<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV>Will you remain neutral?</DIV>
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<DIV>And why should this matter again?</DIV>
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<DIV>Basically, I see democracy -- rightfully, I think (or I'd change my mind) -- as merely a way of pretending the rule have a say in how they're ruled. It's a nice illusion for many -- and works especially well for political elites who badger those uppity types with vote tallies as if these actually measured anything important.</DIV>
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<DIV>Also, there seems to be the notion that somehow in the past -- maybe the distant past, maybe in someone's lifetime -- that somehow democracy worked and produced good results, but today this has been corrupted. Isn't the truth more that things have always been corrupt? The more astounding thing for me is how much corruption there's always been and yet there's almost no rebellion. (To me, this is not a good sign. It's an extremely bad one. It means, to me, almost everyone will tolerate abuse of power as well as readily accept fair tales about history and civics. To me, that's much more dangerous than living in a society of well armed people who are [heathily] distrustful of their rulers.)</DIV>
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<DIV>Regards,</DIV>
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<DIV>Dan</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif"><FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Gregory Jones <spike66@att.net><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Tue, June 15, 2010 1:05:28 PM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> Re: [ExI] south carolina primary election<BR></FONT>
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<DIV>> This time-bomb is ticking away:<BR>> http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/15/clyburn-claims-hacking-greenes-surprise-win-sc-senate-race/</DIV>
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<DIV>--- On <B>Tue, 6/15/10, Damien Broderick <I><thespike@satx.rr.com></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<DIV>...This is known technically as the "donkey vote." It has to be taken into consideration, but it's rarely critical...</DIV>
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<DIV>Agreed, the donkey vote is negligible, but this actually reinforces my point. We have a case of a disputed vote which really does look suspicious as all hell, in an election using machines that cannot be audited. This was a merciful warning shot across the bow, since this election was only a primary, so all the contestants are of the same party, in a state no one ever heard of anyway. </DIV>
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<DIV>But what if this happens in a national election, in a country with a celebrated history of armed resistance to the government, when that government had the option of making paper-receipt machine ballots and deliberately failed to choose it, when people are already extremely distrustful of the government and eeeeverybody has guns? </DIV>
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<DIV>This bodes ill.</DIV>
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<DIV>spike</DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV></DIV></div><br>
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