These bots wait in perpetual readiness to dispense their pre-programmed wisdom, and for only 5 rupees or so, the robot’s handler will allow you to plug a pair of headphones into its metallic underpants and listen as it tells your fortune. One of our favorite designs is the mod/retro combination of a smattering of LED lights and an analog clock, for those mortals bogged down in the worldly concerns of time.

A California federal court is to decide for the first time in US history whether amusement park animals are protected by the same constitutional rights as humans.

The issue arises from a lawsuit filed by rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in a San Diego court on behalf of five orcas named Tilikum, Katina, Corky, Kasatka and Ulises. The whales perform water acrobatics at the SeaWorld amusement parks in San Diego and in Orlando, Florida.

PETA argues that continuing the whales’ “employment” at SeaWorld violates the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits slavery. District Judge Jeffrey Miller heard arguments in the complaint Monday and reviewed the response from SeaWorld, which asked that the lawsuit be dismissed. His ruling is expected to come later. “It’s a new frontier in civil rights,” said Jeff Kerr, PETA general counsel, who described the hearing as a “historic day.”

Hancock is one of the foremost authorities on Ancient Mysteries, having written numerous bestselling non-fiction books on the subject such as Fingerprints Of The Gods, The Sign & The Seal, Heavens Mirror and Supernatural and, most recently, the fantasy adventure novel Entangled.

Turbowolf released their eponymous debut album in November 2011, a blend of dirty rock ‘n roll, punked-up riffs and psychedelic noise. The band are about to embark on a European tour starting February 23, 2012 in London. Their shared fascination with the esoteric and the mysterious led to this meeting of minds.

In this episode Graham & the band discuss his time in Ethiopia and the search for the Ark Of The Covenant, the evidence for a Lost Civilisation, Ancient Maps & an alternative chronology for many of the worlds Ancient Monuments.

These people will enjoy no more burritos until unborn babies are no longer terminated. Until Abortion Ends is a perplexing and to some extent inadvertently amusing trend in which people pledge to give up various things “until abortion ends”. (Although I assume they actually mean “until abortion becomes criminalized”.)

Earth in the Permian period. Illustration: Kieff (CC)

Via ScienceDaily:

In geology as in cancer research, the silver bullet theory always gets the headlines and nearly always turns out to be wrong. For geologists who study mass extinctions, the silver bullet is a giant asteroid plunging to earth.But an asteroid is the prime suspect only in the most recent of five mass extinctions, said USC earth scientist David Bottjer. The cataclysm 65 million years ago wiped out the dinosaurs.

“The other four have not been resolvable to a rock falling out of the sky,” Bottjer said. For example, Bottjer and many others have published studies suggesting that the end-Permian extinction 250 million years ago happened in essence because “the earth got sick.”

The latest research from Bottjer’s group suggests a similar slow dying during the extinction 200 million years ago at the boundary of the Triassic and Jurassic eras. The latest research from Bottjer’s group suggests a similar slow dying during the extinction 200 million years ago at the boundary of the Triassic and Jurassic eras.

Read more here.

For the second time in just five primary states, the Republican Party, with the assistance of the national corporate news media, is raising questions about the legitimacy of this season’s primary election system. First, the Iowa Republican Party and the entire American media knowingly reported the wrong Iowa Caucus results with the wrong person being declared the winner. Last night, it appears the same thing may be happening in Nevada. And again like Iowa, critics are accusing the GOP of suspicious activity.

Perhaps it’s indicative that the beneficiary of these recurring vote counting “mistakes” always seems to be former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. He’s just happens to be the same man that both the Republican Party establishment and the four corporations that own all of America’s news media outlets are actively supporting.

Read more in the Examiner and more here:

The Koch brothers have an attack-dog website of their own, KochFacts.com, which they have used defensively and reflexively to attack me and others who’ve questioned or investigated the Koch brothers’ vast $100 billion business. The Koch brothers refuse to testify in Congress about their interest in the pipeline, but they’ll make a web video asserting their innocence.

We took the Kochs’ video retreat and added a few facts from the historical record.

Maybe the Koch brothers prefer to let their allies in Congress speak for them? House Energy and Commerce Committee chair Rep. Ed Whitfield got $15,000 in donations from Koch Industries. Is he doing the Koch brothers bidding?

Whitfield is the tip of the iceberg. The Koch brothers and their employees were the single largest oil and gas donors to the committee with jurisdiction over the Keystone XL pipeline. They’ve contributed $279,500 to 22 of the 31 Republicans and $32,000 to five Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, according to the Los Angeles Times. It makes sense then that Whitfield and his cohorts would shy away from biting the hand that feeds them.

But the Koch brothers admit their business interests in Keystone. A Koch company website confesses to being among the “largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters” at the pipeline’s starting point in Northwest Canada.

What’s stopping the Koch brothers from testifying under oath in Congress? Apparently the Koch brothers are OK publishing statements on KochFacts.com that they won’t repeat in Congress. Why won’t they testify before Congress and put the issue to rest?

Activism around the Keystone pipeline has put the Koch brothers on the defensive. We need to continue insisting the Koch brothers testify in Congress. If they’ll make a video about the Keystone XL pipeline, why can’t they testify about their interest in it?

I invite you to join the conversation with me on Twitter and on our Koch Brothers Exposed page on Facebook.

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has promised us a permanent Moon base by 2020. Many people have been calling Newt’s vow a publicity stunt, while others have chimed in by attacking the idea of a lunar base in and of itself, with assertions like “real scientists know [a Moon base] is fantasy.” We won’t speak to Newt’s political maneuverings, but we’re sure as hell not going to sit idly by while people bash the feasibility or scientific potential of a lunar settlement. In fact, we’ve got 185 reasons we should set a course straight away …

An Off-World Energy Source: We spoke to astrophysicist Michael Shara — curator of the astrophysics department at the American Museum of Natural History — about the scientific potential of a permanent Moon base, and one of the first things to come up was lunar resource utilization.

“Lunar geology is in its infancy,” he explained. “Helium 3 and rare earth element mining would be a major industry.” What is Helium-3? Remember the stuff they were mining in Duncan Jones’ Moon? That was helium-3 — a non-radioactive isotope of helium with huge potential in nuclear fusion research and alternative energy applications. Yes it really exists, yes it really is rare on Earth, and yes it really could make a one-way-trip to the Moon totally worth it. Not only would it make for a great off-world alternative energy source, it would also provide on-site support for expansion and development on the Moon itself.

Read More from Robert T. Gonzalez on io9.com

Hunters will go to great lengths to gain an edge over their prey. You never know where the margin between success and failure may lie, so you wake up extra early, say a prayer, spray bottled deer piss on your boots, and do whatever else you think might increase your odds. My schedule recently got more demanding thanks to a new baby. With less time to kill and another mouth to feed, I’ve had to step up my game.

Hunting can be physically demanding but, assuming that you’re prepared, it’s mostly mental. Staying sharp is how opportunities are created. I ordered a bottle of nootropic pills, in case it might help.

Nootropic (new-tro-pik) is the term for supplements, also known as smart drugs, that improve brain function. They can be food substances like phenethylamine and L-Theanine, found in chocolate and green tea, respectively. Nootropics also include extracted and purified components of medicinal plants, as well as substances synthesized from chemical precursors, such as piracetam, the world’s first official nootropic (piracetam was created in 1964 in Belgium by a team of scientists whose leader, Dr. Corneliu E. Giurgea, coined the term). Since then piracetam has been widely used as a cognitive enhancer and to treat neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Some people consider stimulants to be a form of nootropic, while others distinguish them from the likes of caffeine, and Adderall — of which there’s currently a nationwide shortage. Most legal users of this attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drug are children; it’s prescribed sparingly in adults for fear of abuse. The FDA caused the shortage by halting delivery to drug manufacturers of the drug’s active ingredient, an amphetamine, for months, arguing that enough Adderall had already been produced to satisfy all legal demand. The agency argued that abusers of Adderall are responsible for the shortage. That’s a group that includes students and professionals using Adderall to help boost productivity during stressful times.

I chose the nootropic pills I ordered, a formulation called Alpha Brain, mainly because their ingredients are extracted rather than synthesized. I swallowed some the day they arrived, and waited to become mentally sharp. I wanted fireworks bright enough to eliminate all doubt about whether they worked.

Nothing happened until I was falling asleep, when I became distinctly aware that I was falling asleep. I monitored the entire process and remained lucid, with a measure of free will, as I dreamed, and woke up surprisingly refreshed. While I remembered many of my dreams, some of which were quite long, I couldn’t recall how my underpants ended up around my ankles…

[continues in The Atlantic]

Abby and Robbie discuss the reality of war: the pre-propaganda that has manufactured consent for the illegal occupations, video game warfare and cognitive dissonance in combat, the Marine urination scandal; Martin Luther King Jr. and historical revisionism minimizing how anti-imperialism was the main pillar of his philosophical platform; the CIA and the US covert war in Iran; SOPA, PIPA breakdown, the difference between copyright and fair use, the threat to net neutrality and websites like Media Roots under this overarching legislation.

Photo: Davidkphoto (CC)

Seems like a good cause to me. If you’d like watch the full two-and-a-half hour chat and/or read about the highlights, check out Bleeding Cool:

A few months back Joyce Brabner, the widow of comics legend Harvey Pekar, started a Kickstarter Campaign in the hopes of raising enough money to help fund a Harvey Pekar Library Statue in Cleveland.

Towards the latter half of the campaign it was made known that one of the incentives would be “A Cup of Tea and a Long Winter’s Chat With Comics Giant Alan Moore,” in which Moore would, for the first time, host a live video conference in which he would answer “impertinent questions” …

… Moore was the epitome of congeniality, proving himself gracious, rational and quite funny while speaking to all those present — even in the face of some potentially ire-raising issues (such as BEFORE WATCHMEN or the constant jabs made at him by Grant Morrison) …

More on Bleeding Cool

The U.S. 9th Circuit of Appeals in San Francisco Tuesday upheld a lower court decision, which had declared unconstitutional California’s controversial Proposition 8 banning same sex marriage.

The matter is now expected to travel to the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling, made by judges Stephen Reinhardt, Michael Daly Hawkins and Randy Smith — appointed by Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush respectively — ruled on both the constitutionality of Prop 8 and whether the judge who struck down Prop 8 should have recused because he is gay. They heard oral arguments on the constitutionality question more than a year ago, and the recusal matter in December.

