Well, the system is fucked no matter what, but I still think there's a huge difference between the two viable candidates. Even leaving aside the Iraq situation, environmental protection, and how tax burdens are allocated, I think it's irresponsible not to acknowledge the importance of the Supreme Court appointment(s) that will almost certainly take place over the next four years, and for that reason if no other, I think a vote for Nader or Badnarik or whoever else is, quite frankly, reprehensible this year. Maybe this election won't make things much better, but I hope it can avoid making them a whole hell of a lot worse.

This is your LJ, and if you think this comment is inappropriate, I apologize and you of course have the power to delete it. But this is simply not an issue on which I feel I can remain silent.

I'm nervous enough not to want to give anyone else my vote, even in California, but I agree that where you live makes a big difference. Still, that's no reason (again, in my opinion) not to encourage/exhort others to vote, and vote in a way that will count.

I'm all for a multi-party system, mind you, and the Democrats are far from my political wet dream. But I'm not convinced that four more years of worse and worse would put us any closer to a viable third party in this country.

In any case, thanks for clarifying!

Cool! I was gonna bittorrent this, but a download is ever so much nicer. Thank you!

Pffft! It's so much handier than using the VCR, definitely, and cheaper than Tivo. So yay!

Hey there, just downloading Transference. Thanks so much for putting this up.

Thanks! I found the picture at boston.com -- for all your red sox needs!

Another hi (and I saw your post in SVMadelyn's LJ) from another SV fan:-)

I'm downloading right now. Thank you so much for posting!

::downloads:: Thanks!

Yes, you can complain if you don't vote. But your complaints are worth less.

If you don't vote, you can't claim the government as yours. Yeah, you're thinking, that's really too damn bad. You can't claim the government, and everything wrong it does, is yours, you're heartbroken, hearing this straight off the pain of finding out that you can't claim that the piece of dog shit on the street isn't yours.

But if my friend says I'm a bad friend, that matters more than some random person saying it. The protestations of the guy whose book I left face down on the table are worth more than those of a passing bibliophile. The voices of Americans complaining about the American government are worth more than the voices of Chileans.* It's not nice, but it's true.


(*: Note: Ceteris paribus (all other things being equal). If the Chilean is being opressed by the US foreign policy more, that's a whole different can of worms. But with a voter and a non-voter in the US, who are both eligable, ceteris is paribus.)


And maybe, no, certainly, Kerry will do some shitty things. And maybe you've signed up for a bit of the moral culpability there. But you also have signed up to get the merits of a Bush-less government&. But by not voting when you can, or by voting for Nader (or other no-chancer^), you've signed up, to a lesser extent, for a piece of the moral culpability for the policies of whoever wins. Or, perhaps it is better to think that you forfeit any moral praise that might derive from the superiority of a Kerry election to that of a Bush election. Either way, unless your politics and political morality command you never to choose any lesser which has a single evil component (in which case, I wonder how you can have any politics), voting for Kerry probably isn't going to damn your soul any more than voting for Nader.


(&: And, even if the system is fucked, there is a difference. Chain pizza pretty much sucks, but there is a difference between Papa John's and Pizza Hut. And the election isn't a panecea, no, but you shouldn't reject an appendectomy just because it won't clear your sinuses.)

(^: I suppose the share of Bush's moral blame you should get/share of Kerry's moral praise you forfeit for voting for Nader in a safe state might not be nearly as substantial as if you did so in Ohio, but I don't want to commit here to a position, just say that I'm not sure.)

Notice the caveat about eligibility. And of course voting has changed a lot. You think if Strom Thurmond were president the Civil Rights Act would have been signed?

So, query: In the short term, it is bad if I kill someone. But in the long term? People are still going to be homeless, the country is going to continue to polarize, the gap between the rich and the poor will continue widening, cops will still be shooting people and getting away with it, and I will still not have health insurance that I could afford to pay without depending on my parents. Now I'm aware that personal/political morality aren't directly interchangable, but my basic question is this: if the long term is the same, and the short term is better, and you can't do anything, by your voting, to change the long term, isn't it a moral obligation to contribute to change in the short term?

i guess this is the first time i post on your journal, i read it all the time cause you have excellent recommendations on fanfics :D

anyway, i downloaded the smallville episode, and thank you thank you and thank you, we still don`t have the 4th season here, we are like in the final episode of season 2 :(, and the file makes me so happy *squee*. For some reason i can`t use BT so i don`t have a way to see the episodes.

thanx a lot for sharing it with us and if you need space or bandwidth to host the episodes, send me an email :D, i always have like 20 GB left or so for the month on my domain and i would love to help you.

And thank you for the webspace offer, I will be sure to take you up on it if I need to, thanks!

anytime :D

and thanx a lot for friendme, and for sharing the episodes :D, i`m going to download them as soon as i finish my final project