I don't have to sell my soul

It's late and I just got home. Thought: Is lackadaisicality a word? As in "You have yet to see the ways in which my lackadaisicality will prevail!"

Wednesday 07.07.2004 11:04 PM

I was just watching Meet the Press with Ralph Nader as the main guest. As I sat eating my salad I found myself actually agreeing with a lot of what he said. Typically I haven't been such a fan of him, beginning with the Green Party and their strangely socialist platform, but watching him speak got me thinking. For as long as I can remember, I have been intensely political. I follow it and enjoy it. I'm like a rabid Red Sox fan, but instead I watch political stats and check out trades and wins and losses. I registered to vote at at 17 and a half. There is a strange little loophole that allows early registration but voting only after age 18. When I moved west I stopped talking about politics. It's a different world out here and the northern Californians would rather stab you in the face than hear a dissenting political view. I'm a Libertarian. I have been a card carrying member of the party since I could vote. I believe in their platform 100%. I read Harry Browne's "Why Government Doesn't Work" and became even more hooked. In the south, being a Libertarian means you're working to pull government back to the constraints enumerated in the constitution. It's a third party [the largest political party in the country after the democrats and republicans, so it is truly THE third party], it's regarded as a little unusual, but really not so shocking. In the west if you're a Libertarian you're basically some kind of abhorrent babykiller and want to club seals on the weekends. It was quite strange and that view, ashamedly did cause me to shut my mouth on general principle. I got sick of arguing for things like drug legalization [the irony being I'm straight edge], eradication of public education systems and a truer form of freetrade capitalism. As my friend TJ[0] says "Free trade with all, entangling alliances with none." Right, so, I've become less and less vocal about my political views - the bullying has worked.

Anyway, while I'm not going to get into anything too terribly controversial right now, I'd like to just mention something about third parties. People get angry when I tell them I vote straight ticket LP every election. They say I am taking votes away from the conservative candidate, or whomever. I understand their myopic little view, but I keep this in mind always - vote your conscious. I vote for the person I think will best represent my views and help to make this country as I think it should be. Bottom line, a simple concept and easy to understand. When democrats try to influence voters to NOT vote for Nader they're basically giving up the fight and falling into the silly two-party trap. This country's interests simply cannot be represented by two different groups of thinking - the rub here being that the republicans and democrats really aren't different at all. They both want bigger government and they both want to deny access to the democratic process for third party candidates. This applies not only to what I call the "special olympics of politics" - the presidential election - but also to local and regional races that really do impact citizen's [read: your] lives.

So the point is this, my little friends - be concerned not that people are voting for one of two guys in suits, but that every person who wants to be on a ballot CAN be on a ballot. Ballot access boundaries are a serious issue in US politics that often gets overlooked for obvious reasons. Ballot access is a big damn deal, and all those who want to run in elections should have that opportunity. Please research EVERY candidate and vote your conscious, not someone else's.

[0]Tommy Jefferson, y0.

Monday 05.07.2004 9:00 PM

I predict that John Kerry will announce that stupid socialist cunt Hilary Clinton as his runningmate tomorrow. Anyone wanna lay some money down on this?

Monday 05.07.2004 6:39 PM

Great QOTD from a GQ magazine article "Never tell people your troubles. Eighty percent of them don't care and the other 20 are happy you have them."

Monday 05.07.2004 3:58 PM

Wow. They made a Hellblazer movie. It stars Keanu Reeves as John Constantine What's next? Brad Pitt as Sandman and Jennifer Lopez as Death? I'm apalled. Etc.

Monday 05.07.2004 1:38 PM

I'm hungry. I will have bacon later. I made a $646.50 mistake in my banking calculations so therefor I have that much extra to spend this month. I keep paying things twice, or adding them in twice and it's really screwing me up. I am seriously considering attending some kind of financial planning seminar. Gosh.

I feel like I don't really have anything to say, but I should write anyway to indicate that I'm here and alive and all that. The boy I like grilled steak for dinner last night, it was probably the best steak I've ever had - and that's saying a lot coming from a voracious carnivore such as myself.

Monday 05.07.2004 10:47 AM

Wow, I archived May and June and apparently I only posted once in June. Wow. All my pictures from Tamageddon2k4 are finally up. Go view them if you please. That is all for now.