Comments | tashiro: Shifting Your Monkeysphere

tashiro

Shifting Your Monkeysphere

Apr 18, 2013 01:25

I just read today they arrested someone who may have tried sending a poisoned letter to the President and a number of other political officials. According to his letter, he felt he was doing the right thing - well, of course he did, or he would not have attempted it. But it has me thinking about a number of things. Specifically, perception and ( Read more... )

life, advocacy

Comments 7

IMHO Part I brother_dour April 18 2013, 17:22:21 UTC

We should outlaw Elvis impersonators. Statistically, 100% of all people who mailed ricin to elected officials in the U.S. in the last 10 years were Elvis impersonators ( ... )

IMHO Part II brother_dour April 18 2013, 17:48:09 UTC

Question: how can you expect compromise of any meaningful nature when the only two -viable- political parties are so far apart ideologically? Answer: you really can't. Hell, the only reason the GOP is interested in compromising on immigration and not on gun control is because they didn't lose fucktons of gun owner votes in 2012. If they had, you can bet Manchin-Toomey would have passed. I still think that the U.S. could benefit not just from a strong, moderate third party, but a coalition party such as you see in some EU countries. When you have to get four or five other parties together just to get your guy elected, suddenly compromise is a necessity ( ... )

Second Amendment brother_dour April 18 2013, 18:20:04 UTC

Kind of fell like I'm spamming your post, but I have squat to do for work today and I find the topic very interesting ( ... )

Re: Second Amendment tashiro April 18 2013, 19:10:48 UTC

Hey, I don't mind. Re: 2nd Amendment:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/burton-newman/the-nras-fraud-fabricatio_b_3103358.html

Re: Second Amendment brother_dour April 18 2013, 19:55:27 UTC

It is true that the Second Amendment was not applied to individual rights until Heller vs DC, and expanded slightly in McDonald vs Chicago. The thing is: that doesn't matter ( ... )

kyn_elwynn April 19 2013, 18:07:03 UTC

The electoral college works in a time where individual votes are hard if not near impossible to tally. Now with our present level of technology, we could, legitimately tally each and every voter's opinion and instead of candidates winning whole states' votes because their electoral majority edged out the rest, we could have the 43 million to 55 million sorts of decisive splits to elect the one guy who truly does represent the majority of Americans. If you can't tell I'm really tired of the electoral college and lobbyists in general.

marinredwolf April 21 2013, 18:36:30 UTC

What option? Well, not much.

You operate within the system, whether that means voting or demonstrating or trying to connect with like-minded individuals. Or maybe you get out and find some more appealing place to live. Or you suck it up and try not to run afoul of what you don't disagree with.

Once you start throwing serious activism and violence into the mix... you're going to have to face the consequences and there's almost no way that's going to end well for you. "Terrorism," in so far as I've seen, tends to cause more opposition than sympathy.

What would have happened if that poising attempt had worked? Well, more security about mail, certainly. New officials would be elevated/appointed/elected. Some freedoms might be lost in the name of security. Somehow, I really don't think that's what the person behind it was going for.