposed “insurance” program. (Note that insurance is for those semi random things that are beyond the individual’s control. Like a hurricane, flood, or other natural disaster. Unemployment is NOT unforeseeable, NOT random, and NOT beyond the individual’s control.)

Imagine if there was NO gooferment unemployment insurance, then workers would save for the future. Those savings would provide capital to the marketplace for growth.

It’s hard to underestimate the damage that these so called “insurance” programs do to the people and the economy. It trains people to look to Mommy Gooferment to “save” us. The gooferment creates the problem and then rushes in to “save” us. Often making the problem much much worse.

Sigh, today’s left liberals have to learn that it is only by VOLUNTARY participation do we secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. (Think I’ve read that somewhere.) Keep your gooferment “solutions”. There’s a reason that African, seeking to emigrate here, to “the land of fat poor people”.

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CORRUPTION: Shills for the gooferment shilling the party line

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2009/tle537-20090920-05.html

That Sinking GM Feeling
by Jim Davidson
Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

*** begin quote ***

Later he lies again, “So we’re putting our money where our mouth is.” No, you bastard, you stinking lackey of big government, you filthy thief, you aren’t. GM tried putting their money where their mouth is, and they lost. They went under. So now they are putting our money where their mouth is. He isn’t a nice old man, he’s an evil old liar.

*** end quote ***

Absolutely correct.

This gooferment stooge ADMITTED he know nothing about cars. Didn’t do much for AT&T either. Guess he contributed big and get his reward.

Special place in eternity for all of them!

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LIBERTY: A real single payer

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=109854

How ’bout a real single-payer system?

Posted: September 15, 2009

*** begin quote ***

What did we do, back during the years when most Americans had no medical insurance? I did what most people did. I depended on a “single payer” – myself. When I didn’t have the money, I paid off my medical bills in installments.

The birth of my first child was not covered by medical insurance. I paid off the bill, month by month, until the time finally came when I could tell my wife that the baby was now ours, free and clear.

In a country where everything imaginable is bought and paid for on credit, why is it suddenly a national crisis if some people cannot pay cash up front for medical treatment?

*** end quote ***

We have 310M people with 15M “uninsured”.

So we are going to mess up 295 to possibly “insure” 15?

Sorry, but everyone should just pay their own. And insurance and charity care for the big bad wolf!

Start by making insurance tax deductible for everyone.

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INTERESTING: Islamic Ben Stein!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/136082.html

Hail to the Islamic Ben Stein!
  Nick Gillespie | September 15, 2009, 8:04am
  Islamic creationism is on the rise!

*** begin quote ***

Operating from Istanbul, Yahya is the founder of the Science Research Foundation, an impressive publishing empire that boasts more than 60 websites dedicated to his writings. It provides documentary films and audio recordings in fifteen languages, including Turkish, English, Russian, Amharic and Arabic, and claims to sell more than half a million books a year, including the infamous 850-page, fully illustrated Atlas of Creation, which was sent free in two volumes to dozens of universities, libraries and prominent scientists (including Richard Dawkins) across the world. In painstaking detail, with a mass of photos, graphs and statistics interspersed with verses from the Koran, the Atlas purports to prove that Darwin was utterly mistaken, that each plant and animal was created intact, and that no modification through natural selection ever took place.

*** end quote ***

If I was Ben Stein, I’d be upset.

I always thought Ben was thoughtful and accurate.

This fellow may be wrong, But, he’s prolific. He must be funded and have help to do all this.

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SOFTWARE: MAC OSX 10.6.1 MAIL loses its mind

Monday, September 21, 2009

It begins reloading all mail again.

Argh!

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FUN: Gruzzle on Joe Wilson

Monday, September 21, 2009

http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2009/09/16/joe-wilsons-most-embarrassing-moments/comment-page-1/#comment-118887

Joe Wilson’s Most Embarrassing Moments
Posted in September 16th, 2009

*** begin quote ***

So, even though I am center-right on most issues, I made this Gruzzle on poor Joe Wilson, the cretin congressman from South Carolina.

