Democracy Without Politics?

Is such a thing possible? Perhaps. Harvey C. Mansfield of the Hoover Institution reviews the book Democracy Without Politics by Steven Bilakovics.

Democracy is loved in theory but despised in practice. Go figure?

Mobilization and Poverty Law: Searching for Participatory Democracy Amongst the Ashes of the War on Poverty

Mobilization and Poverty Law: Searching for Participatory Democracy Amongst the Ashes of the War on Poverty by Wendy A. Bach, University of Tennessee, 2012

Pot-shots

>>>Local cops sued over taser death. Four Washtenaw county Sheriff's deputies who were assisting in a Livingston and Washtenaw Narcotics Enforcement Team dope bust tased a guy and it apparently killed him. We'll see how that plays out in court.

>>> Rush Limbaugh has lost seven advertisers from his radio program since  last week over his  comments about contraception. Free speech has a price sometimes.

>>> Zombie Apocalypse course being taught at MSU? No, not really. But that sexed-up course title for a class about group dynamics in times of crisis during and following natural disasters and social upheavals is being promoted by a market savvy MSU social work professor. Smart. This will no doubt get picked up by the news media for inclusion in articles and blog posts about silly course offerings at public universities but it really isn't. Just some clever marketing. I wonder how many goofs sign up for this course drop it when they figure this out?

>>> The proles & peasants need to just STFU and work, pay, and obey their betters. Cornell professors conclude ordinary people are too stupid for democracy to work very well. The dumb proles need experts like, say, Cornell professors to decide important issues about society and government.

>>>Government Is Not Civilization, It Is Slavery by J.G. Vibes
"If we attempt to examine government from an outsider’s perspective, we would see a world where people are grouped into two different categories, those in government and those not. At face value, we can see that these two groups of people have completely different standards and expectations, even though they are the same species and have the same basic needs. Looking closer, we can see that these different standards and laws are not neutral, they are very much benefiting those in government at the expense of those who are not. The most important discrepancy to mention here is the fact that those in government have a license to kill anyone who happens to disobey them." [read it all here]

I could not have put it better myself

"A bureaucrat is a bureaucrat, regardless of the bureau."

 Indeed they are. And a pox on all of them too.

(Via the Getting Your Hands Dirty blog)

This what democracy looks like?

Applicants are lining up to be appointed to the 15th District Court (city of Ann Arbor) judgeship recently vacated by Julie Creal. Why can't have a primary and then an election to fill this seat? That is what democracy looks like at least to me. Having the governor pick some partisan hack to fill the position isn't democracy. Any governor not just  Governor Snyder.

Okay now tell us what you really think

Florence King on democracy: "The crude leading the crud."

Every path to serfdom begins with a first step

The American republic dies, and a junta begins says Peter Haworth @ Front Porch Republic
 
"As many readers know, a new 'Super Congress' is being created via the agreement to raise the debt ceiling. This consists of a special committee that will recommend fast-track legislation to the Congress for a vote. Individual members will be unable to add amendments, filibuster, or otherwise employ their traditional practices aimed at improving the legislation. Moreover, given the adverse consequences entailed in not approving the Super Congress’ proposals, members will likely rubber-stamp its actions."
[link in original]

Step # 1.

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Hear ye! Hear ye!

Obama administration wants to cut funding for lamprey control programs for Great Lakes (Detroit Free Press)
The feds caused this problem in the first damn place. Now they wanna cut back on fixing it?

Hutaree Militia case from 2010 will not go to trial until 2012 at the earliest (Ann Arbor.com)
No trial = no justice. Those defendants have been rotting in prison for going on two years now. If the evidence the government has is so overwhelming why not go to trial right away? I understand there is usually some pretrial jostling around by both the state and the defense lawyers but two fucking years?

Only 17% say U.S. government has consent of the governed (Rasmussen)
 No surprise to me.

Keep both eyes open when you shoot (The High Road)
Takes some practice if you're not used to doing so but it works better IMHO.

Observations

Why statistical measures of GDP don't accurately measure real well-being

"Declining standards of well-being are politically destabilizing, and lead naturally enough to sweeping support for regime change. In Egypt and Tunisia the regimes happened to be despotic, and the call for change came as a commitment to democracy, an end to corruption, and demands for civil liberties. But within democracies, declining standards of living can have the opposite effect. Open and institutionalized systems of regime change—voting—will absorb the discontent for a time, but if the decline lasts too long, or  can’t successfully be blamed on a particular party in power, pressure grows for stepping outside established parties for new, radical, revolutionary approaches."

Lenin predicted that fascism (rather than communism) could emerge in industrially developed countries with liberal democratic governments if their economies faltered badly enough. And that's what happened too, first in Italy, then in Spain and finally in Germany and which resulted in a world war.