California voters agreed to Prop 8 — also known as the California Marriage Protection Act — in November 2008 by a 52 to 47 percent margin (approximately 13 million voters took part). That vote inserted language in the state constitution expressly allowing marriage only between a man and a woman.

More: Reuters

Photo: Terry Miller

Adam Liptak describes the decline of the United States Constitution’s global popularity in the New York Times. (If the U.S. adopted Roger Copple’s Third Constitution might the American model become more popular?)

The Constitution has seen better days.

Sure, it is the nation’s founding document and sacred text. And it is the oldest written national constitution still in force anywhere in the world. But its influence is waning.

In 1987, on the Constitution’s bicentennial, Time magazine calculated that “of the 170 countries that exist today, more than 160 have written charters modeled directly or indirectly on the U.S. version.”

A quarter-century later, the picture looks very different. “The U.S. Constitution appears to be losing its appeal as a model for constitutional drafters elsewhere,” according to a new study by David S. Law of Washington University in St. Louis and Mila Versteeg of the University of Virginia.

The study, to be published in June in The New York University Law Review, bristles with data. Its authors coded and analyzed the provisions of 729 constitutions adopted by 188 countries from 1946 to 2006, and they considered 237 variables regarding various rights and ways to enforce them.

“Among the world’s democracies,” Professors Law and Versteeg concluded, “constitutional similarity to the United States has clearly gone into free fall. Over the 1960s and 1970s, democratic constitutions as a whole became more similar to the U.S. Constitution, only to reverse course in the 1980s and 1990s.”…

[continues in the New York Times]

The chief of research for Fuji Electronic Industries has constructed special instruments which translate the electrical output of plants into modulated sounds, giving voice to a cactus. Relying on her affinity for plants, Mrs. Hashimoto looks forward to actual conversation with her cactus…Convinced it possesses an intelligence, she is determined to teach it the Japanese alphabet.

The Forgotten Man by Jon McNaughton

In front of the White House a man is sitting on a park bench in the throes of depression. He is surrounded by all 43 presidents. In the forefront, purposefully ignoring the depressed man is President Obama, whose right foot is stepping on the Constitution. James Madison is next to Obama, pleading with him to stop.

This tableau is called “The Forgotten Man”, a painting by Jon McNaughton, an artist who is known for his politically-charged work.

The painting, which uses objects such as discarded dollar bills as symbols and scraps of paper with individual constitutional amendments scrawled onto them, has been making the rounds across the Internet.

The painting was initially released in 2010 and has resurfaced, causing a stir when it appeared for a caption contest on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s blog.

The responses have ranged from sarcastic — “We’ll trade you this peasant for that constitution. We’ll even throw in the bench.” – to Photoshop works of art.

McNaughton released an accompanying YouTube video for his painting. The video shows McNaughton painting the piece with a soundtrack that emulates a movie trailer.

“For a long time I didn’t know if I wanted to paint this picture, because I worried it might be too controversial,” McNaughton explains in a voice over. “(T)his man (on the park bench) represents every man, woman, and child who is an American… he hopes to find the American dream of happiness and prosperity…

[continues at CBS Las Vegas] ]]> http://www.disinfo.com/2012/02/forgotten-man-painting-shows-president-obama-trampling-constitution/feed/ 0 http://www.disinfo.com/2012/02/chrysler-super-bowl-ad-photoshops-out-pro-union-wisconsin-rally-signs/ http://www.disinfo.com/2012/02/chrysler-super-bowl-ad-photoshops-out-pro-union-wisconsin-rally-signs/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:42:18 +0000 JacobSloan http://www.disinfo.com/?p=67984 Chrysler’s America’s second half clip was the centerpiece of Super Bowl advertising on Sunday. Clint Eastwood praises the resilience of the Detroit auto companies and tells us that Americans are hanging tough, not backing down, and hitting the streets to stand up and shape the future. The ad features footage of this past year’s actual events in Wisconsin, but look closely, and you’ll see that the meaning has been altered — signs have been scrubbed, the real messages replaced with alarm clock graphics and the generic phrase “Think of Our Children”. Via Huffington Post:

The highly-praised spot, which features Oscar-winner Clint Eastwood narrating over a collage of images that includes broken towns and factory workers, includes a short clip from videographer Matthew Wisniewski’s montage of the protests over a budget repair bill in Madison, Wisconsin last February. The original clip that Chrysler used from Wisniewski’s video features protestors marching in front of the…

Chrysler’s America’s second half clip was the centerpiece of Super Bowl advertising on Sunday. Clint Eastwood praises the resilience of the Detroit auto companies and tells us that Americans are hanging tough, not backing down, and hitting the streets to stand up and shape the future. The ad features footage of this past year’s actual events in Wisconsin, but look closely, and you’ll see that the meaning has been altered — signs have been scrubbed, the real messages replaced with alarm clock graphics and the generic phrase “Think of Our Children”. Via Huffington Post:

The highly-praised spot, which features Oscar-winner Clint Eastwood narrating over a collage of images that includes broken towns and factory workers, includes a short clip from videographer Matthew Wisniewski’s montage of the protests over a budget repair bill in Madison, Wisconsin last February. The original clip that Chrysler used from Wisniewski’s video features protestors marching in front of the capitol building, holding signs made by Madison Teachers Inc. union.

As first pointed out by The Nation, the footage in the Chrysler ad (found at :50) has been scrubbed of the pro-union messages on the signs. On one, “Care About Educators Like They Care for Your Child” has been replaced by a picture of an alarm clock.

]]>

In a recent episode, one of the management consultants pitches a company about the need to launch a new product.  She recounts the story of the Polaroid Company known as the Apple of its day, widely admired for the cool design of its instant cameras.

When I lived in Cambridge, Mass., Polaroid was one of the town’s biggest employers, an economic powerhouse.

But soon it was gone. It failed to see new competitive products on the horizon. It only saw the future as its past.

It went bankrupt.

That seems to be the case of our own bankrupt foreign policy that operates with a limited playbook, of negative “options” build around threats, warnings, covert actions and military adventures.

The gap between what we say and what we do has become a chasm, a paper tiger in words first coined by Chairman Mao.

Here’s President Obama, counseling Israel, a nuclear power not to attack Iran which fears could become one.  No one mentions that nuclear deterrence has been a cornerstone of US policy since we became the first and only nation to drop a nuclear bomb on civilians.

In some ways, the mad policy of “Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) kept the nuclear peace since the 1940’s. To date we have opposed tougher UN rules to stop nuclear proliferation when it involves our allies or us.

Now, to keep the peace and stop a war on Iran, President Obama says we should practice “diplomacy”.

Diplomacy like Nixon used on “Red” China that led to a reversal of decades of isolation and included mutual recognition and booming trade? (Without China, our economy would be in a deeper depression than it is.)

Nope, not that kind of diplomacy.

Obama has gone back further to the failed policy of embargo and isolation that was supposed to bring The Cuban Revolution to its knees in the 1960s.

60 years later, Cuba has reformed but not changed its system while we still refuse to officially recognize its existence.

Our country, born in revolution, still won’t recognize Iran’s Revolution of 33 years ago either, Instead, in the name of diplomacy, the White House has released an executive order imposing tough new sanctions on Tehran,

When I asked Iran’s President Ahmadinejad during a very recent trip there if he would talk to Washington, he told me they wouldn’t talk to him or his government

So much for diplomacy!

Does anyone remember how covert diplomacy with Iran in 1980 delayed the release of the hostages, a maneuver that helped conservative hero Ronald Reagan win election?

Instead, of any diplomacy, the United States is sending more Naval armadas to surround Iran while it is suspected that Israel has been assassinating its scientists and sabotaging its nuclear program with sophisticated viruses.

Everyday new bombing threats are being heard, shades of Dick Cheney singing “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran….” Hahaha!

To my surprise, most of the Iranians I spoke to at a recent conference I attended in Tehran seemed not as alarmed as I thought they would be. Most, naively perhaps, believe that the US or Israel would not dare attack Iran because it is too strong and will retaliate.

That is certainly the rhetoric we are hearing from the country’s Supreme Ruler Khomeini.

His response to sanctions seems to be ‘bring them on,” arguing they will only force Iran into becoming stronger militarily and more self-reliant economically.

He has responded to our threats with some of his own, taking tough about supporting resistance to Israel and countering US initiatives. His hard line is becoming harder in response to ours.

The New York Times reports growing anxiety among Iran’s middle classes.

Already there have been reports of new military maneuvers by Iran and US troops being dispatched to islands off the coat of Yemen, near Iran,

Under Republican and Israeli criticisms, Obama feels he has to appear even tougher.  “Appear” is the operative word.

But remember that saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Where are we going?

Rather than relax tensions, US style diplomacy is raising them to higher levels accompanied by escalating media propaganda built on calculated leaks by “intelligence experts” warning of imminent Iranian attacks on the US.

The less the evidence, the more psycops rumors become news.

There are even reports of Iran is unleashing Al Qaeda terrorists even though Tehran has jailed many and is ideologically at odds with the Saudi-oriented Wahabi brand of Islam. favored by the late Sheikh bin Laden.

The Wall Street Journal, no supporter of the Ayatollahs, ran a full-page story Monday on “US Fears Iran’s Links to Al Qaeda.” That was the headline. In the body of the story, unnamed US officials were quoted downplaying the link and dismissing the idea.

One said: “There is not significant information to suggest a working relationship between Iran and al Qaeda.” (Excuse me but hasn’t Obama also been implying that by killing bin Laden, al Qaeda has been contained as a threat?)

The Journal also quotes Hilary Mann Leverett, a National Security aide in the Clinton and Bush Administrations. She says bluntly,” I think (there) is a war-fevered hysteria going on now. A lot of this stuff is really flimsy and is really questionable.”

Questionable or not, deceptive claims are making headlines and feeding more hysteria that could lead to the very military actions that Obama is saying he doesn’t support.

The late Richard Nixon used to approach diplomacy by drawing three columns on a piece of paper.

One said, “What We Want,’ the second, “What They Want, and the third, “What can we agree on?”

Obama seems to have only one column on his agenda:  ‘How can I get reelected,” a goal he says, humbly, he feels he “deserves.”

