[CrackMonkey] Gar! (Election Rant)

[Michael Jennings]

On Wednesday, 08 March 2000, at 19:37:04 (-0800),
Rick Moen wrote:

> Agreed.  I actually do that frequently.  Got tired of getting
> manipulated based on someone's calculation that I'd take a guess and
> vote yes or no.

Exactly.

Of course, there are those whose logic basically equates to, "If you
see a lot of commercials for a particular ballot item, vote the other
way."  The justification being that big business is usually working
against our own good.  But noting the number of "No on Knight"
commercials I saw vs. the fact that I didn't see any "Yes on 22"
commercials, I think the conclusion derived therefrom is obvious.

As Joshua realized, sometimes the only way to win is not to play.

> No, on the participation of my government in shady activities.
> Letting private institutions take advantage of people's gullibility
> is part of living in a free society, but establishing predation on
> the governed by the government, even on that scale, is an incredibly
> bad idea.
> 
> Thus, for example, I don't want a Federally-run Amway-type scam
> being used to finance the Securities Exchange Commission.

Okay, I gotcha now.

I guess I look at it more as such:  It's not the government taking
advantage of the people, it's the people taking advantage of the
people.  We (the voters in general) did, after all, vote it in.  So
it's really the majority preying on the minority.  I can't fathom a
reason to have a lottery (or any form of legalized gambling) other
than to raise money from tourists and the uneducated/unwary.

Hmmm.  The big guy preying on the little guy, I guess.  Some would
call that injustice.  Others would call it democracy.

Michael

-- 
 "Whoa.  Somebody computer programmers think is anti-social?  That
  I'd like to see."                    -- Sydney Penny, "Hyperion Bay"
=======================================================================
Michael Jennings  <mej at eterm.org>  www.tcserv.com  PGP Key ID: BED09971
Software Engineer, VA Linux Systems       Author, Eterm (www.eterm.org)