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

[Pierce T . Wetter III]

>   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.)

 So free trade has generally led to more wealth for everyone at the 
expense
of a few temporary elites. One of the free trade issues between the
US and some South American countries is our large agricultural subsidies
coupled with the falling costs of shipping make it hard for them to 
compete
with US farms in their own country. Yet food subsidies are one of the 
most
effective tools we have against poverty by keeping food cheap.

 How would your policy resolve this issue?

>   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.

 Love the book Shockwave Rider which made this point on the electronic
front.

>   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.)

 Wow. just wow.

 Uh, I'm sorry, but there are crazy people in the world, and love is 
too late for
them.
>   4. Welfare state
>
>      Gains in productivity belong to the workers and the strongest
>      union is, at least potentially, the government itself.

 Uh, that's never happened in history. Power corrupts and all that.


>      Me personally?  My skelatal system is failing ot the point where
>      it's awefully hard to actually stand up and walk in the morning.

  I recommend qi gong or tai chi if that's hard to find. If you're ever 
in
Flagstaff, AZ, come by my martial arts studio on Saturday and I can hook
you up with a healer which might even be me.

 Pierce