Right now, he and his Secretary of State are pandering to the right and the Israeli Lobby while pretending to cut military spending,

As the objective situation becomes more dangerous,  all this game playing aimed at perception management goes on.

We are talking here about more than a conflict with a country we have had a conflict with for decades but the danger of a third world war.

China and Russia are no t exactly on board the US escalation train. Iran’s neighbors don’t need new tensions in the region because they have plenty of their own.

Is our past once more destined to become our future?

Filmmaker Danny Schechter is just back from a visit to Iran. Access to his News Dissector blog seems to be blocked so he will be posting on Http://mediachannel1.org
Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org

Orangutans living in captivity will soon start using iPads for primate play-dates, using Skype or FaceTime to interact with their brethren in other zoos, according to zookeepers. The great apes have been playing with iPads for about six months at the Milwaukee County Zoo, and they’ve been such a hit that other zoos plan to introduce them, too.

The “Apps for Apes” program started after a zookeeper commented online about getting some iPads for her gorilla charges. Someone donated a used iPad, and it turned out the gorillas didn’t care for it. But the orangutans loved it.

Seeing the primates with iPads has an effect on zoo visitors, according to Richard Zimmerman, who directs Orangutan Outreach: “They have this recognition that these are amazing, cognitive, curious creatures,” he told the Times. Dolphins have been using iPads since their debut, so it’s really about time our primate cousins adopted the technology.

The Third Constitution of the United States

Preamble

We the People of the United States establish this Third Constitution of the United States of North America to promote human rights, social justice, ecological wisdom, peace, and egalitarianism for the citizens of our country and ultimately to all citizens of the world.

Neighborhood togetherness and community solidarity shall be valued above individual and corporate aggrandizement that jeopardize the participatory democracy of We the People. The Earth and the world will be viewed as one organism, like the human body: the cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems have to cooperate together or else the whole organism suffers and dies. (The first U.S. government was under the Articles of Confederation. The second was implemented with the presidency of George Washington in 1789.)

Human Rights

1. We the People have a right to participate in a government that is built from the bottom-up, something that has never been tried before, instead of the usual, bureaucratic control from the top-down. However, the government built from the bottom-up, at higher levels, may make laws that affect lower levels.

2. The people have a right to change their federal government through amendments added to this Third Constitution, and the people have a right to make an entirely new constitution fairly easily, which would then be the basis for a fourth federal or national government.

3. All individuals have freedom to speak and write about their personal, political, and spiritual beliefs. They may worship God through the religion of their choice, or they may choose ethical behavior or spiritual disciplines not based on any religion.

4. Government has powers granted to it as determined by the people’s democratic decision making. Government protects the rights of individuals.

5. Individual citizens have a right to keep and bear arms if they are registered by the county and state where they live. Federal lawmakers will determine the guidelines and the maximum amount of firepower an individual may possess. A county government may further limit the federal allowances or even abolish an individual’s right to own weapons.

6. Involuntary servitude of law-abiding citizens is prohibited. Thus, if the government declares a war that an individual deems unethical, the individual has a right to refuse service in the military.

7. Government authorities must have a probable cause to search our homes, cars, or any other property.

8. Property owners are entitled to a generous compensation if through eminent domain the government needs to seize the property for a higher, socially justifiable purpose, such as necessary road construction, for example.

9. No person shall be tried for a serious crime unless there is a Grand Jury indictment that states valid reasons for the upcoming court trial.

10. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property unless there is due process (or fair procedures) in carrying out the law.

11. In all criminal cases and prosecutions:

A. The accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury in the district where the crime was committed.

B. The accused must be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation.

C. The accused has a right to a counselor who may or may not be an attorney. The accused, or a counselor of the accused, may confront (or cross examine) all witnesses testifying against him or her.

D. The accused may require witnesses to testify if the witnesses have important information to share in the case.

E. Unless it is a minor charge (or a misdemeanor), citizens have a right to a trial by jury. Juries may determine a person’s guilt or innocence, and if a person is found guilty, the jury may determine the sentence of the accused, as advised by the judge.

F. Excessive bail shall not be required of a person, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted.

12. What consenting adults do in the privacy of their homes or bedrooms that does not infringe on the property or the rights of others should not be the concern of government. Thus, individuals have a right to privacy.

13. Hemp shall not be declared illegal to grow for medical, agricultural, industrial, or recreational purposes.

14. A citizen may choose where he or she wants to live. Moreover, citizens may visit any country they choose, including Cuba. If they choose to move to another country, they will not be dispossessed of their personal assets by the government.

15. We the People have a right to a job in this nation.

16. We the People have a right to earn enough to pay for nutritious food, clothing, and recreation.

17. Every small, organic farmer will have financial incentives to raise and sell his products without restrictions or unfair competition from large agricultural monopolies that overly use artificial chemicals, radiate our foods, and genetically modify them without our knowing it.

18. Every entrepreneurial business person will be free of unfair competition and domination by monopolies, domestic or abroad.

19. Every citizen will have a right to a decent home.

20. Every American will have a right to adequate medical care and will be educated, encouraged, and rewarded for engaging in good health practices.

21. Citizens, both young and old, will not have economic fears of age, sickness, accident, and unemployment.

22. Every citizen will have a right to a good public education from preschool to as far as he or she can advance. The philosophy, curriculum, and administration of a public school will be decided by the neighbors who live within the boundaries of that particular elementary, middle, or high school.

An Overview of the Third Constitution of the United States: Its Precinct Empowerment System of State Government Organization

Under the Third Constitution of the United States, there will be 435 federal legislators (the same number that was in the House of Representatives under the previous government), based on districts of equal population. The United States Senate of the former government is eliminated, making the legislature unicameral, not bicameral. This one-house legislature will have 100 less federal legislators than before. All federal legislation, in the one-chambered legislature, must be passed with a 51% majority, based on a system of Proportional Representation.

The Third Constitution maximizes local community self-determination, whenever possible. Each metropolis or county can choose community regulated capitalism, democratic socialism, or a mixture of the two economic systems. In dealing with matters such as rivers, power lines, fire and police protection, for example, the preferences of precincts could be overruled by township government boards, the preferences of townships could be overruled by county government boards, and the preferences of counties could be overruled by state government boards.

Medicare or Single Payer Health Insurance will be extended to all citizens, not just to the elderly or disabled (this will eliminate most medical insurance companies). The government will be the single payer. Social Security will be continued, and its revenues cannot be used for other purposes. A national banking system controlled by Congress (not the former Federal Reserve), shall be established. Instead of private banks making money from providing loans, the government can assume that role to increase its revenues. Utilities such as water treatment, electrical power, telephone, and waste management will be publicly owned.

The military budget will be cut by 75%, and the savings from that reduction could be used for health care. A steep progressive income tax on the super wealthy will help pay off the national debt in ten years.

A government built from the bottom-up better reflects the will of the people. If, however, the people want a strong federal government that makes uniform policies for all the states, then that is what the people can implement. The Third Constitution of the United States not only gives third parties a greater voice at the federal level, it shows how state governments can build government from the bottom-up, a revolutionary concept that has never been tried before. Governments throughout history have had top-down control of the masses.

All citizens of the United States can vote yes to approve this newly proposed federal constitution that eliminates the U.S. Senate, establishes Proportional Representation in the election of federal legislators, drastically reduces military spending, establishes Medicare health care benefits for all Americans, takes all money out of politics, gives Congress greater control of the Supreme Court, makes the Constitution more democratic and easier to understand, and promotes honesty and transparency at all levels of government. Or a U.S. citizen can vote no to reject the Third Constitution. And since this new federal constitution also proposes a new method of state government organization, called the Precinct Empowerment System—a citizen of a state can vote yes or no on this method of reorganizing their state government.

Theoretically, a citizen could vote no on this proposed federal constitution, but vote yes on its proposed method of state government organization for his or her own particular state. Or an American voter could vote yes on the proposed federal constitution, but vote no on its proposed method of state government organization. Moreover, another possibility would be a citizen could vote no to both the federal and the state government proposals, or yes to both.

If 51% of the citizens of a state have already voted yes to approve the newly proposed method of state government organization, then the new method could be implemented two years later to allow two years for the state to get the new infrastructure in place when the new system begins. If 51% of the citizens of a state vote no to reject the newly proposed method of state government organization, then the current state constitution and government will remain in effect.

The new method of organizing state governments under the Third Constitution is called the Precinct Empowerment System. Essentially it controls higher levels of government from the bottom-up. Here is how it works:

Each neighborhood precinct will choose one representative to serve on the township board. The township board will have legislative powers and make judicial and executive appointments that pertain to that particular township.

Each township board will vote (among themselves) and send one representative to the county board. The county board will have legislative powers and make judicial and executive appointments that pertain to that county. Each county board will vote (among themselves) and send one of its board members to the state government board. The county board could also choose one of its members to serve as mayor of the city/county government. The state government board will have legislative powers and make judicial and executive appointments. The state government board could also choose one of its members to serve as governor of the state.

In the past, many Americans voted a straight ticket for several political officials about whom they knew very little. Therefore, citizens will no longer vote for a county recorder, state auditor, and numerous similar officials. Experts who work in these fields will help county and state boards as they select the right persons for these types of positions.

Members of a precinct can replace their representative who represents them on their township board if they are not happy with that person’s voting record and performance. The township board can choose to elect a different person to sit on the county board for the same reasons. The county board also can choose a different person to represent it at the state level.

To explain this new structure of state government, take the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, for example. The city of Indianapolis and Marion County largely have geographical boundaries that coincide. There are about 600 precincts in Marion County (each precinct has about 500 adult voters).

There are 9 townships inside the county. That means each township board will consist of 66-67 precinct representatives (600 precincts divided by 9 townships equal 66.6). Each of the 9 township boards will elect one representative to serve on the county board, which will thus have 9 members, at least in Marion County of Indiana.

There are 92 counties in Indiana, so therefore there would be 92 members on the State Government Board, which would replace the current Indiana House and Senate state legislators. Each state legislator previously represented about 600,000 or more adult voters, a number that was way too large because legislators could not get to know their constituents on a personal level.

A precinct delegate to the township board, on the other hand, could easily become acquainted with all of the 500 voters in his or her precinct.

