Ray Bradbury said, ""

Saturday, July 09, 2005
Another modest proposal

Term limits are an annoying issue. They keep power-hungry men like FDR from seizing control over a nation for almost two decades, yet they also keep great statesmen like Churchill or Madison from continuing their policies. They protect against bad politicians but harm the good politicians, assuming that the latter is not an oxymoron nowadays. What is to be done?

The answer is a simple corollary of the principle that in a constitutional republic the government is a small group of individuals given permission by the rest of society to apply force: politicians are dangerous servants who must live in constant bowel-loosening fear of their citizens.

To that end, I propose these three policies, which are assured to both weed out unqualified people from government, and ensure that they live in constant fear:

1. In order to be placed on the ballet, all politicians up to the president ought to take a test on Henry Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson." If they pass, they get on the ballet and can ascend to office. If they fail, they get sentenced to 8 years in prison or exiled to France.

2. At the end of each term, the people ought to vote on two issues: whether to imprison the politician, and which candidate to select. A great statesman like Jefferson could be elected repeatedly as long as he brought prosperity and freedom. A slug like Charlie Rangel, Herbert Hoover, or Senator Durbin, would be imprisoned after one term.  At one fell swoop, the problems of term limits and lame-duck terms disappears.

3.  Each politician should be allowed only one Nazi comparison, after which any such comparison will be met with summary execution.  Any criticism of this policy will, of course, have to be tempered.

Posted by: Tom "The Pooklekufr" Treloar at July 09, 2005 10:00 EST | Permalink | comments (8) |
politics, satire

Comments open but moderated. I reserve permission to kill spammers on sight.


Comments:
#1  11 July 2005 - 09:56
 
Can I adopt this into my campaign?

- Travis
Anonymous
#2  11 July 2005 - 13:17
 
Send it thru as a bill now and let us pass it as law....

King George will be imprisoned!

There is a God afterall....


mojoala
Anonymous
#3  11 July 2005 - 22:26
 
Instead of one "Nazi" comparison, perhaps two comparisons to all hideous regimes would be better (deference to Rummel on what constitutes a 'hideous regime' would suffice) . Or one comparison still, for that matter.
Anonymous
#4  12 July 2005 - 23:11
 
Find out the real truth about Tom: http://destroytomthepooklekufr.blogspot.com/
The killing must end!!!!
Anonymous
#5  13 July 2005 - 17:58
 
I'll support your idea if you support my plan to make citizenship and the accompanying right to vote in elections something that must be earned, as opposed to the current inheritance by birth method of assigning citizenship. It's idiotic that we let idiots vote.
Anonymous
#6  14 July 2005 - 13:42
 
I think you should write this up and submit it as a plank for the Libertarian Reform Caucus...

-Steve Bach
Anonymous
#7  20 July 2005 - 16:52
 
Fear...yes, of course we'll have to drastically lower their salaries. Plato once said that satisfaction in service for the public good is payment enough. If we start making them millionaires they could hire massive mercanary armies, thwarting all attempts of exile, imprisonment, or execution. Maybe we should have some armories that provide all people within one-days' march distance of Washington some good ol' shotguns or RPG's.
Anonymous
#8  14 August 2005 - 17:33
 
LOL. I really like the option to send the guy to jail at the end of the term. However there is a loophole in this, it doesn't include co-Presidents like Hillary, who would remain eligiable to carry on the reign of terror.
Anonymous
Comments:
blog pager

This site is a member of WebRing.
To browse visit Here.

My Other Blogs

Pooklekufr Unix

Editor for the Grey Gods

Recent comments

About this blog

Tell the FEC to sod off with the Gadsden Flag

I pledge to disobey the FEC

You're in a No Israel-Bashing Zone

Hamsterwheel graphics by Liberty Dog

Fuzzy hamster and cat graphics by Travis Benning

Metallic hamstermotor graphics by Cooltext

Imageshack

About me

User: Pooklekufr
Name: Tom Treloar
Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a man of little wealth and poor taste.

My Technorati Profile

Gmail
Gmail pic created here

Go check out my old blog

What I'm Reading

Some via the Online Library of Liberty and the
Gutenberg Project:

The Essential Turing

E. T. Jaynes' Probability Theory

F.D. Lewis' Essentials of Theoretical Computer Science

Steven Tanimoto's Elements of Artificial Intelligence

Michael Kearns' The Computational Complexity of Machine Learning

Gregory Chaitin's Metamath: the quest for Omega

Cormen et. al. Introduction to Algorithms

Sanjeed Arora's Computational Complexity: A Modern Approach

Gregory Benford's Cosm

Lou Anders' Futureshocks

S. Dasgupta's Algorithms

What I'm Watching

Be My Netflix Friend

Who I'm Listening to

Miriam Makeba

Skip James

Abbot Kinney Lighthouse Choir

Blind Lemon Jefferson

The Squirrel Nut Zippers

Blind Willie Johnson

Camille de Saint-Saens

Bach

Paganini

Djele Lankandia

Gorillaz

Dick Dale

Cake

Blog Policy

The opinions expressed here are my own and do not reflect the influence of evil feline overlords, megalomaniacal chinchillas, or Karl Rove's Zionist mindrays. All comments are subject to posting. Inane, vicious, anti-Semitic, "progressive," and cakesniffy comments are subject to merciless, juvenile public mockery and refutation.

