Government

Let’s Get Rid of Voter Fraud

This entry was posted in Election 2004 Government on by

Are any of you tired of hearing whining cries of voter fraud every time there is an election?
Some US dems raised the cry after the recent presidential election and it certainly isn’t something that is limited to the US as this plaint about Sunday’s election in the Ukraine highlights and Google currently lists 388,000 entries for “voter fraud.”
It seems to me that if we dramatically reduced the power currently vested in these elected positions we would simultaneously get rid of the voter fraud issue. After all, who would want the positions if they wield no power and who would care who held these powerless positions.
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Voting

This entry was posted in Constitution Election 2004 Government Libertarianism on by

I voted in the US election via absentee ballot over a week ago and have been delightedly ignoring all the campaign BS ever since.
I have encouraged many others to vote however I do not fault some of the non-voters. The past several days have produced a challenging debate between voting and non-voting libertarians at Catallarchy. No matter your current leaning, today is a good day to read through and deliberate about the points raised in this discussion.
My take: even with all the faults of the current system your votes can make some small positive difference for the immediate future. I fully expect whoever wins to provide ample material for sharp discussion and dark humor.
This periodic voting is, though, a relatively small part of the ongoing discussion. Real long term change requires that discussion leads to regular action not simply a yes or no, him or her, every two or four years. Let’s start looking for actions that can be done daily, weekly, monthly to move us toward a free and peaceful world.

Just Say No

This entry was posted in Constitution Domestic Terrorism Federal Government Government Libertarianism Patriot Act War on Terrorism on by

This library gets it right:

The FBI wants to know who checked out a book from a small library about Osama Bin Laden. But the library isn’t giving out names, saying the government has no business knowing what their patrons read.
Via a puzzled Mac:
I am delighted that the library in question did fight back. But I�m still puzzled at why a margin doodler poses so much of a threat. Dude, more than half the U.S. borders and ports aren�t covered by Homeland Security and we�re out there trying to harrass people who write in library books?
Note, we would not know anything about this if the FBI had used the Patriot Act to request this information. Well, we might. But, then, whoever made it public would have been arrested and charged with illegal disclosure of information. You see, the deal is that citizens aren’t supposed to know what their government is doing.

Hands Off!

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Government Law Enforcement Libertarianism on by

Vice Squad notes today that this article suggests that the Sioux Falls, SD city council spent some time dealing with adult behavior:

This insufficient criminalization of voluntary adult activity could not be tolerated by the Sioux Falls City Council, who closed the “loophole” on Monday. I hope that they were a bit more specific than what this article reports: “An ordinance approved Monday night makes it illegal to touch someone in exchange for money.”
Apparently they were a bit more specific as they amended:
…the Revised Ordinances of the City by adding a section prohibiting sexual touching for compensation,…
What’s not clear is exactly what they mean by the words sexual and compensation.1
There is a clue to the first in the news article linked above. At the state level South Dakota plans to clarify their law:
…by characterizing prostitution as any sexual contact that involves touching of female breasts or the genitals of either sex for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification.
While this seems to limit the definition of sexual touching to a subset of possible erogenous zones this sentence like the first one above begs for additonal clarification as it appears to label all sexual activity of these types as prostitution. I suspect that they really are not planning to target those high schoolers in the backseat of their cars or husbands and wives. But, then again, this is South Dakota…
Oh yes, the above use of the word compensation is unbounded so it could reach a myriad of forms of compenstion, e.g., a job, a dinner, a marriage, mmmm, even, pleasure. Let your imagination run wild, well, not too wild…
1The site that appeared to have their City Code online did not respond.