The following scenario will help clarify how this Precinct Empowerment System works under the Third Constitution of the United States. Though it may seem difficult to read at first, it is worth understanding because it builds government from the bottom-up, empowers precincts, which existed before only for voting purposes, and creates neighborhood togetherness. Without a violent revolution, we can make a happy society in ways that never seemed possible before.

A precinct can only have one representative in the state government system from the township level up to the state level. A precinct will have, at the least, one representative on the township board (The 67 precinct representatives who manage the township board (which is a geographic subunit of the county) could each work closely with a few neighborhood block captains to coordinate bartering based on a skills and needs assessment, using closed circuit TV for the residents).

But then from the township board, a particular precinct representative could advance to the county board, and then possibly from the county board to the state government board, the highest level of the state government system. To repeat, each precinct will only have one person represented in elective state government; some precinct representatives, however, will advance farther to higher levels of government than other precinct representatives in this state government system.

Wayne Township is one of the nine townships in Marion County, which is one of 92 counties in the state of Indiana. Mrs. Smith lives in Precinct #539 which is in Wayne Township. Let us say Wayne Township has 67 precincts (Precincts #533-600 of the 600 precincts in Marion County). Precinct #539, where Mrs. Smith lives, is the precinct that elected Mrs. Smith to serve on the Wayne Township Government Board where she now serves. But then the Wayne Township Board later elects Mrs. Smith, who is also still representing Precinct #539, to serve on the 9-membered, Marion County Government Board. In so doing, Mrs. Smith will replace Mr. Jones from Precinct #581, who previously had represented Wayne Township at the Marion County Government Board. So now, Mrs. Smith, and not Mr. Jones, will represent Wayne Township on the Marion County Board.

When Mr. Jones from Precinct#581 of Wayne Township was voted off the county board, at that moment, there was no one from Precinct#581 in the state government system. Therefore, the residents in Precinct#581 will need to select a representative to serve on the Wayne Township board, the second step in the ladder of progression from precinct, to township, to county, to state government.

When Mrs. Smith advanced from the Wayne Township Board to the Marion County Board, the Wayne Township Board had one less member at that time. When Precinct#581 (where Mr. Jones, who was voted off the county board, is from) elects someone to serve on the Wayne Township Board, then the total number of representatives will be restored.

Now, let us say Mrs. Smith gets promoted to the Indiana State Government Board. She will need to communicate with and satisfy the members of the Marion County Board, the Wayne Township Board, and the residents in Precinct #539 where she now lives, because any of these government groups or levels, which she represents, could vote at any time to remove her from government completely.

If that happens, then the voters in Precinct #539, where Mrs. Smith came from, would need to vote for someone to serve on the Wayne Township Board because at that moment that precinct would have no one representing it in the state government system.

The members of the Marion County Board (who previously had promoted Mrs. Smith) will have to choose someone who is currently on that board to serve on the Indiana State Government Board because now Marion County does not have anyone representing it at the Indiana State Government Board.

It may be the Marion County Board was happy with Mrs. Smith’s performance at the Indiana State Government Board, but since either the Wayne Township Board or the residents in Precinct#539, from which Mrs. Smith arose, gave her a vote of less than 51% confidence (or approval), that would mean that the Marion County Board would have to choose one of its current members to represent it at the Indiana State Government Board.

It turns out that the Marion County Board picks Mr. Davis to represent Marion County at the Indiana State Government Board. Mr. Davis advanced from Precinct#32, which is located in Perry Township, one of the 9 townships in Marion County. Perry Township consists of Precincts#1-67 of the 600 precincts in Marion County, which largely includes the city of Indianapolis.

Under the previous federal government system before the Third Constitution was adopted, the bicameral Indiana State Legislature consisted of 50 representatives in the Indiana Senate and 100 representatives in the Indiana House. If Indiana chooses the Precinct Empowerment System of state government organization under the Third Constitution of the United States, then the Indiana State Government Board, consisting of one member from each of the 92 counties in Indiana, would replace the former 150 state legislators.

Formerly, Indiana had 10 federal legislators who served in the US House of Representatives and also 2 US Senators (like every other state). Since the US Senate is eliminated under the Third Constitution, Indiana will have 10 federal legislators to serve in the new, unicameral US Congress, which will have 435 members under a system of Proportional Representation. Hypothetically this national Congress could be represented by the following national parties: 32% Republican, 28% Democrat, 10% Libertarian, 10% Green, 10% Constitution Party, 5% Socialist, 4% Communist, and 1% Anarchist.

So, if the citizens of Indiana with a 51% majority choose the Precinct Empowerment System of state government organization, that would mean that an Indiana citizen would vote for one person from his or her precinct to serve at either the township, county, or state government level, depending on how high that representative advances.

Moreover, that Indiana voter will also vote for a president of the United States and for one federal legislator (after analyzing various political party candidates from her district ) to serve in the US Congress. That makes a total of three elected officials to closely monitor, as opposed to voting a straight ticket for countless township, county, and state officers whom the voter knows nothing or very little about. (End of scenario)

Under the Precinct Empowerment System, a state will grant its counties with a maximum degree of self-determination, and each county will grant its townships with a maximum degree of self-determination, and each township will grant its precincts with a maximum degree of self-determination. All levels will have self-determination that encourages independence and inter-dependence and not mere dependence on the top-down, hierarchical control system of a national government.

After adopting the Precinct Empowerment System, a state government board with a 51% majority vote could decide that it no longer wants the Precinct Empowerment System. In that case, it would have to organize a state constitutional convention, in which each county would send a representative to the convention, based on an Instant Runoff Voting method as described later in ARTICLE XXI of this Constitution. After the state constitutional convention creates a new state constitution, it will then need to be ratified by the citizens of that state with a 51 percent majority.

When this Third Constitution of the United States is implemented, each precinct could elect a Precinct President and a Council of Neighborhood Block Captains . These positions could be voluntary. Retired senior citizens could make excellent public servants.

Precinct representatives could bring county government closer to home and more personalized. This system will promote neighborhood togetherness and will build cooperative communities largely through voluntary means.

Precinct representatives would become informed about what was going on at the township level above and they would also provide resources, counseling, tutoring, and anything else that the neighbors need. Precincts could even become tribal as neighbors get to know one another intimately, but ideally not with the narrow-minded hostility toward outsiders that is typically associated with tribes.

The Township Council (whose members could be salaried or voluntary workers), consisting of all the 67 precinct delegates, has the job of allocating a block grant of public funds given to them by the County Council. The Township Council will make legislative, executive, and judicial decisions or appoint people to make those decisions.

The County Council, consisting of one person from each township, shall make legislative, executive, and judicial decisions or appoint competent people to make those decisions. Serving on the County Council will be a full time salaried position. The county will generate some of its own revenue, possibly through taxes and user fees, and can receive a block grant of public funds from the state government.

The State Council, consisting of one representative from each county, shall make legislative, executive, and judicial decisions, or appoint competent people to make those decisions pertaining to the entire state. The state will generate its revenue through income taxes and user fees, as the State Council determines. (End of the Overview of the Precinct Empowerment System of State Government Reorganization)

ARTICLE I: The Legislative Branch of the Federal Government
Section I
All federal legislative powers shall be granted to the Federal Congress of the United States, which shall be a unicameral body consisting of Federal Representatives, also called Federal Legislators. There will be 435 separate congressional districts in the United States based on equal population. The unicameral Congress will be based on the system of Proportional Representation. The Congress may pass bills with a 51% majority. The selection of Federal Legislators will be based on the Instant Run-Off Voting and the system of Proportional Representation as described in ARTICLE XXI of this Constitution.

The founding fathers of our second US Constitution wanted to make it difficult to pass laws by requiring that all laws be passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. But this measure is a mixed blessing because it also makes it difficult to change poor laws and amendments as well once they are passed.

For several years now, many Americans have become alienated by a government that is not responsive to their needs. A government that can change or adjust quickly is better than a government that is too cumbersome and slow to make improvements. For this reason a unicameral legislature has been chosen instead of a bicameral legislature.

Section 2
All Federal Representatives of the United States Congress will be chosen for four-year periods that coincide with presidential terms of office.

Section 3
Each state will have at least one Federal Representative. The District of Columbia will also have Federal Representation based on its population.

Section 4
When vacancies in the Federal Congress occur because of sickness, death, or resignation, the residents of the pertaining district can vote for a new Federal Legislator.

Section 5
The Federal Representatives shall vote for their Speaker of the House at the start of every new term, based on the Instant Run-off voting method among members of the Federal Congress. This Speaker of the House shall choose the Chairpersons for the established committees. The Chair Persons, in turn, shall select committee members.

Section 6
The Representatives will be allowed to try, impeach, and remove any
high-leveled federal officer in the legislature, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government. Any officer impeached is also liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to the law.

Section 7
The supervision of federal government elections shall be determined by the county government of each state. Since the method of registering voters and counting votes should be uniform throughout the country, the Federal Representatives shall decide the standard methods.

Section 8
The unicameral Congress will assemble the third Monday in January of every year. Members of Congress do not have to be present at the Capitol Building in Washington DC to vote on bills, unless the Speaker of the Congress deems it necessary. All such debates will be televised for public viewing, so that citizens can be equally informed as lawmakers on all the issues. All bills must be written by elected members of Congress, not lobbyists. All bills must deal with one issue only. Every lawmaker must read every bill in its entirety.

The best arguments for and against a bill must be expressed in writing from opposing political parties, and they must be made available to the public at least two weeks before there is a vote on a bill. Citizens of a district may electronically register their vote on a particular bill, and Federal Representatives should wisely consider input from their constituents. The results of all citizen input on every bill must be made public.

Representatives who do not abide by the will of their constituents may be replaced during their term of office if 2/3 or 67% of the constituents have registered that the Representative should be removed. In that case, the residents of the pertaining federal district can vote for a replacement.

Section 9
The salaries of Federal Legislators will be determined and paid by the state governments that the Federal Legislators represent. Legislators cannot accept from corporate lobbyists any money, gifts, or fringe benefits at any time before, during, or after their tenure in office. Such money or gifts would bias their opinion on an issue.

Section 10
Once Congress passes a bill, it shall be sent to the president for approval. If the president disapproves a bill, he or she can veto it, or lines of it, within seven days. However, a 67% majority in the House can overrule the President and make the law official against the president’s wishes.

Section 11
Congress must balance every budget and not engage in deficit spending,
unless there is a national emergency deemed by the president.

Section 12
In all elections of Federal Legislators, the top 5 third parties (based on membership) will have the same requirements, privileges, and media access as Republicans and Democrats had under the former government. Since the elections of all Federal Legislators are based on Instant Run-off Voting and Proportional Representation, the citizens of a federal legislative district must officially register with a political party if they desire to vote. The top 7 political parties of that particular federal legislative district (that is those having the highest number of registered members), will put their chosen delegate’s name on the ballot (after they have their own internal primary or caucus).

The Instant Run-off Voting system is better than the former voting system because the candidate must be approved by at least 51% of the voters. Under the previous plurality system, if one candidate gets 34% of the votes and the other two candidates each get 33%, then the new leader would not represent very many voters.

An objective panel of computer experts must examine the electronic machines used for tabulating Instant Run-Off voting, or any other electronic input from the people to avoid any foul play or tampering of the votes. Counting paper ballots could also be an option.

Section 13
Federal legislators may be elected for more than one term to provide continuity and experience in government.

Section 14
Money contributions from individuals and corporations shall be totally removed from all political campaigns and advertizing. All speeches and debates of the candidates shall be held at community or publicly owned county radio and television stations, whose Board of Directors will equally represent the top seven political parties of that district.

ARTICLE II: The Executive Branch of the Federal Government
Section 1
Executive power shall be invested in a President of the United States. His or her term of office will be four years, the same 4-year period in which Federal Legislators are elected. The President will choose a Vice President to work and serve with the President.

Section 2
Presidents will be selected through the Instant Run-off Voting method. The 7 largest national political parties will have primaries beforehand in order to pick a presidential candidate. Presidential voting should occur over a weekend on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to make it more convenient for voters.

Section 3
If a president resigns, dies, is impeached, or is unable to hold the office, then the Vice Principal will replace him. If the Vice President is unable to serve at that time, the order of succession will be the Speaker of the House and then the Secretary of State.

Section 4
Members of the federal legislature can increase or decrease a President’s salary. The president cannot accept money, expensive gifts, or fringe benefits from citizens or corporate lobbyists before, during, or after his or her term of office. Such money or gifts would bias his or her decisions.

Section 5
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States and also of the National Guard of each state. The President cannot execute troops on a moment’s notice unless there is a national emergency.

Section 6
The President cannot make a declaration of war, unless a 2/3 majority of the Federal Congress approves. All past executive orders or presidential directives made by presidents must be fully disclosed, simplified, and clarified. Then they must be approved by a two-thirds majority of Congress. It will now be considered unconstitutional for a President to implement executive orders or presidential directives, unless the members of the Federal Congress examine and rewrite them and approve them beforehand with a 51% majority. Then they shall be added to the federal statutes.

ARTICLE III: The Judicial Branch of the Federal Government
Section 1
The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in a Supreme Court, which shall consist of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Judges. The nine Supreme Court Justices will vote to choose their own Chief Justice among themselves every three years or sooner if a Chief Justice leaves office. Supreme Court Justices will serve for 9-year terms and will be chosen by Congress when a vacancy occurs using the Instant Run-off Voting method. Supreme Court Justices under the previous Constitution may remain in office if they have not yet served 9 years. The Congress may remove any Supreme Court Justice at any time with a 2/3 majority vote.

Section 2
Currently there are over 850 federal judgeships in the United States. Federal judges may serve indefinitely. State legislatures or state government boards will select and remove federal judges in their state.

Federal judges not assigned to a particular state will be selected by the Federal Congress. Federal judges may be impeached and removed by the legislative body responsible for selecting them with a 2/3 or 67% majority vote.

Section 3
There will continue to be two distinct federal and state judicial systems as before. Each state will continue to have its own separate judicial structure. The national judiciary will have federal courts across the country as it does now.

Section 4
In addition to the 12 Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal based on geographical areas, there will also be, as already established, The Court of Appeals for the Thirteenth Circuit (also called the Federal Circuit), which will have national appellate jurisdiction over certain types of cases, such as those involving patent law and those in which the United States is a defendant.

The Court of International Trade, The Court of Federal Claims, and similar courts may appeal to this Thirteenth Circuit Court.

Section 5
Most of the time the Supreme Court will work as an appellate court, but in some cases, when it chooses, it may exercise original jurisdiction which means it can act as a trial court if, for example, a state is a party, or in matters concerning foreign diplomats.

The federal Supreme Court also can review and cancel State Supreme Court decisions and state laws if the federal Constitution is violated.

Section 6
States cannot be sued in federal courts by a foreign country. Every individual shall have equal justice under the law. Supreme Court decisions can be abolished by a 2/3 majority vote of the Federal Congress.

Section 7
The Supreme Court may make modifications in the structure of the federal court system. Its job is to make judgments based on the Constitution and federal statutes, not to change or make new laws. Congress, however, will determine how much of the federal budget is needed to finance the federal court system.

Section 8
Every individual must do what he or she promises to do by contract. An important role of the judiciary is to determine that legal contracts are honored.

Section 9
Government officials will not have immunity from prosecution while they are in office.

ARTICLE IV: If a State Wants to Withdraw from the Country
A state cannot withdraw, or secede, from the rulings and protections of the United States government according to the guidelines of this Third Constitution. Too many problems would occur if various states started becoming sovereign nations.

ARTICLE V: Federal Protection of the States
Only Congress has the power to admit new states to the country, or to provide total sovereignty to any of its protectorates, if ever that becomes an issue. The federal government must protect the people of the states when there is an attack by foreigners, or if and when the state governor deems that its National Guard cannot handle an emergency situation.

ARTICLE VI: The National Debt Problem
The national debt can be paid off in ten years, largely through a 75% reduction in military spending and a progressive income tax that can ultimately reach 90%. When nations repeatedly have annual deficits, it causes the national debt to skyrocket, which then puts a large burden on the taxpayers of future generations.

ARTICLE VII: The National Census
The US Census will continue to be taken every ten years, as it is currently being done. Accurate statistics enable the government to do better planning.

ARTICLE VIII: Approving Corporate Charters
Counties have the right to grant or approve corporate charters, and to impose taxes on corporations operating within their boundaries.

County or municipal governments may revoke the charters of any private corporation in their districts if they determine that a particular corporation does not serve the community or benefit the environment. A corporation is not a natural person and should not have the same rights as a natural person. A corporation cannot make financial contributions to any local, state, or federal government election campaign.

ARTICLE IX: An Alternative to the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve System of fractional reserve banking must be eliminated. Banks will no longer be able to lend money that they do not have, and they will be controlled by the US Treasury, which shall be organized, supervised, and audited by the US Congress. Instead of private banks making money by providing loans, the government will provide public banks to raise public revenues. The government can engage in deficit spending only if there is a national emergency.

ARTICLE X: The Primary Role of Government
The primary role of government is the protection of its citizens. Actions such as, murder, rape, robbery, pollution, theft, embezzlement, fraud, arson, kidnapping, battery, trespassing, harassment, and nuisance–violate the right of others. The government should investigate, prevent, and have consequences for these types of illicit or illegal actions.

Privately owned prisons shall be abolished. Nonviolent drug offenders shall no longer make up half the prison population; such individuals will receive medical care instead.

ARTICLE XI: World Trade Agreements

Formal trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will be canceled.

ARTICLE XII United Nations and Democratic World Government

Giving each country in the United Nations an equal vote will be advocated. Our foreign policy should be non-interventionist, so that other sovereign nations do not develop hostilities toward us, as they have in the past.

However, if other nations develop democratic governments built from the bottom-up, using precinct empowerment systems at state and local districts, it is conceivable in the distant future to vote for a democratic world federal government using the systems of Proportional Representation and Instant Run-off voting.

ARTICLE XIII: Abolishing the CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency has operated with a secret budget and has engaged in the trade of illegal drugs in order to finance its covert operations that it does not want the American people to know about.

Moreover, it has sabotaged democratically elected, pro-socialist government officials of various countries so that government officials who are more favorable to American corporations get installed instead. Moreover, it has supported dictators in foreign countries as long as they allow our corporations unlimited freedom to exploit the resources of those foreign countries. This immoral behavior causes the animosity and terrorist activity toward our country to increase, which then is used to justify extra spending for the military, industrial, and homeland security complex.

Therefore, the CIA must be disbanded. The Department of Homeland Security as an umbrella organization of other security departments shall be closely monitored by Congress, so that it does not exercise undue powers of surveillance and wire-tapping, powers that often violate the rights of law-abiding citizens because of their political affiliations.

So often when Americans hear that important information cannot be revealed to the public, it is because very secretive organizations such as the CIA do not want their above-the-law illegal and immoral actions to be unveiled. The era of government secrecy must end. Government at all levels must be open, honest, and transparent. If their intentions and actions are noble and just, they will have nothing to hide from the American people or foreign countries.

ARTICLE XIV: The Posse Comitatus Law
Section 1
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 limited the powers of the
federal government in using its military for local and domestic
law enforcement. This Act still must be enforced. The president and the US military should allow the National Guard under the authority of the state governor to intervene in domestic issues. The governor can request Federal Emergency Management Assistance (FEMA) to act when there is a natural disaster, epidemic, public health emergency.

ARTICLE XV: The Need for Habeas Corpus
Habeas Corpus is a concept of law in which a person may not be
held by the government unless the government has a valid reason for putting the person in jail or prison. Even in a national emergency, the right to Habeas Corpus should not be violated. Prisoners of war or alleged terrorists, foreign and domestic, must be given a fair trial.

ARTICLE XVI: The Need for Social Security
The national Social Security program will not be cancelled. Some American citizens (because their employers did not offer pensions, or because of misfortune or unwise financial planning) will need monthly Social Security payments (money that they themselves paid into Social Security throughout their entire working history) in order to survive financially in their old age.

ARTICLE XVII: Decentralizing Elements of the Federal Government
The budgets of some current federal departments and agencies can be reduced, as state, county, township, and precinct levels of government are given more autonomy and local self-reliance. Responsible individuals and local communities in a free society should be allowed to make their own choices, as long as other individuals and communities are not harmed in the process.

ARTICLE XVIII: Parents Have the Greatest Influence on Children
Parents–not the federal, state, county, township, or precinct governments—will be primarily responsible for their children’s education. Compulsory education at every level of government shall be abolished. It should be abolished because parents, not the government, should make those educational decisions. Neighborhood school boards should control neighborhood public schools, and public schools must be allowed to suspend and expel a student from the preferably small classroom setting if he or she is constantly unruly. If that occurs, other alternatives can be explored such a counseling, tutoring, or home schooling to help the unruly student.

Neighborhood school boards should be selected by the adult residents who live within the geographical boundaries of a particular school. The county government can determine the amount of money granted to a school, based on the number of students enrolled. This policy of neighborhood control of neighborhood schools will encourage neighbors to get to know one another better as they work on achieving a mutually accepted, educational philosophy and curriculum for the children and adolescents of their district.

The neighborhood school board can employ teachers and tutors who live within the boundary of the school. The forced busing of children on a bus for 45 minutes across town to achieve forced integration does not create a bond between parents and the schools in the neighborhood.

Article XIX: Keeping the Best of the Former Government
This Third Constitution does not attempt to totally eradicate the federal government, we had under the previous Constitution, with all its former federal statutes. Old policies, statutes, and regulations can be changed, simplified, and reduced gradually to reflect the new mood and philosophy of our day. Income tax laws should be simplified in ways that do not allow clever people to cheat the government.

ARTICLE XX: The Tragedy that Occurred on September 11, 2001
Because of a growing number of questions, doubts, and suspicions about the events that occurred on 9/11 and the official report itself, there must be a new, independent investigation (not from government insiders as before) that examines the extensive research of authors such as David Ray Griffin and organizations such as the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. This investigation should begin immediately.

ARTICLE XXI: A New Era of Honesty and Transparency
The wealth of individuals and of corporations must not be used to influence the political decision making of voters. A new era of openness, honesty, and transparency in government, private business, the media, and in our interpersonal relationships is vital to our survival.

ARTICLE XXII: How the Federal Government Can Be Amended After the Third Constitution Has Been Implemented and How the Third Constitution Can Be Abolished When a Fourth Constitution is Desired.

The United States government can be modified through amendments added to its current Constitution (and also by federal laws passed by the US Congress). But the federal government can also be changed completely as the result of having a Constitutional Convention in order to totally rewrite the US Constitution.

To change the federal government by merely adding amendments to the current Constitution, there are two ways that this can be done:

In the first way, the Federal Congress must pass their proposed amendment with a 2/3 majority. Then 2/3 of the state legislatures, in their separate locations, have a year to ratify any amendments recommended by Congress. Ratifying with a 2/3 majority, instead of the ¾ majority that was required in the past, makes it easier to change the government. Citizens will feel helpless and hopeless, or politically alienated, if it is too difficult to change the government when they desire it.

The second way to add amendments to the current constitution is for 51% of the state legislatures to call for a national Amendment Convention for any reason. This second way to amend the current Constitution will bypass the Federal Congress altogether. Once a state makes a request for a convention, it can be rescinded. Each state legislature shall choose one person to attend the national Amendment Convention.

The state delegates at the national Amendment Convention will discuss, rewrite, and vote on any amendments proposed by state legislatures. Any amendment proposals that the state delegates approve with a 51% majority will then be submitted to the state legislatures in their separate locations. Then afterwards the 50 state legislatures must ratify any proposed amendments made by the national Amendment Convention within a year after the date the Convention started.

A new amendment will not be added to the current Constitution unless 2/3 of the state legislatures ratify it. If a state legislature casts its vote it may change its mind if a 2/3 majority vote has not been achieved. Once an amendment has been passed it becomes official, and at the point, a state may not cancel its vote regarding the amendment issue.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. As mentioned in the first paragraph of this Article XXII, a radically new constitution and government can be formed through a Constitutional Convention. It can be achieved in a fair, safe, and orderly way. The American people have a right to make a new government based upon a new constitution.

Therefore, the decision to create a new supreme document will be considered by the American people at every presidential election. If at least 51% of the American voters request a constitutional convention at that time, then the Constitutional Convention will start meeting one year later. Each state will thus have less than a year to pick one delegate to attend the Constitutional Convention.

Each state shall send one delegate to participate in the Constitutional Convention based on the Instant Runoff Voting method. Voters of each state will rank 7 candidates in the order of their preferences. The seven most numerous political parties of a state will offer the voters of that state a proposed constitution and a potential constitutional delegate, who might be the one selected by the voters of the state to represent it at the Constitutional Convention. For example, here is how one voter from Indiana might rank her votes, after examining the different US constitutions proposed by the seven most numerous political parties in Indiana:

1. Republican Party 2. Constitution Party 3. Libertarian Party 4. Democratic Party 5, Green Party 6. Socialist Party 7. Communist Party.

If no candidate in Indiana gets a 51% majority, then before the second round of voting begins, the candidate who had the least amount of votes in Indiana would be dropped from the list of choices (making the total now 6). If after the second round of voting, still no candidate has a 51% majority, then the candidate who had the least amount of votes would be dropped (making the list of choices now 5). If after the third round of voting, the Republican Party (which may have proposed to not change the current Constitution) received at least 51% of the votes, then its candidate would be the delegate to represent Indiana at the national Constitutional Convention.

The 50 Constitutional Convention delegates will first meet the first Tuesday of November, one year after the previous presidential election date. The Colorado State Legislature (chosen because of its somewhat geographically central location) will choose beforehand a meeting place and the initial chairperson (who will not have voting privileges) of the Constitutional Convention. The delegates may later choose one of the attending delegates, who would have voting privileges, to be the chairperson of the Convention. Formal discussions and debates of the Convention will use parliamentary procedure. The 50 state legislatures will assist with the costs of the Convention, which should be kept at a minimum. If the Colorado State Legislature does not want its designated responsibility, then it is imperative that it ask another state legislature to do the job.

The Convention delegates will work on several revisions if necessary of the newly proposed Constitution in the constant effort to get 51% of the American people to accept it, as expressed in public opinion surveys. Since the delegates have a maximum of one year to work, they can work to get a higher percentage of approval than 51%. They can work to become reconciled with the 49% that oppose the new document. Two years after the previous presidential election, the American people will vote on the latest, proposed constitution.

Without a 51% majority vote of approval by the American people, the proposed constitution will be null and void, and the current Constitution will continue as before. If the proposed Constitution is ratified by the American people, it will not be implemented until two years later, unless the state legislatures want to implement it sooner.

In summary, there will be one year to pick delegates and another year for the actual constitutional convention. Then two years later the new Constitution will be implemented at the beginning of the next presidential term of office. This allows two years for federal and state governments to establish the infrastructure for the new government that would be implemented when a new president takes office.

The much greater fairness that Instant Run-Off Voting provides in the selection of Constitutional Convention delegates is why only a 51% majority is needed to ratify the newly proposed Constitution.

The spoken and written words of the delegates must be publicized, and citizens will be allowed to voice their own opinions in the process. The US Congress, the President, and the US Supreme Court will not have the right to control a Constitutional Convention nor an Amendment Convention. They can, however, express their opinions and recommendations in the process.

This method of creating and then ratifying an entirely new federal or national Constitution is unique because it bypasses both the Federal Congress and the state legislatures and empowers the democratic decision making of the people. [End of the Third Constitution of the United States]

To implement this Third Constitution of the United States, there first needs to be passed a Twenty-Eighth Amendment to our current Constitution that shows how we can have a Constitutional Convention in a fair, orderly, and nonviolent way. A proposal for a Twenty-Eighth Amendment and the reasons why we need a new U.S. constitution can be found at my website, as part of a book I am writing. If you have comments or constructive criticism, email me at Roger.Copple@gmail.com. My Twenty-Eighth Amendment proposal and this Third Constitution are constantly being revised. Please share with family members, friends, favorite websites, and your federal and state legislators. Thank you.

Roger Copple retired from teaching third grade in a public school in Indianapolis in May 2010, at the age of 60. Interested in political theory, he has tried to integrate the best of Libertarian, Green, Socialist, and Anarchist viewpoints.

Interesting Websites

Project for a New American Century (PNAC)
http://nwoobserver.wordpress.com/key-information-for-new-readers/
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1665.htm

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
http://nwoobserver.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/why-the-cia-is-the-worlds-number-one-terrorist-organization-with-video/
http://nwoobserver.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/why-the-cia-is-the-worlds-number-one-terrorist-organization-with-video/

The Money Masters Documentary Video: How International Bankers Gained Control of America
http://nwoobserver.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/documentary-the-money-masters-how-international-bankers-gained-control-of-america-210-min/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936#

America’s Freedom to Fascism Video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936#docid=-1656880303867390173

Video: Alex Jones’ TerrorStorm: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5948263607579389947#

Twenty Facts That Will Make You Mad
http://www.prisonplanet.com/20-facts-that-will-make-you-really-mad-if-you-stop-and-think-about-them-for-a-while.html

Twelve Reasons Why Ron Paul Would Make the Best Republican Candidate in 2012 http://www.prisonplanet.com/12-reasons-why-ron-paul-is-very-different-from-most-of-the-other-contenders-for-the-republican-presidential-nomination-in-2012.html

America’s Addiction to War (Read entire book online)
http://www.addictedtowar.com/book.html

Articles by Howard Zinn:
http://www.howardzinn.org/zinn/articles

Articles by Michael Parenti:
http://www.michaelparenti.org/articles.html

Articles by Ralph Nader:
http://www.nader.org/

Articles by Ron Paul:
http://www.ronpaul.com/

Common Dreams Website (Progressive)
http://www.commondreams.org/

Critiques of Libertarianism:
http://world.std.com/~mhuben/libindex.html

Libertarian website:
http://www.libertarianism.com/contents/issues

Types of socialism from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

Ludwig Von Mises Institute on Socialism:
http://mises.org/books/socialism/contents.aspx

Video: What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire:
http://www.filmbaby.com/films/2206

An Anarchists FAQ Website:
http://www.infoshop.org/page/AnAnarchistFAQ

Lew Rockwell: anti-state, anti-war, pro-market:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/

Anarcho-capitalism
http://eng.anarchopedia.org/anarcho-capitalism

The School for Cooperative Individualism: http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/dodson_course_1.html

Facts on Media in America
http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4923173

Media and Democracy: The Big Six Corporations
http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart/main