*** end quote ***

He did get the issue of coverage into the discussion. I’m not so sure that an “apology” was warranted. All politicians lie. They twist, distort, evade, and parse. If a child did half of it, they’d be in time out. (In my day, my Mom would extract some hair from my head to attract my attention to my failure to meet her standards.) So, I’d like to send the whole lot to time out a long time out by Getting Rid of Incumbent Politicians (i.e., voter enforced term limits)! My only question is if this is such a “crisis” why doesn’t it start until 2013. That and why the congress critters get a free pass. It’d be funny if this weren’t serious.

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RANT: Sorry it’s a duck!

Monday, September 21, 2009

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574425294029138738.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

* REVIEW & OUTLOOK
* SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
Obama’s Nontax Tax
On a Sunday show, the President offers a revealing definition.

*** begin quote ***

“Mr. Obama: “My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy. You know that. Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we’re going to have an individual mandate or not, but . . .””

*** end quote ***

If I can’t avoid it, then it’s a tax. Call it a “mandate”. Call it a “penalty”. Call it the “tooth fairy”. The IRS will ensure you pay it. If that’s not a “tax”, I don’t know what is!

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POLITICAL: Government pay now double

Monday, September 21, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/09/government_pay_now_double_that.html

September 15, 2009
Government pay now double that for the private sector
Rick Moran

*** begin quote ***

Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards takes a look at a new study that shows government bureaucrats now earning twice the pay and benefits of workers in the private sector

*** end quote ***

There’s NO way to get this monster controlled.

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POLITICAL: Politicians can’t be trusted

Sunday, September 20, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/09/wither-change.html

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Wither change?

*** begin quote ***

I don’t want to use the word disappointment — and not just because it is still early in his presidency. I don’t want to use the word because it implies that the president somehow is letting down liberals. The reality is, of course, that he’s only doing what he told us he’d do — tack as much to the center as he could, while substituting bipartisanship for a principled commitment to a political philosophy.

*** end quote ***

Obama is nothing more than an opportunistic Chicago machine politician. When his lips move, he’s lying. JUST like any other politician of either side of the supposed aisle. The guns of gooferment are too dangerous in ANY politicians’ hand. Power corrupt; absolute absolutely. We need to cut the beast down to the absolutely minimal size to protect us from force or fraud. And, not a smidge more. They have really feather their own nests at our expense. Champion? Please!

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INTERESTING: Gooferent can’t see the consequences

Sunday, September 20, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/world/africa/20cairo.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Belatedly, Egypt Spots Flaws in Wiping Out Pigs
Pigs were the champion garbage consumers in Cairo. Goats just don’t seem up to the task.
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: September 19, 2009

*** begin quote ***

When the government killed all the pigs in Egypt this spring — in what public health experts said was a misguided attempt to combat swine flu — it was warned the city would be overwhelmed with trash.

The pigs used to eat tons of organic waste. Now the pigs are gone and the rotting food piles up on the streets of middle-class neighborhoods like Heliopolis and in the poor streets of communities like Imbaba.

*** end quote ***

“unintended consequences”?

The only difference between their gooferment’s stupidity and ours is in size, scale, and topic.

TARP makes killing pigs look small. “Healthcare”, “Health Insurance”, or whatever they are trying to do will impact one SEVENTH of our economy. Misdirected swine flu versus psuedo climate change.

How stupid can gooferment be?

Very!

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RANT: Who voted against defunding ACORN

Sunday, September 20, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/09/the_seven_senators_who_voted_a.html

September 15, 2009
The seven senators who voted against defunding ACORN
Ethel C. Fenig

*** begin quote ***

Now who were those seven senators who were apparently unfazed by ACORN’s bland unconcern of providing mortgage money to a supposed prostitute and her pimp, even counseling them on evading taxes? (Nine senators did not vote.)

# Dick Durbin (D-IL)
# Roland Burris (D-IL)
# Robert Casey (D-PA)
# Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
# Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
# Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
# Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

*** end quote ***

Would seem to be an easy vote.

This demonstrates the culture of corruption in DC.

