February 2008 Archives

This is my submission to the Market Anarchist Blog Carnival for February (March?) 2008 hosted at No Third Solution this time around. I hope the fellas accept this even though the deadline was yesterday. Almost let it go so my apologies for any remaining awkwardness. My tribute none the less.

Some say he was a penniless bard in from the desert on the edge of Vegas at the Fiesta Henderson. Others claim he was a lawyer down on his luck who struck up a conversation in the mall like food court, next to the Regal Cinemas as the gambling machines chirped and the wide screen monitors flashed the commercial world in its entirety. One wide spread rumor was that he was the former head of the McManigal-Tremblay Institute in Gold Hill Colorado. Whoever Neil was, he started to have an impact when he described what government was before.

As the herd of consumers and families shuffled into the modern palaces with glittering electronic baubles of chance, groups of tourists from the still insulated Mid-West would be astounded at the old tales of the Occident and fabrications of the Inns of Court. This curious bard would whisper in mutually assured tones to the audience about the dangers of 'governmentis'. Some remembered a time when this was called 'statism' and those who preached or warned about it were simply nuts or rife with conspiracy. When he or she passed the hat at the end of the talk it was always full of an array of currencies, exchanges and encrypted memory sticks that people often swapped as trusted gold. People were happy to contribute this trickle of trinkets even in the face of the mind altering options.

Sometime in 2006 when I was petitioning to get on the ballot up in Saratoga Springs, I came across a women who started shouting (almost shrieking) about Florida and the current mess in Iraq. This was not the usual muted reaction to the request to get 'independent' candidates on the ballot. Most people were either outright supportive or equally uninterested. As Ralph ponders how he'll get on the ballot this time around, a lot of folks will raise the specter of Florida 2000 and consider his move steeped in vanity or ego. Others will dismiss it as quixotic, irrelevant, hypocritical or just kooky.

I'm all for it. Anything that raises the awareness of how bad the two major parties have driven this country into the ground is good enough for me. My youngest brother is an average sorta guy and confided in me in 2004 that he voted for Nader because he didn't care otherwise and was happy to side with the gadfly regardless of his positions or ideas. Fair enough. Sometimes it seems like those with a vested interest in the status quo or those who reek of statism, corporatism or toughguyism have to have have some noble figurine for President. Maybe Nader would just ramp up the nanny state in terms of 'protection', but that's not the point.

Only a few hours old on the news ticker, but don't expect indignant calls for reprisal at the UN from the US. The diplomatic corps. probably has a litany of talking points outlining the undesirability of this action, but understanding the value of the US-Turkey relationship, won't allow anything like international law or current national sovereignty to influence 'real' behaviors or perceived threats.

I usually don't like to jump on the soup of the day, but I believed TE Lawrence too much not to be a little irksome today.

The NYS Lotto has recently started an ad campaign suggesting that the average New Yorker only needs a little 'bit of luck' in order to win in their rigged system. Utilizing what I am sure they think a clever 'mascot' if you will, they've decided on a wise cracking big head on a small body in some type of animation like effect. Citing a one in nine chance of winning, this is not only a truly bizzare campaign, but also quite misleading.

Too bad Eliot Spitzer isn't still AG, he might have looked into this if it wasn't a state sanctioned ruse. Aside from the prospect of terrifying my own kids, why is this so acceptable amongst 'good governement' types ? Those little guys in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory always scared me.

Went past what is normally my polling place on election day, that is, Town Hall. There's a 'distance meter' out front, as if some magic number of meters (they still use feet here in the States) could help not determine or influence the erstwhile party devotee. You see, in New York anyway, unless enrolled in either the Democratic or Republican party, you can't help determine who might become the next President, whether they are black or female matters not.

I thought it might be amusing to go in and try, but it would just embarrass and confuse the lovely senior citizens who grew up thinking we lived in a democracy. Some of them might even be able to reconcile the concept of a Republic, but I digress. To be fair, if my party had some more people in it, they might put together their own primary season, but I'm sure we'll be happy to get some people to the convention on the first weekend of summer. Whatever the result of that process, here's who I would have voted for today if I could as an 'independent'.