Three good websites about 9/11:
David Ray Griffin’s website
http://davidraygriffin.com/
http://www.911truth.org/
Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth:
http://www.ae911truth.org/

G. Edward Griffin is the authority on the Federal Reserve:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6507136891691870450#

Noam Chomsky is considered by many as an expert on US Foreign Policy. Go to youtube.com and enter his name in the search window and you can watch many videos. Below is Chomsky’s own website:
http://www.chomsky.info/articles.htm

Shadow Government: How the Secret Global Elite is Using Surveillance Against You by Grant R. Jeffrey is a book from a Christian perspective that you may find very interesting:
http://books.google.com/books?id=XgkpYGk_shoC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=shadow+government&source=bll&ots=Qs1TnbCqiS&sig=QGaNZeQRuwnfv_3BnnKyNQAJXwM&hl=en&ei=lypTTcWxM8_PgAfD27C7Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=12&ved=0CH8Q6AEwCw#v=onepage&tq&f=false

Shadow Government (the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjMin39vQK8

Directory of US Political Parties
http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm

US National Political Parties
http://www.greyhawkes.com/ps/parties.html

Life in a Garmet Factory in Bangladesh:
Hidden Cost of Globalization:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5948263607579389947#

Obama Can Shut Down Internet Under New Emergency Powers Act
http://www.prisonplanet.com/obama-can-shut-down-internet-for-4-months-under-new-emergency-powers.html

Eastern philosophical theories highlight the illusory nature of human existence. For instance, if we look at early Indian traditions, we inevitably recognize that the world has no logical basis for being “real.” Early Hindu thought had various different darsanas, which ranged in thought on a variety of issues. However, conserved across all these different schools of thought is the idea that the world is logically paradoxical. One of the most elementary versions of this paradox is very closely related to Zeno’s paradox of motion. In this thought experiment, the great Achilles is in a race against the lowly Tortoise. Since Achilles is a far superior runner, the tortoise is allowed to start running one hundred meters ahead of Achilles. As the race starts, Achilles quickly reaches the point at which the tortoise has started. However, by this point the Tortoise has progressed another ten meters. Again, Achilles reaches the point where the Tortoise was when Achilles was at the one hundred meter mark, but the tortoise has progressed one meter. This process continues ad infinitum with Achilles arriving at the point where the Tortoise last was, but the Tortoise having progressed a given amount. From this paradox, Zeno draws the conclusion that Achilles will never pass the Tortoise, thus inevitably losing the race (Cohen 2005). This argument at first look appears to be airtight, but also fly in the face of all experience. It is important to notice that within this mental experiment there is an assumption that this pattern, Achilles reaching the point where the Tortoise just was, can continue indefinitely. In essence, this experiment elucidates that it is impossible to come to a certainty about the reality of motion (Cohen 2005).

Still other Eastern philosophies reflect this trend, too. The Buddha’s teaching embodied the illusory nature of everyday religion, and these ideas were developed even more in-depth by later Buddhist schools of thought namely Yogacara and Madhayamika. The main philosophical school, which was in dialogue with the Yogacarins, was the representationalist realists (Siderits 2005). They believe that there is an outside environment, but it is mediated by our inability to directly contact it; rather we always see representations of what occurs in the outside world (Siderits 2005). For instance, while I may see a white sea shell, an individual with jaundice would see a yellow shell (Siderits 2005). The Yogacarins, on the other hand, believe there is no external reality, just internal impressions (Siderits 2005). The representationalist realists created four objections to this idea, which Vashudanhu then refuted (Siderits2005). Their first and second objections are based on the correlation between an event and space-time. However, Vashubandhu answers this objection with an analogy: in a dream there is also spatial and temporal correspondence. In a dream, if one walks into a kitchen where bread is baked, at a time bread is being baked, they will experience the smell of bread. In this situation, reality in the sense of spatio-temporal correspondence is equivalent to dreaming (Siderits 2005). The representationalist realists ask about another discrepancy: if dreams and reality are on the same ultimate level of existence, why is it that dreams do not affect the physical body in the same manner that awake experiences do? Vasubandhu replies that there is a correlation between dream experiences and the body, he says that “wet dreams” are an example of this correlation (Siderits 2005). The last objection to Vasubandhu’s standpoint relies on the agreement between different people on their experiential surroundings. Vasubandhu denies this by claiming that karma creates these inter-personal agreements. Since all beings that come in contact with each other on the same karmic level, their experiences (dharmas) are the same because it reflects their karma (Siderits 2005). The essential nature of Yogacarin Buddhism arises from this discourse between Vashudanhu and the representationalist realists.

Another derivative of Mahayana Buddhism is the Madhyamaka school, whose main proponent was Nagarjuna (Siderits 2005). Nagarjuna developed the idea of emptiness (sunyata) within his writings. He did this by using a combination of the reductio ad absurdum method, along with the concept of dependent origination (Siderits 2005). Reductio ad absurdum involves taking an assumption to a logical end in which it is paradoxical and rejecting the validity of the assumption based on this (Siderits 2005). The theory of dependent origination relies on the concept that everything is a product of cause and effect, in other words, something must arise from something (Siderits 2005). Nagarjuna uses these two tools to show that everything is empty. Due to the fact that origination results from an effect being inherent in a cause, there can be no true reality because if something is to be ultimately real it must only have one property (Siderits 2005). Through this method, Nagarjuna disproves the ultimate reality of movement and also proves the eye cannot see. (Siderits 2005) The end product of Nagarjuna’s logic is ultimate reality not falling into any of the categories of, is, is not, is and is not, or neither is nor is not. The Madhyamaka school’s main goal is for its disciples to recognize the ultimate emptiness of everything and, in doing so, achieve enlightenment.

Lastly one of the main eastern philosophical schools that questioned the inherent essence of positive or negative ethical attributes was Daoism. Daoism is considered a very naturalistic philosophy that disapproves of a large dialectic. In Daoism, the Dao (the path) is viewed as a lifestyle, something that should structure one’s life. There is a very large emphasis on the concept of wu-wei, not doing (Slingerland 2003). Through not doing, one is supposed to be emptying oneself of artificial constructions and letting the essential self emerge (Slingerland 2003). To do this seems obviously paradoxical, but it is based more on a mental level than on a literal level. The important emphasis of wu-wei is not regarding. Regarding in this situation refers to assigning values to things (Slingerland 2003). When one assigns value, it is necessary that an opposite thing arise to define the first value (Slingerland 2003). For instance, without any bad there is no good, without rich there is no poor, and so on. So by doing wu-wei, one is to completely emerge as a natural entity that is able to act in harmony with the will of the cosmos.

While these philosophical theories all suggest that any inherent meaning is absurd, it does not mean that if we take the world we live in as an assumed axiom we cannot create meaning within it using our own selves. For instance, consider a game of Risk, the strategic war game. Outside of the game there are no effects of playing the game, aside from the banter of the players. However, within the game, different strategies and group movements result in varying successes within the game. The success of a strategy is dependent on the rules of the game and the various ways the players respond to them. Thus, while our lives are meaningless outside the context of our lives, we still are within the game and thus must respond to how the game works (rules) and how others strategize. As another example take for instance a fictional game in a scene in David Wallace’s Infinite Jest. Eschaton is a fictional game much akin to Risk, played on a tennis court representing the surface of the planet Earth. The game becomes chaotic when it begins to snow. The snow is outside the scope of the game but this is confusing to those playing the game. Some players do not comprehend this difference and claim that the snow changes the dynamics of the game. An individual then launches an attack and punches another player instead of affecting the map. An authority on the game becomes quite livid and exclaims, “Players themselves can’t be valid targets. Players aren’t inside the goddamn game. Players are part of the apparatus of the game. They’re part of the map. It’s snowing on the players but not on the territory…. You can only launch against the territory. Not against the map. It’s like the one ground-rule boundary that keeps Eschaton from degenerating into chaos. Eschaton, gentlemen, is about logic and axiom and mathematical probity and discipline and verity and order. You do not get points for hitting anybody real. Only the gear that maps what’s real.” This once again represents the important difference between the relative meaning within the game as opposed to the ultimate meaning outside of the game itself (Wallace 1998).

Many existentialists have also made this point. In the work Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, he fictionally develops his existentialist theory. Within the book, the protagonist, Roquentin, finds himself in existential horror because he realizes that the world itself is indifferent to him. Rather, he sees that his very apprehension is inherent in all that he sees around him. The world itself has no meaning aside from what he gives to it. This idea can be summated as, “existence precedes essence.” Alfred Camus also touches on this issue in The Stranger. The protagonist Mersault is able to live with dualities such as happiness and sadness because he realizes each is fleeting. However, he cannot live with the duality that his life is meaningless while also recognizing that he thinks there is great value in his life (Camus 1982). He decides that this is absurd, but this is because he is taking to different types of truths and assuming that they are equivalent. The truth that he assumes his life is of great importance is relative to the “game” of life. The absolute meaninglessness of it is only applicable outside of the game, while Mersault is actually within the game. Between the two realizations, indeed, there is no real meaning to reality, but that there is in fact meaning within the context of life, we find a grounding of moral meaning. However, this does not give us any reason for assuming different moral precepts.

Another important point is that free will and consciousness are also products of the “game of life.” We must act as if we have free will and consciousness in order to function and even if these things are not real they are convenient fictions. If one were to understand how physical processes determine the future, the individual would need to have knowledge of every particle in the universe. However to do this, an individual would have to recreate the universe because as Alfred Korzybski said, “the map is not the territory.” (Korzybski 1994).There could be no generalizations about the particles in the universe only knowledge of every particle if one were to determine any exact results. Thus, even though these two things are not absolutely true, within the game they are necessary to functioning, and irreducible to their basal elements.

When we consider human ethics, we often think in the terms of a specific spatio-temporal slice. This slice is representative of a certain point of time and also a certain limit of space which our focus bounds. However, this view is flawed. Ethics has continually changed throughout the course of human history. This phenomenon has been noticed by Karl Marx. His analyses of class structure as a commonality among human society clearly elucidates the ever-changing nature of human ethical theory (Guignon 1995). While the recognition of this phenomenon shows a great deal of mental acumen, how Marx applied this observation to the generation of his own ethical theory is problematic. Marx claims that through an empirical analysis of the changing ethical theories throughout history, he can extrapolate how future ethics will come about, and in what form they will appear. However, by making this statement he is creating a self-reflexive loop that is irresolvable by logic. For instance, the Russian Revolution was influenced by Marx’s writing, and because of this, whether or not history would have taken this course without Marx’s theories having been known is an unsolvable issue. Thus, when Marx makes a claim about the future of ethical and societal trends, he is affecting them by the very fact of claiming them as eventualities. The self-reflexivity of predictive claims makes them almost improvable and thus inconsequential. This means that to generate a framework for ethical theory, which can be used to understand ethics, it must not make any predictive claims, as this causes a self-reflexive logical loop. Instead, ethical theory should be examined in hindsight to attempt and recognize the conserved patterns across all historical timelines.

