From: TruthMonger <tm@dev.null>
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 06:51:13 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Tough On 49% of the Crime / Re: democracy?! (Re: Terrorism is a NON-THREAT
In-Reply-To: <43e6aee147%Tim@tim01.ex.ac.uk>
Message-ID: <345A5D48.6090@dev.null>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Tim Griffiths wrote:

> Does it...mean that we potentially have 49% of the population
> in jail for any particular act, deemed to be a crime by the remaining 51%?

Take $100.00 to a gambling hall every day where the slot machine 
payout is 96% and you come home with an average of $96.00, right?
<Enough money to buy a bridge in the NYC area...>

Government power grows via the same types of mechanisms at work in
gambling, pea-shell games, pyramid schemes, etc.

The 51% of Green citizens vote the 49% of other-colored citizens into
imprisonment.
The 51% of Lime-Green citizens...
...<etc., etc.>...
You and the other Left-Handed, Brown-eyed, Red-Haired, Lime-Green
citizen flip a coin to see which one of you is imprisoned and
which one remains free.

Politicians now run on 'slogans' instead of 'platforms' because then
they don't really even have to bother much with pretending to fulfill
any particular so-called 'voter mandate.'
Nobody runs on a platform of imprisoning all citizens with names 
beginning with 'B' through 'L'.
They run behind a vague 'Tough On Crime' slogan.

Then...
"We're putting all people who have names beginning with 'B' in jail...
blah...blah...blah...Tough On Crime!
"We're putting all people who have names beginning with 'C'...
...<etc., etc.>...
"We're putting all people who have names beginning with 'L'...

Next Election:
  "I have never stated I am in favor of imprisoning people whose names
begin with 'N', but I *do* promise to be 'Tough On Crime'!"
  <Crowd of 'N' people cheering madly...>

Your Plan:
To confiscate all of the citizens' money.
Your Platform: 
Promise not to raise taxes. <hee, hee>

Your Plan:
To murder all of the citizens.
Your Platform:
Promise to be 'Tough On Crime.' <hee-haw>

Campaign Plan:
Show 1 picture of paroled murderer killing again.
Show it 100,000 times.

After Elected:
Vote on hundreds upon hundreds of laws which have absolutely nothing
to do with anything you mentioned in your election campaign, or are
issues which you blah-blah-blahed before showing 'the picture' once
again, working the crowd of 'N' people into another frenzy.

Next Week: The Line Item Veto Interpreted by the Supreme Court to
          Approve Congressional Amendment Veto Powers for the
          Whitehouse Janitor.

TRUTHMONGER is an out of work comedian who couldn't get a job with
CNN because he couldn't keep a straight face when reporting the
'regular' news. <nod-nod> <wink-wink>
He plans to change his name to ZRUTHMONGER before the next elections.