View From the Bushes

An interesting follow-up to yesterday's entry: While driving into work I found myself behind a van, the back of which was covered with bumper stickers (none of them even remotely as cool as my "Cthulhu in 2004, Why settle for the lesser evil?"). One of them was a campaign sticker for Nader, and the rest mapped out in a colorful and chaotic fashion nearly the entirety of Nader's platform. From worker's rights to environmental issues and somewhere in the middle was one which said, "Legalize Hemp and Let the Trees Grow!" and I remembered that there is at least one issue that I agree with Nader on.

One of the comments brought up the idea of letting the third party candidates into the debates. I couldn't agree more. In fact, it was watching a debate among the third party candidates on CSPAN back in 1996 that really solidified the position I have today of only voting for third party candidates in the presidential elections. I hear that TV ratings for basically anything having to do with the actual political process are pretty low. Tossing a single third party candidate into each of the presidential debates would not only do wonders for the overall discourse, but I imagine it would be a real shot in the arm for the ratings as well.

In an interesting segue, Johnny Ramone, Punk Rocker and of all things a hardcore Republican, died today at age 55 of cancer. He was preceded in death by two other members of the band, "The Ramones." After hearing that he died, I ended up going to Dead or Alive Info, which is a great site if you've never been there. It's the definitive resource for finding out whether someone famous is still alive or not. For example, imagine if you're wondering if Arthur C. Clarke is still alive. Well, a quick check and you would discover that in fact he is still alive. Maybe my name will be on that site someday, who knows; Gary Gygax is on there.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross