Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Not me, if I was an American citizen! I am, in ideal theory, completely against voting for any political offices, but make well considered rare exceptions in practice. This one is a major one! And in this case conscience is essential. Voting against your conscience is only allowed in a situation where it would bring about a change. Voting for either Bush or Kerry will not bring about ANY change really. Voting for Badnarik might bring one, and, if not, will at least place a bigger protest sign in front of the White House rose garden, thus having a cooling effect on all that madness so far. It will prepare and set a better terrain for the Libertarian Party next time. Already this year we could witness with joy an already great improvement compared to earlier attempts and efforts. If it does not bring a change now, what's the difference then with the other two? You really can choose what conscience dictates in this situation. The madness of the duopoly will no doubt continue and increase, unless Badnarik is elected of course or gets a landslide result to which you can and should contribute in a week from today. You Americans have internalized this two party system too much. And that helps to eternalize it. I suggest you read Don Parrish, writing along a similar line. Some people erroneously think that being and staying principled can only lead to defeat in this world as it is. Baloney! Spread by those who have an interest to ours opposed, that we should not win. Just think, as an example, of the huge success of the gay liberation movement. Do you really think that this would have come about, if they had continued to make all those many little cowardly compromises with the situation as it is, as it was, when they finally, in 1969, in Big Apple's Greenwich Village, in Christopher Street's Stonewall Inn, started to become courageous, totally principled and uncompromising, reclaiming their natural rights and self-ownership. You have to take what is owed to you. Hardly anyone will give it to you, certainly no politician or bureaucrat, if they are not forced by the people in self-defence. The heading of this editorial is borrowed from Jonathan David Morris's column of this week, with that intriguing title The Curse of the Curse of the Bambino. It's about baseball, not politics, just about life. As it looks superficially. A maybe needed breather this week before that final stormy attack. But along some funny elegant sentences there is deep meaning in it, also maybe political. Enjoy it, then get ready for what can still be done during the rest of the week and, during the weekend, visit your aunt and convince her to vote for Badnarik. She certainly finds him snazzy. PS: Not maybe, it is political, about the Badnarik campaign even, in a way an allegory of all I say above. And I am sure that Libertarians don't have any faked orgasms at all! ;-)"It ain’t over till it’s over"
This I would like to shout to all those fake libertarians who are going to vote for Bush or Kerry and have proclaimed so.
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 09:21 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Attention, non-Americans, "blowout" in American slang means a big, usually lavish, party or entertainment. Sorry if it sounds so defeatist to non-American ears. Mr. Badnarik will not blow out like a candle! Simply think of an Libertarian ELECTION NIGHT PARTY.Your Invitation
to the "BADNARIK BLOWOUT" ELECTION NIGHT CELEBRATION
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 06:53 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Read that great article You might not want to go home again! I have been able myself to smuggle illegal material (forbidden books) into Eastern Germany more easily than this has always been possible into the United States, well before the Patriot Act, namely porn and "porn" (by some of the greatest authors of world literature) ~~ and chocolates containing liquor... Not to speak of a lot of other things and wares. Considering the latter, some of them can safely cross borders only when peddled by the CIA... Customs, in any country of the world, have always been one of the worst and most obvious signs of despotism. I still remember that scourge from not that long ago in Europe. The EU hasn't changed it, just displaced and enlarged the lasso, so that the king's subjects should forget about it, not seeing it or feeling it with their own bodies every day, except that minority of importers and exporters. After all, what should they care about those and the "savages" outside their larger border... Countries! Nations! Territories! Let's get to the basics. This beautiful earth, at the start, is inhabited only by individuals, nothing else, who will usually in a totally self-determined way choose to form pairs, families, neighbourhood communities and other more volatile groups of common interest, in company with the rocks, the plants, the animals. These give them food, clothing and shelter. To the detriment of these three companions and man himself, things have evolved. The rocks that gave safety now have been largely transformed into autobahns (or any other unsafe at any speed roads) or royal palaces or parliament buildings or courts of injustice or rockets to the moon or hard metal rock music. The plants have largely become tobacco and booze and worse. And condoms. The animals, if beasts of prey, have been replaced by guns, and if playmates, pets, have been replaced by cellular phones. The self-styled dwellers in those palaces and their successors in the parliaments and courts, since these mutations occurred all over the globe (from bushwhacking corners of it to Bushistan), had a problem with too much competition. So they invented borders and accounting, so as not to be mixed up about what soil, what herds, what human cattle and what souls belonged to the one and not the other. Often used branding has now been replaced by identity cards, even though rock musicians could do without those thanks to their tattoos. Since that time we have countries, national anthems, wars and pageantry, flags on coffins, Arlington, in one word territorialism. No one, on either side of any border, even if cosmopolitan traveler or package tour tourist, does belong to himself anymore but to those with the highest criminal energy. I hope you enjoyed reading these entertaining lines! ;-) Terrorism and territorialism "are two sides of one coin. I say they're one side of one coin -- that's how thin the difference is between them" (to quote from JDM's retracted article, though he said this of John Kerry and George Bush, those two mutation results).Terrorism in the Shoe
"At security I removed my shoes. They were held and visibly inspected, then x-rayed. I now have assurance that they neither have tumours nor cavities. This must be the new Bush socialised medicine that I heard about. Who says he's not a compassionate conservative?"
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 12:45 AM GMT+1 [Link]
Sunday, October 24, 2004
The one who would re-revolutionize peacefully America. Bringing it back to its sound origins and the best of its traditions. This site is proud to present, as an online exclusive, an interview with Michael Badnarik conducted by Jonathan David Morris (or JDM), the widely syndicated political columnist and political satirist you all know from my Op-Ed page and through the comments about him (or by him) in this "CB's notewok". Now the interview:Mike, Geoff and Elizabeth
Mike, that is Michael Badnarik, the United States Libertarian Party presidential candidate.Liberty in an Election Year: An Interview w/Michael Badnarik
Decent people, who have access to good information, are active in an attempt to overthrow the elephant and not let the donkey replace it. True grey matter instead of grey hide is the way. Neither one of the two preparing to restore the draft warmongers Bush and Kerry, the latter even intending to send more troops, is welcome anymore.
Elizabeth and Geoff are two supporters of the Badnarik campaign I noticed on the Badnarik blog and they warmed my heart. Do I remember wrongly or did I indeed read somewhere that Geoff discovered Badnarik only a week before he started to participate? Here is an excerpt from their exchange in that weblog:
Just made my $500 contribution. Anyone wanna match me?
Comment by Elizabeth — 10/22/2004 @ 10:02 pm
Where are all of my fellow bloggers?
And how often will the torch be updated?
Comment by Elizabeth — 10/22/2004 @ 10:13 pm
Wish I could afford to match you Elizabeth, I would in a heartbeat. Instead, I’ll Mike will have to settle for my sweat equity.. as soon as I get back to the house, I’m gonna have a dozen or so magnets made up, and PLASTER them all over the truck I drive.. get a little nation-wide advertising going 
I’ll take a picture and upload it to the forums. As to who we are.. well, I’m a former travel agent who was put out of business by the corporate greed of the US Airlines when they “independently” decided to stop paying commissions on airline tickets. For now, I drive a truck from Nebraska to the East Coast and back every week to keep body and soul together. I continue to seek a teaching position in Biology or Experimental Psychology.. I’m ABD for a PhD in Neurobiology / Experimental Psychology, and will always be since I refuse to do any more animal research. I’m addicted to EverQuest, and haven’t played once since I discovered Michael’s campaign.. though I reall should pop in and campaign there a bit.. what better way to reach 2000 people fast. I also play bridge and flyfish. How’s that for an introduction. Oh, and I write bad ad copy.
Geoff.
Comment by Geoff — 10/22/2004 @ 10:26 pm
My mail to the blogteam just bounced.. over dir (full mailbox maybe?)
Yeah, I saw that she asked where not who about 6 nanoseconds after I posted my bio LOL. I will write to Tom once I get back to the house, from my comfy chair on my comfy keyboard where I can compose at my leisure and have the letter say just what i want it to. I’m glad it was Tom, he’s about the only major network newscaster I semi trust.. if I watch the nightly news, it’s Tom.
I ordered a bumper sticker, it’s not here yet.. gonna lug the laptop to kinkos soon as I hit town and see about getting a few dozen yard signs and car magnets printed off.. and gonna print off a MESS of fliers and dump em off at the gay bars (little known fact.. Lincoln, NE has then 2nd highest concentration of gays per capita in the US.. 2nd only to San Fran). Emailed all my friends, a few of my enemies, a few friends friends (they should have used BCC)… and called a gay friend (after I emailed him) and told him to tell his friends (the only friend I know who is openly gay). So.. apart from my CB campaigning, I’ve been relatively active elsewhere. BTW, William and Elizabeth, have you looked at my unprofessional ad copy? Dying to read your opinions.
Geoff.
Comment by Geoff — 10/22/2004 @ 10:59 pm
CB: Here are some explanations and comments I did not want to insert into the quotation itself. The torch Elizabeth mentions lights up on the beautiful Statue of Liberty you can see on the supporters and blog pages of the Badnarik campaign site when the goal for contributions is reached or surpassed (at the moment the goal is $1,000,000 and the amount reached is $899,380). Previously, a goal set had been widely surpassed (by about 70 %) a good week earlier than the date it was needed! Contributions are on a steep increase as people witness the impact of the campaign reaching more and more people just waiting for the message (in spite of the longtime mainstream media blackout now starting to crack) and realize that their donations are not wasted. It has always been my wish and hope that people outside the USA would send money, as it is in their urgent interest too! It's still time and most of my readers can do more than I right now can do. Muslims and Arabs, whether living inside the USA or outside, would be well advised to send in money for this candidate. And the Sultan of Brunei might consider it too, to prevent an invasion by an elephant or a donkey, in case Mike is not elected, and Uncle Sam runs out of oil... Geoff's job situation illustrates the difficulties at home and the courage of those good Americans, while the interests the administration pursues in Iraq and elsewhere is meant to reward another kind of people, namely the bad Americans. Tom here, that is Tom Brokaw of the NBC Nightly News. And that info about Lincoln, Nebraska, is newsworthy indeed. I'll put it on my agenda. :-) Babe, what will Abe Lincoln think (or have thought) of those babes in the woods (= the bars jungle), not to mention JDM with his Abe Lincoln beard!
You hear me!
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 04:19 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Wendy McElroy, at her usual best, with all her warmth denounces a new crackdown on "deadbeats": Deadbeat Dad Contest Bad for Kids"I sold my dad for a pizza"
Pizza bribes for the populace, huge porkchops for the chiefs
"A child is half mother, half father. What emotional impact does it have on children when a government official urges them to denounce half of who they are?"Deadbroke, not deadbeat!
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 03:58 AM GMT+1 [Link]
Monday, October 18, 2004
I sure don't envy the counsellor who will have to ponder the career opportunities of that new addition to the human race. If only Goodnarik would win on November 2, so that the wars will be stopped, the torture chambers and camps be dismantled, the barracks, the Pentagon and other federal offices be populated by a better kind of people. It will be time then to forgive, to repent, and to wish the parents and the child a new future in the pursuit of happiness.Lynndie England IV
The Abu Ghraib dog leash lady gave birth to a child on Sunday, October 10. Congratulations? We'll see! According to the Washington Times, attorneys said the child's father is Spc. Charles Graner Jr., Pfc. England's ex-boyfriend, who is also shown in the prison photographs, including one with a dead man packed in ice in a body bag... What a nice family picture, both in uniform surrounded by neckid ones, for when the kid has grown up! And how balanced a family, the innocent child conceived in a torture chamber (or shall we call it a weight room maybe), sorry, a prison, and born in barracks, with both a real traditional father and a real traditional mother (except that none is at home at the kitchen sink, both are at "work"), no test tube, no rented womb, nothing artificial, the real political and religious right will be thrilled by such overwhelming traits of the nuclear family. If they only would marry!
