[Gnu-arch-users] [OT] _happy_ poltical things

[Tom Lord]

Maybe this is just Stephen-bait (I hope so because this is right up
his ally).   Maybe this is just an alternative to depressing
conversations about our current facist administration.

Lately, I'm thinking that the welfare state and very strong unions and
econmic protectionism are, for the most part, good things:

Some social constructs (like "safety net" and "medical care") work out
best if we collectively promote a boy-scout culture ("do the honorable
thing") and, slightly forcibly, persue the majority-rules collective
effort path.  Hey, I'm _nearly_ a libertarian but, you know what?: if
the commons is being overgrazed, and the bulk of my neighbors agree,
I'm all in favor of a government program to administer the commons.
Cops with guns and all.  No big theory there: just that I think (and
observe) that that can work exceedingly well.

As for trade and self-sufficiency: it is utterly _insane_ that large
numbers of people depend, for there very survival, on massive
international commerce and the resulting motion of material goods.  No
ideology which concludes that such dependency is a good thing is
sane: it's the absurd result that proves an error in earlier reasoning
has occured.

Here's my platform (I'm a write-in candidate for president this
november :-):


  1. Sane Trade

     Every region should have the right to make trade policies which
     protect and/or promote the self-sufficiency of the region.
     Beyond that baseline, free trade rules.  (Of course, who exactly
     speaks for "a region" is the hard question.)


  2. Mutual inspection

     Although the situation with Iraq has made a perversity of it, 
     the underlying principle is sound.   Um.... if I can't inspect
     your basement and see what you're up to, I have just cause to 
     interfere with your life.   Sorry -- technological progress has
     killed cultural privacy: absolute openness is the only
     trustworthy path.   On that narrow issue, the Bush administration
     had made an important (and hopefully lasting) point.


  3. We'll absorb a small number of hits, gratis.

     9/11 blows.  It was, truly, an Evil-with-a-capital-E act.

     Hey bad guys: very interesting.  We're going to trump that,
     though: with love.  Say, have you spoken with your _wife_ lately?

     (I have no apology for the political actions of my gov't that
     (ostensively) triggered this attack.   This does not, not even a
     little bit, justify the attack in my mind.   It does, however,
     color my judgement about appropriate responses.   I remain
     firm in my judgement that we can, collectively, love the bad guys
     to death.)

  4. Welfare state

     Gains in productivity belong to the workers and the strongest
     union is, at least potentially, the government itself.

     Me personally?  My skelatal system is failing ot the point where 
     it's awefully hard to actually stand up and walk in the morning.  
     My eyeglasses are years out of date and falling apart.  My 
     issues with housing and food supply are rather well known.   
     Given the choice between the capitalist twits who control the
     industry of my profession and a general gov't program of basic
     necessities, guess which one I'd choose (given the choice).

-t