George Carlin.

This is a poem George Carlin wrote called, "Modern Man."

Democracy

Pepsico, Incorporated has put up an online poll where consumers can vote for which one of the three new flavors of Mountain Dew they would like to be continued permanently. They call this campaign "DEWmocracy," which would be a mockery of a sacred civil institution in a nation that took such things seriously. It should be noted that while there are three flavors for soda drinkers to choose from, in the upcoming Presidential election, there will be only two choices.

I would also be willing to put money, if I were a betting man, on the chance that PepsiCo's polling will experience less fraud, less voter disenfranchisement based on racial bigotry, and be more accurately tabulated than the American Presidential election. Further, the winner will be determined by a direct tabulation of the popular vote, rather than by an arcane and obsolete affront to democracy.

Two Party System

I ran into an old friend today at work and he told me that he would be voting for Ron Paul. He said, "Call me crazy, but I'm not going to let the media pick who I vote for." Well, I am inclined to call him crazy, because he intends to vote for a madman, but I certainly agree with the second part of his statement. George Carlin pointed out long ago that we have fifty choices for "Miss America," thirty-one flavors of ice cream, and two Presidential candidates. I pointed out that in a nation with perhaps 150 million people eligible to be President we have to choose from two of them, which somebody else already picked for us.

He referred to the two duopoly parties as "Communist Party A and Communist Party B." That is exactly right. There is a narrow spectrum or respectable opinion in this country - within that narrow spectrum there is a great deal of difference. But nobody is allowed outside that narrow spectrum. And most of what is important is outside of that spectrum. And any viable candidates must reside within that narrow spectrum; any viable candidate must be approved by the powers that be. It really is remarkably similar to the Soviet Union.