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 04:03 PM GMT+1 [Link]
The P2P "ideas sharing" seems not to have worked as quickly as it should this time. ;-) For once it wasn't the music recording industry or the internet recording industry (government) that had intervened, we were sort of harassing ourselves for a change. ;-)Better blogospherical than politicosquare
Or simply dumb like me... Knappster, recommended below, is indeed new and started recently, in late September. As Tom tells me now: "The entries from 2001 on are 'backlog links' that I entered at that time." Makes me think of my huge amount of backlog columns and other documents to be worked upon and put online!
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 02:35 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Friday, October 15, 2004
There is such an enormous amount of bloggers out there in blogosphere, there are the dull ones and the dead ones, but there are so many extraordinarily good ones that you couldn't possibly follow them all. So you have to make some selection. And here I can help today by introducing to you a particularly worthwhile one I myself had practically overlooked for over three years, that rascal Tom having till very recently not even mentioned it, at least prominently, on his own main great website, or am I blind? It's really weird, we both are networking since such a long time in a P2P fashion [no master-slave, no client-server network, but truly mutual and libertarian win-win!] to almost make jealous all those Groksters and Napsters and Kazaas without even being in bed with Morpheus :), we are into Peer-to-Peer Idea Sharing, but one of us did not know all of it. It is never to late to start and improve. May I introduce Tom Knapp's KNAPPSTER to you? It is indeed weird that I did not know, like the times we are in. But that we all know:Blogospherical is always better than politicosquare...
This "CB's notewok" powered by Noah Grey's Greymatter, originally was meant to be just a convenient basic content management system to better deal with the frequent updates on this home page, mainly to insure automatic archiving of an editorial or other text when it was time to replace it by a new one, but it developed, in addition to this, to something rather close to a blog. :) And since a while already I have been told that some things in my "blog" are liked, for instance the fact that I do not just announce new content and new Op-Ed columns, but often write a comment on them. A compliment I got: "Your introductions to the editorials are quickly becoming my favorite thing about your site." Indeed, today, when I happened to have a more thorough look at my site's statistics, I noticed that roughly 25 % of the visitors like most my weblogs, "CB's notewok" not being the only one, just the main one. And there is more to come! Oh, I gave away something...
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 01:51 AM GMT+1 [Link]
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Belch and Swap Teddy Bears
A conservative oil story and a liberal tree-hugging. How party-hugging this further dramatic comparison between a bush and a tree. And how great an argument for tolerance and libertarianism. To each his whimsy. Let the beavers wear their hair in Rasta style and the bears smoke their pipes (or guns)! Kids, you are seen, so make yourself heard! No, Seriously, Watch “Wife Swap”! :-)
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 05:19 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Sunday, October 10, 2004
*) for my German reading audience: Ich meine natürlich die tageswegschau. Mit dem linken sieht man schlechter. :-) In St. Louis saßen Sie nicht in der ersten Reihe. Ob man mit dem zweiten besser sieht ist mehr als fraglich. Deren Suchmaschine hat ebenfalls kein einziges Resultat für Badnarik. Was die unter "Alles zur Wahl" verstehen, ist hier nachzuprüfen. Ich lachte mich schief, wenn es nicht so traurig wär. Wer als erster auf diesen Post mit einer E-Mail und seinem Konterfei reagiert, kriegt von mir ein paar billige Handcuffs "Made in China" zugeschickt und sein Foto wird neben einem Foto der Handcuffs in dieser Rubrik veröffentlicht!For Lovers of Handcuffs
New! The latest model!
To see some pictures of the protest and arrest of Michael Badnarik and David Cobb that you are unlikely to see on German TV*), click here.
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 06:02 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Saturday, October 9, 2004
Lunatics, idiots and criminals are not good company
"Whatever happened to their anger at the objectification and portrayal of women as body parts?" asks Wendy McElroy in her latest, profound and thoroughly enlightening columnIndividual Rights vs. Identity Politics
May I add a masculist remark Wendy will no doubt forgive me: Well, since times immemorial, the working pricks have been objectified too! And lately more than ever, in advertising and even porn movies.
But you must read that great column.
Individuals are good company, not members of identity groups of any kind.
