Fare thee well Don Geronimo. Thanks for the many years of entertainment.

I wanted to get this written down as sort of a “you heard it here first.”

There have been a couple of science stories floating around this past week, and while seemingly unrelated, I wanted to merge them together into a singular ridiculous hypothesis.

Most of you are probably familiar with the SETI project, which is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. This is a project that sifts through the data collected by the world’s radio telescopes, hoping to find proof of an extraterrestrial signal. If you’ve been an Internet geek for a long time, you may have stumbled across the SETI@Home project, which is a distributed effort to analyze that data using the spare computing power of ordinary Internet connected home computers. So far, they haven’t found it… Keep that in mind.

There’s also news about the new Large Hadron Collider (what used to commonly be called an ‘Atom Smasher’ in our naive past) at CERN, in Switzerland. Physicists are hoping to recreate conditions close to the instant that immediately followed The Big Bang, and learn more about the squishy innards that make up sub-atomic particles. In particular, they are looking for something called the Higgs-Boson, or “God Particle.” The new collider is supposed to come online in June. The largest collider in operation today is near Chicago, and the two sites are in a race to identify this God Particle.

There are some Luddites in the world that are urging caution, suggesting that when fired up, the LHC will inadvertently create a Black Hole, and THAT would be bad.

Here’s where, in my warped mind, the two stories merge…

What if there are, or had been, other technologically advanced species scattered throughout the universe, and that in their efforts to understand the universe around them, they built similar super-powerful atom smashers.

What if they created the conditions immediately after The Big Bang, and found the Higgs-Boson, the so-called God Particle…

And then immediately thereafter, God laughed, formed a Black Hole, and it swallowed them and their advanced civilization up…

And that’s why we haven’t heard from them…

“Now Icarus, I told you not to fly too high…”

So basically, if you want to know how many advanced civilizations there have ever been in the universe, just count the Black Holes.

…Fake Steve Jobs’ pithy banter becomes one with my sense of humor.

• Re: Larry Ellison - “I honor the place where your beautiful inner self becomes not-one with the needs of local schoolchildren.”
• Re: Google’s upcoming Android Phone OS - “I honor the place where your concern and my profit margins become one.”
• Re: Business Adoption of Macs - “I honor the place where your drab, meaningless cubicle lives become one with my sleek, sophisticated inventions.”
• Re: The quality of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 - “I honor the place where the rage of your customers becomes one with their desire to switch to my operating system.”

And while this one doesn’t specifically honor any particular place, it’s still a mighty fine read. Namaste.

I’m a little behind on my posting…  Much of my thunder has been silenced of late by my complete disgust with the Mainstream Media and the Electoral Process.  Ron Paul’s Presidential Campaign has been an exciting run, and I think it’s awoken a lot of people in this country.  While it will end in the only manner that it really could have, I hope that it will sow the seeds for a real political change in America.

We’re long overdue…  I cite the following examples as evidence:

• White House refuses to talk about the falling value of the Dollar - “I’m under strict instructions, and have been from the beginning, to not talk about the dollar, and I’m not going to get fired to satisfy your question.”
• NSA Quietly Expands Domestic Spying Program - “The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed,”
• Rate-My-Cop: New Website has Police Furious - Officer Hector Basurto, the vice president of the Latino Police Officers Association, recently learned about the site. “I’d like to see it gone,” he said.
• The Fed promised a $200 billion booster shot for ailing markets - Let the Bank Bail-out begin, with you, the taxpayer, taking it in the shorts.
• Crime Pays for US Prison Companies - The United States leads the world in the number of people it incarcerates and government figures show the country’s prison population grew by three percent to a record 2.3 million inmates in 2006.
• Iraq costs the US $12B per month - In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the “burn” rate of its earliest years.

This is just a handful of stories I’ve seen over the past few days addressing a wide range of issues that should suggest to the average person that “enough is enough.”  Our government is out of control, at nearly all levels.

The Federal Government uses part of our money to spy on us.  They use part of it to fight a war that not too many of us want to be involved in.  They are about to use another big chunk to bail-out the banks that have been making money hand over fist.  We’ll be paying for it for years…

Meanwhile, the dollar is in free fall, and they don’t want to talk about it.  They just want to keep borrowing more (ie: print more), and hope nobody notices that it’s becoming more worthless by the day.  If you’re one of the few that has actually managed to scrimp and save, the balance in your account is losing purchasing power with each passing moment.