If we stop to remember Crowley’s assertion that, “Do what thou wilt is the whole of the law” we can see that this is not a predictive statement but rather a maxim by which individual’s live. To update the assertion, it should be put into the form: by doing what one thinks is best and trying to craft the world in this manner, an individual is fulfilling their ethical obligation.

John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism relies on the idea of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of principle. Essentially, the central maxim is the greatest happiness principle claims that one should act for the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people (Mill 2005). However, because we have previously come to conclusion that meaning is not an inherent thing, we must realize that the definition of what causes happiness is malleable and relies on a specific set of circumstances. From a purely biological point of view, happiness can be defined as reproductive success and continued existence. From a societal point of view happiness can be defined as trying to reach the ideal of the views that a society holds relative. Thus the sum of these two types of happiness would be biological viability along with the capability of achieving what society has deemed to be happiness. So, one should act to promote the most biological viability along with what society deems to be happiness.

The question then is, how can this idea be reconciled with Crowley’s statement? The response is found in the field of memetics and genetic evolution. The term meme arose from Richard Dawkins’ work with genetics, and it is generally accepted to mean a basal unit of an idea that can be transferred from person to person. These memes are posited to act as mental analogues to genetic material. Assuming that this is correct, ideas can replicate throughout a culture and also be eliminated by the culture in the same manner that poor genes are removed from the gene pool. In this situation, natural selection would be analogous to the sum total of individuals who reject a meme, meaning that the most prominent meme has the widest appeal and the most socially transferable nature. Thus, when every individual decides to act as they want and try to impose their preferences upon others, their actions come in to tension. One of two things can happen at this point: first, an individual can change their behavior to preserve themselves, and second, they can try to force this viewpoint onto the other. This can obviously come to physical harm or just a change of opinion and action. However, through this process we see an analogue of evolution. If we view each interaction as an example of memetic change, and the meme that is most fit will always be adopted because it is the most useful for the specific set of circumstances, then gradually the population will come to be dominated by this viewpoint, just as an unfit mutation will result in the selection against the unfit organism. Then, if circumstances change and there is a shift in the usefulness of one meme, gradually another will arise to assume its niche. As such through acting as one wants, the net result is a societal trend towards the most happiness for the most individuals.

Crowley’s statement very closely mirrors Nietzsche’s assertion of the will to power. Nietzsche focused in Thus Spake Zarathustra on the idea of the ubermensch, an individual who crafts their own goals and does not obey the morals of others (Guignon 1995). This suggests that because the ubermensch creates their own morals they should be able to do what they will themselves to do in all situations. By doing this, they are crafting their own existence and forcing themselves upon the world (Guignon 1995). What Nietzsche fails to realize, however, is that the ubermensch/man dichotomy is a false one. All individuals craft their own life and force themselves upon the world by the very act of passing moral judgment. Just because an individual may share the views of others does not mean that he is wrong, just that at that point in time a greater number of people are being served usefully by a certain ethical paradigm, and that is why it is so widespread. Thus, if we remove the distinction between these two types of men, we end up with Crowley’s initial statement that, “Do what thou wilt is the whole of the law.”

In conclusion, although life is inherently meaningless outside of itself, since all human beings are within the system, meaning can be ascribed. Also, because any predictive ethical theory is self-reflexive, it is incapable of ever making claims about the future that are verifiably true or false. Finally, through the process of memetic and genetic evolution, if every individual was to follow Crowley’s maxim, the net result would be a greater happiness for the most individuals.

Sources
Camus, Albert. The Stranger, trans. Joseph Laredo, 1982.
Carruth, Hayden (1964). Jean-Paul Sartre. ed. Nausea. New York: New Directions.
Cohen, Mark. (2005) Readings In Ancient Greek Philosophy: From Thales To Aristotle. Indianapolis.
Crowley, Aleister (1978). The Book of Lies. New York: Samuel Weiser.
Mill, John Stuart, Utilitarianism, ed. George Sher (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1979). IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 2005.
Science and Sanity An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, Alfred Korzybski, Preface by Robert P. Pula, Institute of General Semantics, 1994, hardcover, 5th edition
Siderits, Mark. “Buddhist Reductionism and the Structure of Buddhist Ethics.” Indian Ethics: Classical and Contemporary Challenges. Edited by P. Bilimoria, J. Prabhu and R. Sharma. Abingdon, UK: Ashgate, 2005.
Slingerland, Edward Gilman. Effortless Action: Wu-Wei as Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China (Oxford University Press, 2003).
The Good Life, edited by Charles Guignon (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1999).
Wallace, David Foster. Infinite Jest. 1st. ed. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company. 1996

Joe Chiarenzelli is the editor of The Gadfly Press. He has degrees in biology and philosophy from Saint Lawrence University. His honors thesis was on the subject of Cosmetic Psychopharmacology. Joe graduated in 2011. He now lives in Potsdam, New York, and frequents bars in order to goad people into arguments. The Gadfly Press endeavors to publish articles, stories, poems, and sayings which will provoke, intrigue, and most importantly, cause people to stop and think.

The Los Angeles Police Department is warning real estate agents not to use images of properties taken from unmanned aircraft, saying the flying drones pose a potential safety hazard and could violate federal aviation policy.

The warning was issued this week after officers saw a television news report showing a basketball-sized object with multiple rotors hovering over an expansive Westside residence.

Real estate agents have been posting aerial photos and video of homes for sale in the Los Angeles area, according to the LAPD. The pictures have been taken from several hundred feet off the ground in the city’s crowded airspace — an altitude at which police helicopters often fly.

* Conversion of the U.S. dollar to silver and gold was suspended during the Civil War and discontinued entirely by 1972.  Covers the years for which full data are available (i.e., 1820 through 2009).

This analysis excludes, for what I hope are obvious reasons, the years covering America’s wars of existential crisis, i.e., the Civil War, World War I, World War II, when military spending as a % of GDP reached anamolous heights, ranging from over 3% and up to nearly 37% in 1942.  See details of calculations and source citations at the linked workbook.

This piece dutifully distributed by the Dystopia Diaries.

From reclaiming the F word to objecting to objectification – there’s a new feminist army determined to finally flatten the patriarchy. But here’s the really radical news: patriarchy is dead. It’s dead simplistic, dead inaccurate, and no longer a useful way of framing gender inequality in the UK. Forget about castrating patriarchy – it’s time to corral kyriarchy, the system identified by Harvard theologian Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, which explains how ethnicity, class, economics and education, as well as gender, intersect to oppress us all, men as well as women.

So, kyriarchy: the substitution of one elitist, etymological hair-splitting term for another, I hear my newly estranged sisters cry – just what feminism needs. But this is a neologism with a difference. Where patriarchy – literally, rule of the father – explains only how traditional male authority dictates to, and subjugates women, kyriarchy (from the Greek: kyrios – lord/master; archion – dominion/rule) relates how each of us, whatever our gender, is a bundle of privileges we can all too readily abuse by invoking the “master power”, whether that’s as a black female barrister, a mixed-race trans male teacher, or a white immigrant male labourer. At the same time, the term’s connotations of elite authority perfectly tap into the legacy of oppression that western feminists, from Mary Wollstonecraft to Germaine Greer, have dedicatedly derided.

Scoff at my linguistic parsing, but terminology matters. Just as contemporary feminism is so keen to detox the term “feminist”, so “patriarchy” carries a whole truckload of outdated assumptions about male-perpetuated oppression that blinker us all. Take porn for example. Patriarchy just isn’t useful when we want to talk about how its proliferation is negatively impacting on men and women alike. Kyriarchy, by contrast, accounts for the increasing numbers of men who are suffering from sexual performance anxiety or emotional disconnection with women, which can be related to x-rated overconsumption, and how female performers, who can make good money out of being the object of both male and female desire and envy, can argue they are somewhat empowered by doing so. This isn’t to claim porn stars as emancipated feminist role models; it’s just to recognise that sexual allure and money, rightly or wrongly, accord power that oppresses too…

Read more here.

The mystery illness now producing Tourette’s-like symptoms in a more than a dozen girls from upstate New York is also affecting a 36-year-old who is experiencing the same tics as the teens. Some neurologists have suggested the illness could be “conversion disorder,” or mass hysteria.

High school student Thera Sanchez, 17, and 14 others started experiencing the odd symptoms last fall: stammering, verbal outbursts and limb spasms.

The teens’ plight captured the attention of environmental activist Erin Brockovich, who began speaking out about a 1970 train accident that spilled cyanide and industrial solvent four miles from the teens’ school, LeRoy Junior-Senior High School. According to a 1999 Environmental Protection Agency report, approximately 35,000 gallons of TCE (trichloroethene) contaminated the area near the derailment.

An honorable mention however to Chevrolet, who capitalized on the Mayan Calendar Apocalypse meme in this spot, where Twinkies also made an appearance, presumably because they are indestructible as well as indigestible:

Police in Chile have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing five tonnes of ice from the Jorge Montt glacier in the Patagonia region to sell as designer ice cubes in bars and restaurants.

Local media reported that last Friday police intercepted a refrigerated truck with an estimated £3,900 worth of illicit ice allegedly bound for whiskies, rums and cocktails in the capital Santiago. Authorities have accused the driver of theft and are considering adding violation of national monuments to the charge sheet.

A day after losing a Nevada contest that exposed the limits of his appeal to Republicans, Ron Paul vowed to keep pressing ahead for the party’s presidential nomination, saying his ideas were inspiring an intellectual revolution among young Americans.

“I want to change the government, and I want to change it through the electoral process, but I also want to change the hearts and minds of people,” the Texas congressman told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” “That is where it really starts, and that is where we’re making the progress.”…

Read on in the LA Times.