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 10:11 PM GMT+1 [Link]
These clear words were inspired to me by the second latest column of Wendy MacElroy. But I left her path of thought totally with my remarks, so she is not responsible for them. Therefore I suggest that you read her column:Let's execute upon the chattels of the State!
And liquidate or transfer to the people all unnecessary state property!
As all that property is unnecessary, what a windfall, feast and justice for us all. If everything is private property, the state will have gone. By magic. It's that simple. :-) Those bureaucrats and cops will not even have a room to sit in or a chair to put their posterior on. Unless of course they own those privately, have paid for them with their own money that they would have to earn by work that creates products and services in demand from those that are willing to pay for them. Who will demand and pay? Not me!
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 09:40 PM GMT+1 [Link]
haha! die tageswegschau berichtet in ihrem soeben von mir erhaltenen newsletter zu der fernsehdebatte aus st. louis, missouri, usa, zwischen bush und kerry, wiederum NICHTS
über den wichtigen zwischenfall der inhaftierung der beiden drittparteikandidaten badnarik und cobb bei dieser gelegenheit. der linke staatsfunk und hofberichterstatter hat mal wieder informiert... lieschen müller ist zufrieden.
May I quote, regarding my above remark in German and my comment below on the arrest of Badnarik and Cobb, from Rational Review ? "Americans know now they can not trust the mainstream media to cover real events in real time. The Internet is taking over because it has to. Americans have no place to go for the truth anymore but the Internet."
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 09:11 PM GMT+1 [Link]
See also http://www.butterbach.net/blogs/net/archives/00000143.htmCertain things apparently may not be told or openly debated in this complex, multilayered, multifaceted libertarian movement also...
News: Attorney Rex Curry's public debate challenge has not been accepted! So he declares himself victor by default. He now writes: "Some sites that repeated the errors from Paul and from Lew Rockwell's site have been forthright enough to print RexCurry.net's corrections and public debate challenge. RexCurry.net's rebuttal of Paul and the Rockwell site are posted on the sites of 'Opinion Editorials' and 'Southern Events' and Christian Butterbach's site (www.butterbach.net) and 'Stupid Evil Bastard' and 'Findlaw' and 'Free Republic.'" He further writes: "Help correct misinformation that is spread by politicians, media and some websites."
Is all only about power and money maybe here too???
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 08:41 PM GMT+1 [Link]
PS: I just checked Google news. Nothing in it! The Badnarik Campaign must have got the Google news it mentions through a subscription to the Google News Alert (which led them to the article by an Associated Press reporter in The Macon Telegraph newspaper in Georgia), something very much in beta, according to my experience.Hypercracy and Hypocrisy
Badnarik and Cobb Arrested!
News from the Land of the Free... Just imagine, two official presidential candidates, Michael Badnarik (Libertarian Party) and David Cobb (Green Party) have been arrested and are in jail in St. Louis, Missouri, incidentally the home town of our Thomas L. Knapp. That's the law, you will say. They forced a police line in civil disobedience (hail to Thoreau!) to protest that fraternal Bush-Kerry conspiracy against the Constitution. To fight for their legitimate rights, that were denied them, to participate in the debates. But that is not the real scandal. The real scandal is that reports in the media of such a newsworthy event is minimal. Not just in the New World Order press over there, but also here in this German second-hand demockracy (this summer sale model supposed to bring in money all over the globe, including Iraq): At this writing I did not get a telegram from the tagesschau, as I normally get for important news in between the regular scheduled news, this tagesschau which is the main news source for almost all Germans, including my closest German libertarian friends. Nothing is fair in the system, it is a game with a cold deck! The mainstream media are bought. There is an agreement to do everything not to let happen any change to that bi-partisan monopoly. This will go up to murder, as American history has amply proved. Pfui, Amerika! Why do you have to show your ugly face, which even Helena Rubinstein could not save anymore?!