NOTICE In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C., section 107, some material on this web site is provided without permission from the copyright owner, only for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of federal copyright laws. These materials may not be distributed further, except for "fair use" non-profit educational purposes, without permission of the copyright owner.(Notice copied from William Teach)

blog policy

Testimonials

"He's like a cross between Matt Colt of Eurabian Times and Hunter S. Thompson at his most lucid... Tom is out there running down the enemies of our civilization in a Ford Fairlane--steering wheel in one hand and a bottle of Wild Turkey in the other. Go and visit, but don't make him mad."
- Someguy

"Tom is a chinese communist spy! He has lots of cats and noodles because that is his primary food supply and who but a communist would talk about economics so much? Anyhow I am working with deep cover anti-covert intellegence guys right now to bring him down. The reason we havent yet is because his stupied antisemtic dog Jack wont stop barking at me, making it very difficult to approach his trailer."
- My arch-enemy

"This blog moves faster and is more diverse than any hamster."
- Scriptor

"Tom, you sniveling, shark carcass smelling, paramecium guzzling, tarantula loving demophobe."
-Soundboyz

"Tom is a great writer, and a scary smart thinker. You're right, don't get him mad at you. You'll end up in bloody ribbons. If not because of him, then because of one of his freaking cats."
- Pastorius

"When I don't have any ideas of my own I always head to Hamstermotor. It keeps me hip and I don’t have to think for my self."
-Kevin Watkins

"Don't you just love that Tom? I do. I want to take him home and squeeze him he's so smart."
- Oddybobo

"Quit trying to impress everybody, you snot-nosed little college student... damn meddling kids."
-Two Dogs

"Stop hurting me, Tom. It's enough for me to go through life fat, drunk and stupid."
-Two Dogs

"Good Lord, I do believe Tom scares me."
-Boudicca

See more testimonials

Libertarian and Economist Posse

Libertarians

Travis Benning 2.0
Blog War
Life, Liberty, and Property
Geosciblog
Catallarchy
Anti-Collective
Liberty Dog 3.0
Mean Ol' Meany
Ogre's View
The Austrian Economists Blog
Cafe Hayek
The Angry Economist
Adam Smith Institute Blog
Adam Smithee
The Knowledge Problem
Eric Grumbles Before the Grave
One Billion Red Chinese and a Dog Named Liberty
Old Whig's Brain Dump
The Volokh Conspiracy
Patterico's Pontifications
A Yobbo's View
Agorophilia
Powers Not Delegated
Propaganda Machine
Sound Off: the blog of Sean Rife
Wilson Fu Weblog
Ashish's Niti
Liberty For Sale
Defcon:Blog
That's Ridonkulous!
LP Platform Reform
Daily Pundit
The Egoist
Libertybob
The Libertarian Samizdata
The Austro-Athenian Empire
Pragmatic Libertarian
Truck and Barter
Cantillon's Paradise
Classical Values
Strange Justice
Envirospin Watch
Freeman: Libertarian Critter
Libertopia
The Unrepentant Individual
The Neolibertarian Network

Economists

Coyote Blog
Watchful Investor
A Constrained Vision
Austrian Addiction
Conjectures and Refutations
The Eclectic Econoclast
Deinychus Antirrhopus
The Skeptical Optimist
Econopundit
Marginal Revolution
New Economist
Club for Growth
The Buggy Professor
Jacqueline Mackie Paisley Passey
Prestopundit
Lost Legacy
EconLog
The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid
Division of Labour
Catallaxis
Heavy Lifting
; Capital Freedom
Asymmetrical Info.
Ask Edgeworth

;

Libertarians are an odd bunch. I do not endorse the particular variations in the above blogs, nor do I care whether you get offended. What matters, is what offends you.

Other Bloggy People

Conservative Cat
Laurence Simon Is Full Of Crap
The Fourth Checkraise
Harvey's Bad Example
The Ace of Spades
Protein Wisdom
Wuzzadem
The Platypus Society
IMAO
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Tammy Bruce
Hot Air
The Flying Space Monkey Chronicles
The Joy of Curmudgeonry
Michelle Malkin
Six Meat Buffet
Frizzen Sparks
Miasmatic Review
Lisaviolet's Diary
Llama Butchers
Basil's Blog
The Pirate's Cove
Bobo Blogger
Phin's blog
My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Moe's Woes
Flares into Darkness
Vince Aut Morire
The Therapist
Hog On Ice
Geobandy
EvolutionBlog
Confederate Yankee
Insults Unpunished
PJ Media
Beautiful Atrocities
Cake Eater Chronicles
The Belmont Club
Powerline
Wizbang

Wicked Thoughts
Strange Justice
Leslie's Omnibus
What NOT To Do in Asia
The Sneeze
Mitsurugi's Baba Ganouj
Red State Rant
Blackfive
Mind of Mog
The New Editor
Scriptor of Historium
Scriptor of Historium III
Crush Liberalism
Vodkapundit
My Pet Jawa
Right Wing Duck
Stop the ACLU
Polipundit
Evil Pundit
The Astute Blogger
The Goober Queen
Sailor in the Desert
Dane Bramage
Anti-Com.com
New Sisyphus
Strange Women Lying in Ponds
Leatherpenguin
Lady Mac's Musings
Eastcoast Wisdom
The Terriorists
Watcher of Weasels

The Owner's Manual
Blogs For Bush
The UN Observer
Pajamahadin
The Truth Laid Bear
Blogarama
Showcase
Facts of Israel
The Conservative Philosopher
Anal Philosopher (no, not that type)
Kesher Talk
The People's Cube (Formerly Communists for Kerry)
Right Hand of God
Eternal Perspectives
The Internet Haganah
Jihad Watch
Lost INto
Daisy Cutter
Pink Kitty's Scratching Post
Music and Cats
Afghan Warrior: the first Afghani blog
Filtrat(from Denmark)
KRLA live webcast
Martialis: the Epigrammes of Martial

American Flag League

Life, Liberty, and Property

The Alliance
Alternate Blogroll

Counter

viewed *loading* times.