On 05/18/2010 09:17 AM, Kevin Alfred Strom wrote:

If people are stupid and uninformed they should have no right to vote.
They do more harm than good.

Now, there's something we definitely agree on.
But it needs very careful handling. This is the same system Confucius
recommended. And what happened was the corruption of the test taking
process in favor of the kin of those giving out the test.

And given the control by corporate mass media, no way could we ever get
a majority to install some test of sanity and competence. But... what
you can do is look for those areas which already have higher standards,
then move and invest there.

Look for an area, like my neck of Ozark woods, which still has family
farms rather than agribusiness. As the Founding Farmers understood, if
you can properly manage land, you can also evaluate policy. The schools
here still work.

Get out an Atlas, and look up the hill towns north of I-40 between I-540
and US 65. They are all small towns like Alma, Bee Branch, Clinton,
Deer, Eureka Springs, Flippin, Greer's Ferry, Heber Springs, Jasper....
then go to

http://normessasweb.uark.edu/schoolp...ool/School.php
and see ZERO rates of violence. Dropout rates in the single digits.
Graduation rates over 90%. (last year Jasper had 100%, and the year
before Deer did) Attendance at 95%, and this is with all the kids
tested. They dont take the kids with ADD, ADHD, Autism or whatever out
of the testing cause... they dont have any.

The population is 99% "white". but when you look closer, you find out it
is really most people are 1/3-1/2 Cherokee. The original Pioneers were
Scots and Irish, who knew a thing or two about how Christian aristocracy
dispossessed farmers. So, when the Cherokee came thru on the "trail of
tears" many were taken in, and this hybrid, is still here in the farming
and other business.

We'll see in a few days whether these people are stupid and uninformed
or not when I go to trail, trying to have a medical marijuana test case
on Friday. I've been passing out fliers (http://daybrown.org) showing
how they've been running the drugwar like a speedtrap, using it to bust
landowners for pot they didnt know was on their land.

This is a rural area without broadband, so I'll be out there again today
passing out fliers. One side shows how the corporate mass media makes
money selling pills for transnational pharma, so they will never report
on the medicinal use of marijuana cause that would dramatically cut into
profits. We havta get that word out online or with fliers.