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 06:57 AM GMT+1 [Link]
Thursday, October 7, 2004
Oh, I must have misread or invented something: He doesn't talk about teddy bears (he used that expression a bit differently a long while ago in connection with Saddam Hussein, and in his second latest column he does not talk about Teddy, but about Franklin Roosevelt!), no, he doesn't, he talks about dogs! Same difference... He even talks about puppies, to make it quite clear how dear he holds his fellow American citizens. :) Anyway, his article also (if I may still use this adverb today) quotes the best definition ever of democracy: "in its purest form," democracy means "51 percent of the people can pee in the cornflakes of 49 percent of the people." My comment: Is that then sort of a free lunch from those 51 % people, but financed from the pockets of the 49 %? But you better read his full column yourself, which is introducing to you those intruding safeguardians, as it offers deadly serious, deep, important political thought ~~ and be lucky that politicians break promises! And then also read his very latest column. It is really sublime satire. Here they are both: Democracy: It's for the Dogs Now I am becoming deadly serious, drums please: If Jonathan David Morris continues writing the way he does lately (not even taking into account all the many great pages he has been spoiling us with since years), there is not the slightest doubt for me that one day he will occupy one of the most solid marble pedestals in the pantheon of American literature. He is still very young and has a long writing career ahead. His recent marriage seems to have given him the final roborant. Let us thank her too! And thanks to that marriage he also moved closer to the Liberty Bell! Geographically as well as philosophically. Or was there something in that Cohiba??? :) Finally, an apology from me for being again late with putting those two columns online, the oldest one by over a week. I would like to lie and say that I was unable to do it earlier, as I became sort of positively paralyzed (as my cat had been negatively) through reading those masterpieces and needed the time to get mobile again. But no, it was more prosaic: A certain Mr. Fartansee from my no value added reseller had not made the slightest humane effort to speed up the delivery of my new monitor. As someone working on the Internet, I can't afford to be netless. But I was for nearly eleven long 24 hour days. In addition, last night, a bug in my version of the Greymatter software, had seen to it that 15 of my latest entries in this "CB's notewok" simply disappeared from view on my home page if I insisted on keeping the very latest entry there (the one just below), which simply had to stay, as I had asked Ken Schoolland and Ilana Mercer to have a look at it. I was, like always, helped by the nicest man on earth and the greatest expert, Rob Arnold, better known as linear. Don't miss his extraordinary slide show (165 pics). Thanks, linear!The move from sheeple to mob to teddy bears...
Whose move, you may ask. Well, JDM once told me that he dislikes the expression "sheeple" (contraction of sheep and people) I myself use often enough (I probably learned it from Mary Lou Seymour [see 1 and 2, two more recent instances where she uses it]), so now, in his second latest column on this site, he uses "mob", no doubt to sound kinder :), and ends up with the cutest expression ever for the same: teddy bears!
On Presidents and Plant Life
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 04:34 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Tuesday, October 5, 2004
*) Whether Ms. Ilana Mercer will agree in this case, I am not so sure. :-) Well, if, unlike the LP these days, more like Jefferson, you are, like her, in favour of "temperate liberty", simply go ahead and read her splendidly written essay. If your view of liberty is of the type "hetero is okay" ;-), but stops flat at something as "heterogeneous" as individualism and the society resulting from it, you will get your goose pimples reading about all those invasions that have to be stopped. After all, her courageous battle against those weapons of mass importation is necessary to break with that American tradition of ungainly invitations to immigrate and settle. Didn't it all start with those American Indians who apparently also came from elsewhere, then that Christopher followed by all those Europeans in many waves till finally those poor Americans had to acclimatize to French, sorry, freedom fries, certainly less dreadful than what we Europeans, who had to acclimatize to American ways much more (and still do on a daily basis, or how come that those bagel shops here rise in larger numbers than mushrooms after a rain?), had to sink our teeth into. Finally, in my view, there is something beyond and above classical liberalism. Though we would be happy if we could at least get back to that first step of the evolution to liberty. And where did Ilana get her great beauty from? You guessed it, it's imported!Morality surpasses legality...*)
Prof. Ken Schoolland's new essay on immigration is now online on its own separate, better presented page:Are Illegal Immigrants Criminals? Not!
You can also reach it either through my immigration section or through my Op-Ed page. First published on this site, it is now also available on the site of the Hawaii Reporter.
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 08:21 PM GMT+1 [Link]