The local Police don’t like the idea that we pesky citizens may start trying to hold them accountable for their actions.  I guess they didn’t see this coming, what with all the tazings they’ve been doling out.  They claim that tracking information about abusive cops will put the officers at risk; I suppose we are supposed to bear all the risk by allowing the people with a monopoly of legalized force to do whatever they please without the risk of reprisal.

And the Prison Business is booming!  A hearty “thank you” to the mandatory minimums, and the 10+ million laws on the books.  I wonder how many you’re breaking right this minute.  Still they claim that ignorance of the law is no excuse…  I fail to see how it can’t be an excuse when the number of laws increases at such a stead clip, that even attorneys can’t keep up, and they’re supposed to be the experts.

The bottom line, folks, is that We the People have lost all control over our government.  It forces us to pay for the chains it uses to enslave us, and it does so by putting a gun to our heads.  Step out of line, and they’ll know (cause they’re listening to your calls, and reading your emails, monitoring your search habits, and putting up cameras in all public places).  Then they’ll taze you, lock you up indefinately, and devalue your money while you’re away.

While they’re at it, they’ll go to war in your name with people that are only mad at you to begin with for things that your government has been doing to them for years in secret…  (Overthrowing the Democratically elected Government in Iran to install the Shah in the 50s; Arming Iraq against Iran; Arming Afghanistan against the Soviets; Arming the Saudis against Iraq; Building bases all over the place; the list is nearly endless.)

Isn’t anyone else as fed up with the whole thing as I am?  This will not end in a pretty manner.  Mark my words.

“All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him. If it be aristocratic in organization, then it seeks to protect the man who is superior only in law against the man who is superior in fact; if it be democratic, then it seeks to protect the man who is inferior in every way against both. One of its primary functions is to regiment men by force, to make them as much alike as possible and as dependent upon one another as possible, to search out and combat originality among them. All it can see in an original idea is potential change, and hence an invasion of its prerogatives. The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.”

– H. L. Mencken, Smart Set, 1919

“Liberty is the souls’s right to breathe, and when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight.”

– Rev. Henry Ward Beecher

“A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.”

–John Stuart Mill

You will hear, in any number of venues, that you have the right to vote, and indeed, the obligation to vote.

• “Get out the Vote.”
• “Rock the Vote.”
• “If you don’t vote, then you don’t have the right to complain.”

It’s true, voting is important, but the emphasis is always placed on the act itself, rather than the important preparations that should be taken prior to casting the vote. Voting is an expression of political power, and any power exercised without careful and judicious deliberation is an abuse of power. Voting is no different.

With the right comes a responsibility. A person has an obligation to know precisely what he or she is voting for. A person must take it upon himself to understand the issues at hand, to know the candidates positions on vital matters, and ideally, cast a vote for the candidate that most closely represents the individual’s own point of view.

Casting an uninformed vote is NO DIFFERENT from carelessly waving a loaded gun. It is a reckless act with unknown consequences, and it has the power to affect people the world over.

In years past, the Republican party has always taken for granted that whomever eventually won their Presidential nomination would inherit the other candidates’ supporters for the general election…  That has always been the case.  They have counted on the fact that the voters would come together, if for no other reason, simply to defeat the Democratic candidate.

I think they are starting to figure out that this year isn’t going to work out like that, and if they haven’t, they soon will, because the media is starting to pick up on it.

Ron Paul polls at around 6% nationally…  Since Paul voters will not vote for McCain, nor Huckabee, that 6% is plenty is plenty to ensure that there will not be a Republican victory in November.  Worse still, of Paul’s supporters, there’s a sizable portion that are on board simply for his anti-war stance, rather than for his fiscal positions, and return to genuine conservatism.  Those voters could easily support Obama, further padding the November Democratic win.

In a longer sense, this may be the end of the GOP.  The libertarian wing of the party, a small but vocal minority, has had enough of the neoconservative agenda.  We have no more in common with them than we do with the socialists on the other side of the aisle.  There will be a bitter taste in all of our mouths, having backed a candidate that represented the real thing, only to have the party thumb their noses at us.

Fact is, we don’t see much of a difference between McCain and Hillary or Obama on social issues.  While I can’t vote for any of them, at least if Obama wins, Iraq may draw to a close.

As a Ron Paul supporter, I have to walk a fine line between optimism and realism.

