by Skeptikos | Jan 11, 2011 |
HCR 1 (which has been slightly modified by the legislative process, so that it now reads, “urging the congressional delegation to begin the process for a constitutional amendment establishing that human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights“) will be discussed by the State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs committee on Thursday, at 2 pm.
The meeting is open to the public– anyone can attend and give a brief testimony in favor or against, or sign a form documenting their opinion (just to let the committee know). Alternately, the members of the committee, along with their emails and phone numbers, can be found on the NH General Court website.
Sometime after the public meeting Thursday– the date hasn’t been set yet– the committee will discuss the bill again in a meeting without public input. (Non-committee members can still attend, but they can’t address the committee.) In this meeting, the committee will vote to label the bill as either “inexpedient to legislate” (a polite way of saying “this bill is bad”) or “ought to pass”.
This recommendation often influences the way state representatives will vote when the bill reaches the House, so letting committee members know your position can be an effective way to influence the actions of the NH state government.
by Skeptikos | Jan 4, 2011 |
In 2003, security analyst Bruce Schneier introduced the concept of security theater: “Security theater refers to security measures that make people feel more secure without doing anything to actually improve their security. An example: the photo ID checks that have sprung up in office buildings. No-one has ever explained why verifying that someone has a photo ID provides any actual security, but it looks like security to have a uniformed guard-for-hire looking at ID cards. Airport-security examples include the National Guard troops stationed at US airports in the months after 9/11 — their guns had no bullets. The US colour-coded system of threat levels, the pervasive harassment of photographers, and the metal detectors that are increasingly common in hotels and office buildings since the Mumbai terrorist attacks, are additional examples.”
Security theater is driven by political forces: the public demands that the government do something to provide more security. This demand is passed on to representatives, who rely on the the positive perception of voters to get re-elected. Naturally, when they are being judged on these grounds, they maximize the appearance of security rather than security itself.
Over the last few years, Keeniacs have witnessed the growth of a similar phenomenon– activism theater. Activism theater refers to activist measures that make people feel like government policy is being improved without doing anything to actually improve government policy. (Even if the goal is no government, that requires a change in government policy, from what we have today to the absence of any government action.) Examples of activism theater are the School Sucks Project “outreach” and City Hall drinking games. Both of these were billed as activism, and yet there’s no plausible mechanism through which they could have changed anything– their activism guns had no bullets. (more…)
by Skeptikos | Dec 30, 2010 |
HCR 1:
A RESOLUTION urging the congressional delegation to begin the process for a constitutional amendment establishing that human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights.
Whereas, government was established to provide a social contract between naturally born persons; and
Whereas, the founders of the U.S. Constitution and Republic clearly and emphatically intended freedom of speech to mean freedom to communicate with and by natural born persons either directly or through the free press; and
Whereas, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on January 21, 2010 in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that corporations have the same first amendment rights as people, and that they can spend unlimited amounts of money on elections; and
Whereas, the Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law, because in a democracy, the people rule; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring: (more…)
by Skeptikos | Dec 17, 2010 |
Summarizing my political views is hard. In the forums, I’ve been calling myself a “liberaltarian” — because I’m too libertarian to call myself a liberal, and too liberal to call myself a libertarian. (I posted an essay here, at Blue Hampshire, where I discuss particular policies and describe how I reached this position.)
But in this post I want to focus on a more interesting aspect of my views.
Beyond policy lies another level of politics. This is the structural, or institutional, level. Institutions determine, not individual policies, but how policies are chosen. When New Hampshire Democrats and Republicans fight to make it harder or easier for college students to vote, they are making crude forays into structural issues. Campaign finance reform would be a structural change.
While straightforward republican democracy has been working relatively well in America, it suffers from well-established flaws. Special interests and voter biases, in particular, create the most obvious problems. Anarchists (of whatever variety) and communists are unique in that they actually propose an alternate set of institutions to deal with these flaws. No other major political philosophies do this.
In opposition to anarchists and communists, however, I would like to see more structural experimentation: let a thousand nations bloom. (more…)
by Skeptikos | Dec 7, 2010 |
Kudos to Kristin Blais, Christopher C. Coates, Neil W. Donegan, Mark Nugent and Kris E. Roberts, for resisting the anti-drug hysteria. From The Sentinel:
Darrel L. Beymer will be allowed to continue teaching in the Keene School District — if he accepts terms set by the Keene Board of Education. …
For the past 16 years, Beymer has taught 3rd grade at Keene’s Symonds Elementary School.
In October, he pleaded guilty in Keene District Court to misdemeanor charges of possessing marijuana and criminal trespass. …
There’s been no evidence that Beymer used marijuana on school property or while acting as a teacher, which would have violated the district’s drug policy.
At the meeting, held on Nov. 29, board members Kristin Blais, Christopher C. Coates, Neil W. Donegan, Mark Nugent and Kris E. Roberts voted to reinstate Beymer.
Studies find that good teachers have a large positive impact on student performance, and Beymer fits this description. One commenter says, “I was at the hearing and … the majority of the evening was spent on his remarkable talent and the respect that the parents, teachers and children have for him.” It would have been a shame for the students of Symonds Elementary to lose this asset as a result of his “crime”.
HCR 1 (which has been slightly modified by the legislative process, so that it now reads, “urging the congressional delegation to begin the process for a constitutional amendment establishing that human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights“) will be discussed by the State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs committee on Thursday, at 2 pm.
