My Call for Non-Voting at iReport.com

CNN recently created a website, iReport.com, where users can submit their own stories and media, and sometimes CNN puts those stories on its main newsite or TV channel. It's kinda fun, and I've been lurking on it as of late.

Today, CNN asked iReport users who are "undecided" about the election to sate why they are undecided. I decided to take the opportunity to submit a small essay about why I have decided to not vote at all. You can find my entry here. The text of my entry is reproduced below.

In a way you could consider me undecided in the sense that I decided not to vote for anyone. I will not go to the polls, and I will not vote, and I encourage others to do the same.

Why?

Because I realized that, regardless of the quality (or lack thereof) of the candidates, it is immoral to force your choice onto another. Democracy is a tyranny of the majority. If 51% of the country wants candidate A, should the other 49% be forced to accept it? Why cant the other 49% have what they want to?

The government recognizes that monopolies are bad, except of course when it comes to itself. But monopolies are bad, regardless of what form they are in. And presidents that are forced upon 100% of the people through a simple majority vote are also monopolies, and are also bad.

How arrogant and brutal is it for me to vote and believe that I have the right to force my choices onto you? Is it civil or is it oppressive for me to try to force a choice of leader onto you, your family, everyone? I would feel bad if I were to use such aggression on another, and I certainly feel bad when others do it to me.

And finally, although my argument holds true regardless of the quality of the candidates, I feel that the choices this time around are absolutely abysmal. It reminds me of the South Park episode where they have to choose between voting for a feminine hygiene product or a piece of excrement. I am pulling a Brewster and choosing "none of the above." Actually, I'm choosing "none." Period.

So don't vote! The lower turnout, the better! Don't try to force your values onto other people, and don't let others force their values onto you! That's freedom.

Police Raid Wrong House, Shoot at Family, Receive Medals

Standard Operating Procedure:

First, the city apologized. Then it gave awards.

Eight Minneapolis officers received medals in City Hall Monday for their valor in a botched raid that the city apologized for last year. That isn’t sitting well with the family shot at multiple times by the officers.

“I’m shocked that they’re receiving awards for that night,” said Yee Moua. “My family is a mess right now. My [9-year-old] son, who saw the shooting, still has nightmares and has needed therapy. They’ve ruined a life, and I don’t understand why they would get rewarded for that.”

The awards stemmed from a high-risk search in December. The eight officers — who had SWAT training — entered the house expecting to find a violent gang member. Instead, they found Vang Khang, a 35-year-old homeowner who thought he was being robbed. Khang shot through his bedroom door at the officers until he understood who they were.

In the midst of the shootout were Moua, who is Khang’s wife, and their six children, who range in age from 3 to 15. Moua said her family has since abandoned the house and can no longer afford to keep it.

Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. William Palmer said Tuesday the department has acknowledged the raid was a mistake and has apologized to the family. But he said the officers “performed very bravely under gunfire and made smart decisions.”

They certainly did make smart decisions! Primarily, they decided to join the biggest, baddest gang in town: The police force. They are being rewarded handsomely for their gang loyalty. But that's how it always goes. When you work for the biggest criminal organization in town, you get to be the most adorned hotshot in town.

It's warmer than you think under the dragon's wing.

Change We Can Believe In

The Revolutionary Jones Soda Company

I have a confession: I love Ron Paul. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still a die-hard Market Anarchist, and I still refuse to vote on principle, not even for Ron Paul. But I do think his message is important (he quoted Lysander Spooner on national television for Christ's sake), and back in 2007 I donated $100 to his campaign.

Anyway, about a week ago I discovered that Jones Soda Company was selling Ron Paul Revolution Cola. I promptly bought a six pack, and it arrived today!



I only got 6 bottles, and I can't decide if I should drink one of them or keep all six unopened. What do you think?

New York's Finest Fascists

This video is a bit long (12 minutes), but very worthwhile. Especially the last couple minutes when the crowd starts chanting against the pigs.



Fuck the NYPD and all the other gangs and organized criminal organizations. The NYPD is the worst of them.

What do you do when there are no protection services available to you, and you are not allowed to protect yourself either, and the NYPD has a green light to run around terrorizing the streets under the guise of protecting people?

You revolt.

America = God

I was just over at Arthur Silber's blog, Once Upon a Time, when I came across his essay, Songs of Death. What a brilliant fucking essay.

There is a particular portion of that essay that I want to quote here, as it reminds me of why I consider Statism to be just another kind of Theism (and one of the reasons that I reject both):

But there is nothing remotely humble about any of this at any point, just as there is nothing humble about the prevailing views of the foreign policy establishment. People who hold these beliefs have not one God, but two: a God in Heaven, and a God on Earth. Their God on Earth is America: it is all-powerful and should be so, it is all-knowing, its beneficence alone makes progress and civilization possible, for which mankind should be properly grateful -- and its wrath is terrible. They will construct the world in their own image, and nothing and no one will be permitted to oppose them.