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POLITICS: The attempt to have welfare and warfare destroys us; just like LBJ did

Saturday, September 19, 2009

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/obama-missile-defense-2572467-nuclear-iran

Friday, September 18, 2009
Mark Steyn: Obama helping Putin restitch Iron Curtain
Scrapping of U.S. missile defense plans hands big victory to Russia’s new czar.
Mark Steyn
Syndicated columnist

*** begin quote ***

In a sense, the health care debate and the foreign policy debacle are two sides of the same coin: For Britain and other great powers, the decision to build a hugely expensive welfare state at home entailed inevitably a long retreat from responsibilities abroad, with a thousand small betrayals of peripheral allies along the way. A few years ago, the great scholar Bernard Lewis warned, during the debate on withdrawal from Iraq, that America risked being seen as “harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend.” In Moscow and Tehran, on the one hand, and Warsaw and Prague, on the other, they’re drawing their own conclusions.

*** end quote ***

Don’t you wonder how this one action is going to hurt our ability to be safe in the future?

If I was a foreign country, I wouldn’t trust us.

Would you?

We are clearly untrustworthy. And, we, the dollar, and the world will suffer from our failure.

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RANT: The role of the police today — revenue agents

Saturday, September 19, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/grigg/grigg-w109.html

*** begin quote ***

Witness the case of Jamie Lockard, a 53-year-old resident of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, who was stopped last March on suspicion of driving while intoxicated (DWI). A roadside Breathalyzer test determined that Lockard’s blood alcohol was under the legal limit.

Since incriminating Breathalyzer results are regarded as infallibly conclusive for the purpose of securing a conviction, a negative result offers immediate exoneration – correct?

One would think so. And one would be wrong.

*** end quote ***

SENT TO A FRIEND:

And you AGREE with this?

HE RESPONDED:

I would like to see more respect for authority. Lack of it will get you in trouble, and rightly so.

THAT SENT ME INTO ORBIT!

Oh, yes, right or wrong, we can’t be disrespectful to the massa!

Authority EARNS respect.

Cops have become nothing more than revenue agents for the state. Roadside radar traps make them into highwaymen who robbing innocent travelers who fail to follow their posted warnings.

Seriously, who designs a road for NINETY or a HUNDRED, then posts it with 45, 50,55, 60 or 65, to nail the unsuspecting.

Seriously, roadside checkpoints for license, registration, insurance, drinking, drugs, and anything else we can think of, belong to an old WW2 movie about Nazi Germany. Where are your papers? Comrade, citizen, subject.

Argh!

Take DWI or DUI! It’s an excuse to hassle folks. OK, if you have an accident or, heaven forbid, hurt someone, then you should get the book tossed at you. (Unless your name is Ted Kennedy!) Otherwise, forget it. All the horror stories, come from repeat offenders — some with 10 or 15 “convictions” — or even police officers.

Sorry, but they have lost “respect”, because of their conduct.

The “Dial 911 and die!” is a toungue in cheek recognition that they are no more than a clean up squad. If they weren’t busy collecting revenue, then maybe they could go after real criminals.

End the drug war now. Pardon all the non-violent drug offenders. Close the FDA, DEA, and BATF.

Liberty and freedom for all!

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FUN: Shore report

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Bright sunny day.

Slight chill in the air.

Gentle breeze.

Only us die hards left.

Waves are breaking BIG!

SSH moved the sand close the to boardwalk. In some cases too close.

My arcade and bar still open.

It’s not winter yet!

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INTERESTING: giant man-eating birds?

Saturday, September 19, 2009

http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/09/14/1718211/Maori-Legend-of-Man-Eating-Birds-is-True?from=rss

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10597177

Legends of the New Zealand Maori tell of giant man-eating birds. New scientific evidence proves that these birds did exist and were around the same time as humans in New Zealand. From the article, ‘Scientists now think the stories handed down by word of mouth and depicted in rock drawings refer to Haast’s eagle, a raptor that became extinct just 500 years ago.’