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California was on the verge of legalizing marijuana—until profit-hungry growers just said no.

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"How does [Guillaume] Faye visualize the post-catastrophic Earth? For him, the deprecation of modernity results in a two-tier world, in which most of humanity reverts to traditional or neo-Medieval societies (essentially pre-industrial reservations), while an elite minority—composed of Europeans and South East Asians—rebuilds advanced technological societies across Eurasia and parts of North America. These societies are to be, of course, archeofuturistic—hierarchical and rooted in ethnotribalism, fiercely protectionistic, yet also ones that fully exploit science and technology, even if ‘esoteric,’ non-humanistic versions of them, ‘decoupled from the rationalistic outlook.’ There is to be no global flow of capital, spreading wealth and technology everywhere: the world economy is to be inegalitarian, elitist, based on quality over quantity. There are also to be no nation states: the European Imperium is to comprise over a hundred regions, with their own languages, customs, and garb. The United States is to split in to ethnic regions (Dreamland for the Blacks), and is to stabilize for the most part according to an eighteenth-century agrarian model. The world, in sum, and in contradiction to liberal aspirations, is to become more ethnic and more differentiated, not less." What was, must be

Whoa. That 's a mouthful.

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Some thoughts on healthful drinking from Mark Sisson: Go with the red wine or whiskies and forget about the clear liquors, beer, and the rest. Be moderate about it too.

The NYT's review of Sean Wilentz’s book Bob Dylan in America

Democracy as Spectacle: The Messianic Compulsions of our Republic
Some thoughts on American political culture.

Diversity is not our strength no matter what elites tell us.

"How Websites Make You Spill Your Secrets" - MIT's Technology Review


Mexico wary of California proposal to legalize marijuana - Washington Post
I'll bet. There is a lot of money involved here.

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Converting a shipping container into a house - io9
Seems kind of novel but the comments that accompany the post are rather disparaging. Hmmm.
A phone camera video tour of the Times Square car bomb suspect's home - NY Post
Pretty ordinary. Type of place a single young man would have. Not sure why I even clicked on it. It reveals nothing of him.
Why electoral democracy is always unfair - New Scientist
A portable power source that runs on salt-water or urine - Popular Science
How to make people kill each other despite a natural reluctance to - Scientific America
Canadian beavers build dam big enough to be visible from space - Sun (via Slashdot)
How technology failed in the Gulf of Mexico BP oil rig disaster - Technology Review
Easy taunts you can use to start an argument (or a flame war) with a geek - Wired

What I use for home protection instead of a pistol
Handguns in Michigan are very tightly regulated and the penalty for having an unregistered or unlicensed one (even in your home) is a bitch. And if it turns out to be stolen property then it's a felony with all that entails. So I use this instead. Perfectly legal and no permits from the government are necessary. Packs quite a wallop and just racking it is the best thing for intimidating would-be prowlers.

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What happens when people gain the ability to govern themselves? - MIT News
The mystery of Zombia - Boston.com

In the ungoverned mountain realms of south Asia, a Yale professor finds a case against the modern state.
Belkin cooling pad gives your laptop a break. - Gizmodo
When it comes to mating we really are animals after all...- iSteve
" [I]n today’s chaotic combination of polygamy for lucky alphas, hypergamy in varying degrees for females depending on their sex appeal, and, at least in theory, large numbers of betas left without mates at all—just as it is in baboon packs."
Why so-called "three-strikes" laws never seem to work out. - LA Times
You get convicted of one or two serious crimes then get sent away for 25 to life for stealing a pizza slice.
The Stinking Hellebore is the only plant discovered so far that relies on another organism to generate heat for it. - New Scientist
French intellectual and media darling Bernard-Henri Levy was duped into citing the work of a made-up philosopher in his latest book. - Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It pays to check these things professor. Heh.
SF Giants to start so-called dynamic pricing - SF Weekly
"...factors such as the day's starting pitcher, the weather, and the team's place in the pennant race all adds up -- at least on a calculator." Pissed off fans though are another matter.

High-tech replacement sights for the SKS rifle. - Tech Sights LLC

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The Appleseed Project - Revolutionary War Veterans Association
"The Appleseed Program is designed to take you from being a simple rifle owner to being a true rifleman. All throughout American history, the rifleman has been defined as a marksman capable of hitting a man-sized target from 500 yards away — no ifs, ands or buts about it. This 500-yard range is traditionally known as 'the rifleman's quarter-mile;' a rifleman can hit just about any target he can see. This skill was particularly evident in the birth of our country, and was the difference in winning the Revolutionary War.."
Just as the founders feared, American democracy has gotten way too democratic. - NY Magazine
Obama Goes Nuclear- MIT Technology Review
BHO is willing to revisit his opposition to nuclear power plants.