The governing class, including the foreign policy establishment, have been convinced of the truth and rightness of this view for over 60 years. This view led us into Korea, into Vietnam, into Latin America, into the interventions of the 1990s, into Afghanistan, into numerous other interventions, and into Iraq. Hillary Clinton believes it, so does Obama, so does Bush. With only one or two exceptions, every national politician believes it.

America is God. God's Will be done.

Perfectly written. Perfectly.

The Bush Disaster

I love The Onion.


Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Happy Imperialism Day!

Francois Tremblay celebrates the 4th of July.

Anonymous 2012

Look at how quickly young people are learning to recognize and confront organized evil. First it was Scientology that got assaulted, and now this:

Anonymous for President:

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Anon 2012.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Intertubes; I bring forth a message for the masses, a revelation that many of you are already beginning to suspect, to understand.

Your government has failed you.

Politicians, regardless of their claimed affiliations, sit atop Capitol Hill, making false promises and ignoring public outcries. They have made a business out of striping away your rights for their own profit. They wage wars,they manipulate, they lie, they cheat, they steal. The history of your nation and the fate of your lives are decided in dark backroom dealings that you will never hear of in places that you will never see. Men in dark suits and dark sunglasses listen to every word you utter, read every word you type, examine every document you send without fear of reprisal or punishment.

Your rights have been destroyed, and your privacy lies in shattered pieces at your very feet.

It is time for you - for all of us - to act.

A Vote for Anonymous is a Vote for the People.

At first I thought the call to vote for Anonymous was a bad thing, but then I realized that "A Vote for Anonymous" literally means to simultaneously vote for everybody and nobody. It's almost as good as not voting at all.

Will this have any impact? Probably not in and of itself. But to me it is a proverbial crack in the dam of the state, growing ever quicker thanks to the internet's ability to make information free, open, and ridiculously easy to find. Eventually the dam will burst, and I hope I'm still around when it happens.

Cops and Robbers, or, Gangsters and Robbers

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

Residents in Central Florida are sick of the lack of police services in their community and are finally turning to their own measures to protect their lives and property.

These poor people are being doubly victimized: once by the gangsters police, and once by the burglars. You see, the police force the residents to pay for their protection services (think: protection racket) and yet, when these residents actually need the services, the police don't provide it!

In this case, despite all their desire to do so, the police are unable to provide the service due to inefficiency (they call it budget constraints). But whether the police do not provide the services they are supposed to through negligence, inability, or outright refusal is irrelevant.

The police department should be disbanded, or at least privatized. The residents should not be taxed; not be forced to pay for the services that they clearly aren't getting anyway. They should be free to protect themselves through any service they want and not be forced to pay for the police, who through brutal gangsterism, make themselves the only protection service provider in town.

The police should be ashamed of themselves. But of course, idiots, incompetents, and assholes never see the irony in their own actions. The residents have taken up arms, and the cops have now been de-facto relegated to a sort of coercion clean-up crew, yet they continue to fancy themselves as being the ones providing the protection. Ha!

These poor residents, despite paying for it, have clearly not had any actual security service in a long time. And since they aren't allowed to redirect their money to an agency that would or could actually provide the needed services, the residents are taking it into their own hands. I wouldn't be surprised if these residents end up having to physically defend themselves not only from the burglars, but also from the parasitic protection racket police that profess to protect them!

Prohibition Doesn't Work

Sorry for pointing out the obvious yet again, but it bears repeating. We already knew that the US has the highest prison population in the world, but now we find out that US citizens are more likely to use (illegal) drugs than anywhere else in the world!

So much for prohibition:

Americans are the world's top consumers of cannabis and cocaine despite punitive US drug laws, according to an international study published in the online scientific magazine PLoS Medicine.

The study, released Monday, revealed that 16.2 percent of Americans had tried cocaine at least once, and 42.4 percent had used marijuana.

In second-place New Zealand, just 4.3 percent of study participants had used cocaine, and 41.9 percent marijuana.

The research was conducted at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, based on World Health Organization data from 54,068 people in 17 countries.

Rates of participation differed from country to country, and researchers noted uncertainty over how honestly people report their own drug use.

"Nevertheless, the findings present comprehensive data on the patterns of drug use from national samples representing all regions of the world," a PLoS statement said.

A vast majority of survey participants from the United States, Europe, Japan and New Zealand had consumed alcohol, compared to smaller percentages from the Middle East, Africa and China.

The data also revealed socioeconomic patterns in drug use. Single young adult men with high income had the greatest tendency to regularly use drugs.

Funny then, isn't it, how those most likely to be in prison for drugs come from the poor sectors of society?

Drug use "does not appear to be simply related to drug policy," the researchers wrote, "since countries with more stringent policies toward illegal drug use did not have lower levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies."

In the Netherlands, where drug policy is more liberal than the United States, 1.9 percent of survey participants said they had used cocaine and 19.8 percent marijuana.

Twelve US 12 states including California permit medical use of marijuana, but possession and use remains prohibited under federal law.

And despite the US government's massive anti-drug efforts, the United States remains the world's top drug market, one amply supplied by South American cartels.

In other words, drugs are winning the War on Drugs.