# – # – #

Wow, so the legend has a basis in fact. How much other wisdom has been lost? Think the Firefox collection. Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Laws don’t apply to your betters

Friday, September 18, 2009

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/13/meninos_office_acknowledges_city_employees_routinely_deleted_e_mails/

Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:36:43 -0400
From: Monty Solomon
Subject: Boston city employees routinely deleted e-mail

*** begin quote ***

Menino’s office acknowledges city employees routinely deleted e-mails
By Donovan Slack and Michael Levenson, *The Boston Globe*, 13 Sep 2009

Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s administration, prompted by public records requests from *The Globe*, has acknowledged that city employees were routinely deleting e-mails, a potential violation of the state public records law. This came after *The Globe* filed several requests for e-mails sent and received by Menino’s Cabinet chief of policy and planning, Michael J. Kineavy — who is one of Menino’s most powerful and trusted advisers, intimately involved in nearly everything at City Hall. However, a search of city computers found just 18 e-mails he had sent or received between 1 Oct 2008, and 31 Mar 2009. The unusually low figure prompted administration officials to question him about what happened to the rest of the e-mails he was presumably sending and receiving during that period. Kineavy told them that he deletes all his e-mails on a daily basis, in such a way that they are not saved on city backup computers.

*** end quote ***

Laws? Only for the “little people”!

Argh!

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SERVICE: Google password change forced

Friday, September 18, 2009

Google forced me to change a password based on “suspicious activity”.

It gave me no further information.

Google doesn’t enforce three strikes and your out so what use is a password!

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And, next time into GMAIL it asked to verify a secondary email address.

Perhaps, three strikes and you’re out is coming.

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MONEY: The worst is not yet over

Friday, September 18, 2009

http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2009/09/15/daily-maul-under-obama-big-banks-get-bigger-shocker

DAILY MAUL: Under Obama, Big Banks Get Bigger – Shocker!
Submitted by Rob Williams on Tue, 09/15/2009 – 4:57am.

*** begin quote ***

In promoting and subsidizing the takeover of failing banks by the biggest banks and investment houses, the Post notes, the government violated federal antitrust regulations, which prohibit any single bank from controlling more than 10 percent of deposits nationwide. They also violate Justice Department antitrust advisories on the degree of control over regional financial markets by individual banks.

*** end quote ***

What a surprise!

So the next time, the problem will be even bigger. And the gooferment will have a bigger role in the “solution”.

Argh!

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TECHNOLOGY: OLPC has roll out problems — no leadership!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

http://radian.org/notebook/sic-transit-gloria-laptopi

*** begin quote ***

Date: Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:46:36 +0800
From: jidanni
Subject: OLPC: Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi

…there was no one hired to work on deployment while I was at OLPC, with Uruguay’s and Peru’s combined 360,000-laptop rollout in progress. I was parachuted in as the sole OLPC person to deal with Uruguay, and sent to Peru at the last minute. And I’m really good at thinking on my feet, but what the sh*t do I know about deployment? Right around that time, Walter was demoted and theoretically made the “director of deployment,” a position where he directed his expansive team of — himself. Then he left, and get this: now the company has half a million laptops in the wild, with no one even pretending to be officially in charge of deployment. “I quit,” Walter told me on the phone after leaving, “because I can’t continue to work on a lie.”

*** end quote ***

How can you have a roll out without leadership?
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POLITICS: Milton Friedman – Curing American Health Care

Thursday, September 17, 2009

POLITICS: Milton Friedman – Curing American Health Care

Five and a half safe for work minutes, this demolishes the concept of gooferment licensing medical practice. And, that it winds up in socialism. Where we are today. Argh!

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POLITICS: An unreliable friend

Thursday, September 17, 2009

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100010237/barack-obama-surrenders-to-russia-on-missile-defence/

Barack Obama surrenders to Russia on Missile Defence
By Nile Gardiner World Last updated: September 17th, 2009

*** begin quote ***

What signal does this send to Ukraine, Georgia and a host of other former Soviet satellites who look to America and NATO for protection from their powerful neighbour? The impending cancellation of Third Site is a shameful abandonment of America’s friends in eastern and central Europe, and a slap in the face for those who actually believed a key agreement with Washington was worth the paper it was written on.

*** end quote ***

The USA has ALWAYS been an unreliable friend. I remember, as should any little insurrection, the ’57 Hungarian Revolution. Our Hungarian neighbor cried at the table with my father and uncles about how the State Department sold them out. At your own peril, trust ANY politician’s promise.