The optimist in me says that this nomination cycle isn’t over by a longshot, and that due to campaign funding, Ron can afford to let the other campaigns spend themselves out, and he’ll get a fair shake once we are down to three candidates. Huckabee and Giuliani are all but done. Neither of them will be around after Super Tuesday. That’ll leave Romney, McCain, and my guy…

The realist in me says that the media blackout, calculated and effective, is working. While the other candidates get plenty of free TV exposure courtesy of the mainstream media, my guy is largely relegated to coverage by College newspapers, bloggers, and an occasional Op-Ed piece contributed by readers.

As much as I want to stay upbeat, I recognize that Dr. Paul is probably not going to win the Republican nomination. I think he’ll be in the race until the end, but it’s not going to be enough.

So I sit here wondering how this is all going to go down, and I think I’ve figured it out. Whenever he’s been asked about it, on those few occasions where the media pretends he actually exists, he has made statements to the effect that he isn’t planning a third party run. He has all but ruled it out.

But he’s never ruled it out completely…

Now, I’m prepared to take the good doctor at his word, because he is above all things, an honest man. I believe sincerely that his plan was to win the Republican nomination, and that any provocative statements about a third party candidacy would have ruined even the remote possibility of that to occur. That said, I would have to be a complete idiot not to think that there have been some very serious discussions within the campaign about a third party bid as a “Plan B.”

What are the problems with a third party run? There are three main obstacles: Ballot Access, Debate Rules, and Winner-take-All.

Ballot Access
The first hurdle, obviously, is ballot access. The Democratic and Republican candidates are guaranteed a place on the ballots, but third parties must clear a number of additional hurdles, such as paying registration fees, and meeting petition requirements.

Ron Paul, by virtue of his phenomenal ability to raise funds, and his wide-spread grassroots support, should be able to handle these issues with relative ease.

Debate Rules

There are two notable rules that essentially lock third party candidates out of the debate process. The first is that a third party candidate must appear on enough state ballots that he could mathematically win an Electoral College majority. The second, and more nefarious, is that the candidate must be polling at 15% in public opinion polls prior to the debates.

I have no doubt that Ron Paul, with his rabid support organization, could get on every State ballot in the country. They have already managed to do so for the primary ballots, and would easily be able to do so for the general election in November.

I also think that it is not inconceivable that he could muster 15% in opinion polling, assuming that the Democratic and Republican nomination process had whittled away all of the other contenders, that he could hold onto the approximate 10% of Republicans that he currently attracts, and that the established third parties (Libertarian Party, Constitution Party, and Reform Party) threw their support behind him, which is, to my mind, a very reasonable assumption.

Winner-take-All

Obviously, Winner-take-All (or Plurality-take-All) is another factor that discourages the possibilities of a successful third party bid. Under our system, a third party candidate could take 2nd in the popular vote in all 50 States, and would not receive a single Electoral College delegate. Proportional representation would mitigate this, but we haven’t got that, so there’s no point in elaborating. In order for a third party candidate to win, he would have to win States outright… 2nd place doesn’t cut it.

So those are the primary challenges that face anyone hoping to mount a third party bid for the Presidency.

Of the three, obviously, Ballot Access is the easiest one to address. Ron Paul’s supporters have already successfully run this gauntlet to get him on all of the Primary ballots, and it wouldn’t be very difficult to do so again. All it takes is effort and a sufficient number of supporters, and I think we’ve demonstrated that we have what it takes to make that happen.

Meeting the 15% debate threshold is a bit trickier, though, not impossible. In fact, I think that’s what Ron Paul has really been working toward throughout the Republican nomination cycle. The longer he stays in the nomination race, and the more debates he participates in, the better his chances. Even though the debate moderators largely ignore him, his presence alone, and his answers during the brief moments where he gets to speak generate controversy and interest.

The disastrous economy is actually a huge boon for Ron Paul. Not only had he been predicting this recession, but his understanding of economics and monetary policy vastly outclasses any other candidate from either party. As the economy worsens, Paul’s message may very well start to strike a chord with the American mainstream.

Remember, in 1992 Ross Perot managed to climb from a 7% polling rate prior to the debates, to 19% in the general election. That’s a multiplier of over 2.5. If Ron Paul could muster the 15% necessary to participate in the debates as a third party, and get the same kind of conversion rate as Perot managed heading into the general election, he would garner 37.5% of the vote in the general election… In a three-way race, he’d only need 34% to win.

With the right electoral math, he’d have a very real possibility of mounting the first successful third party run for President of the United States

Today is the day people…  Be a part of American History!

Tea Party ‘07

Donate to the Ron Paul Campaign!