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MONEY: Ignore the 5% “rule” at your own financial peril

Thursday, September 17, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/q2c7fp

Tales From Lehman’s Crypt
By LOUISE STORY and LANDON THOMAS Jr.
Published: September 12, 2009

*** begin quote ***

“I spent a long time being very angry,” says Mr. Schaefer, the former Lehman executive turned gas station owner. “Angry for working so hard and doing so much. More importantly, for my family and all the time I was away traveling — the time I put in away from them. Now all that money I earned, the money paid in stock, is gone. I can’t go back and remake it.”

*** and ***

When Lehman closed its origination business, Mr. Linton lost his job. Rich and single, he has pursued a life of leisure since then — sailing in his 37-foot boat, playing jazz trombone and, at the moment, taking a week to learn how to fly Russian fighter jets and gliders in New Mexico. He briefly considered attending culinary school.

Although Lehman laid him off in early 2008, his departure turned out to be a boon for Mr. Linton. Being forced out convinced him to bet against the firm’s stock as a counterweight against the Lehman shares he still owned, which protected him when the stock’s value plummeted. Combined with a well-timed sale of his Manhattan apartment and a stream of income from real estate investments, the moves gave him financial padding that frees him from job worries.

“I have been fortunate to have some nice toys,” he says. “And they are all paid up. It’s a nice situation to be in.”

*** end quote ***

I don’t understand a lot of things.

I didn’t understand how smart people, with dependents, working on Wall Street, don’t have life insurance. 91101 exposed they didn’t.

I don’t understand how these ex-Lehman people, who worked on the Street, have all their portfolios so heavily weighted with Lehman. Guess they never heard of options or derivatives.

I don’t understand a lot of things. Wall Street’s “rules of thumb” have been time-tested. Ignore them at your own peril.

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LIBERTY: A slender thread!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=612

Celebrate the Constitution by Becoming an Activist
By John W. Whitehead
9/14/2009

*** begin quote ***

   “I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state; up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better to have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake.”–Thomas Paine, 1776

Federal law mandates that all high schools, colleges and universities across the country that receive federal funds host educational events about the Constitution on Constitution Day, September 17. There will also be various festivities in Washington, DC, and in some communities across America celebrating the Constitution.

*** end quote ***

A scrap of paper is all that stands between us and the camps!

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LIBERTY: What crowd?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

200909162341.jpg

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FUN: Michael Moore can’t sing, but he can bring back memories

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/09/leno-tuesday-ratings-.html

September 16, 2009

Jay Leno’s ratings drop notably for second episode

*** begin quote ***

The Leno episode featured an interview with Michael Moore in the studio

*** end quote ***

I think Michael Moore is a muddled thinker. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed “The Times They Are A Changing”. While he’s no Dylan or PP&M, I can remember singing that in Greenwich Village along with all the other audience of the many folk singers.

For the times they are a changing?

How’s that “hope and change” working out for you?

For the loser now, Will be later to win, For the times they are a-changin’.

“We, The People” have been losing for a long time at the hands of the Political and Elite. Time for us to start winning.

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POLITICS: The only way to win is not to play

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

http://c4ss.org/content/1051

Your obligation not to vote
Center for a Stateless Society
by Alex R. Knight III

*** begin quote ***

“No one has any ‘right,’ under ordinary everyday circumstances, to use violence or the threat thereof to control another’s life or property. In fact, each of us has a very serious moral obligation to not engage our fellow human beings in such a manner. Yet, cloak a cop or a tax collector or a politician in the magical, quantum-physics defying aura of government, and suddenly this becomes not only acceptable, but even commendable and necessary. Such is the intrinsic nature of the State. Thus, by voting in political elections, a voter implicitly endorses this kind of immoral and intellectually indefensible behavior by proxy. No, Mr. or Ms. Voter, it’s not you specifically who holds the gun to the taxpayer’s head, throws the marijuana smoker into the jail cell, imprisons the peaceful owner of a certain type of weapon for life — and it may not even be the series of politicians you voted for — but in essence, by voting, by casting that ballot for the continuation of government, you are hiring hit men (and women) to do those things for you.” (09/09/09)

*** end quote ***

I’ve “learned” by banging my head on the proverbial wall that voting makes ZERO difference.

The incumbent duopoly has insulated themselves from change.

Maybe not voting will eventually tumble the state. Nothing else to date has worked.

Civil disobedience?

WarGames (1983) “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?”

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