Craig's Corner

I just dispatched my ballot back to the registrar – and for longtime readers it will not come as a surprise that I have voted Libertarian .   Over the years as I’ve proudly voted twice for Harry Browne (RIP) once for Michael Badnarik, held my nose voting for Bob Barr and just ticked for Gary Johnson.   While it’s nice to be enthusiastic about the individual carrying the torch, I vote not for the person, but for the party.   Rather old fashioned, and not at all consistent with today’s personality driven campaigns.   Since my candidate (and party) is going to lose, is my vote a waste? Voting matters.   It makes a statement.   It’s not about whose going to win.   That’s a sporting match.   Voting for a party (or a person) that aligns with your own beliefs cannot be a waste.   There are six candidates who have qualified on the California ballot for President.   Only two of them will have gotten any substantive media analysis and cover...

I am both for death and against death this election season.   Californians will vote on Proposition34 that would abolish the death penalty.   In Massachusetts Question 2 would permit assisted suicide (under a whole range of rules and conditions, like in Portland, OR).   I would vote to allow individuals and their families to choose a dignified death while I oppose state sanctioned death.   The two ballot choices have death in common, what matters is who makes the decision. My father and I had many conversations over the years about dying.   Some were esoteric intellectual musings that disintegrated into rambling diatribes about the meaning of life.   In later years after his stroke the discussions became more personal.   I researched and studied all of the various options and we corresponded regularly about it.   There were two conversations in this process that remain with me.   One was sitting at the Dining Room table...

Pigs are flying.   Wonders have ceased.   Hell must have frozen over.   The United States Congress has investigated a government agency and issued a damning indictment .   The Homeland Security & Government Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations criticized counter terrorism reporting and found significant examples of waste, fraud and abuse. “It’s troubling that the very ‘fusion’ centers that were designed to share information in a post-9/11 world have become part of the problem. Instead of strengthening our counterterrorism efforts, they have too often wasted money and stepped on Americans’ civil liberties,” said Senator Tom Coburn, the Subcommittee’s ranking member who initiated the investigation. Examples of the fusion center difficulties (from the report): •                    Blaming a Russian for hacking into the Springfield IL Water District's s...

For three-quarters of my life I’ve worked in and around egos – from theatre and movies to entrepreneurs.   My own roles (professionally and volunteer) inevitably are rooted in my own sense of self-worth as with the work itself.   It’s true for all of us.   One doesn’t need to be a Freudian scholar to realize the role that ego plays in our lives.   There is a particular manifestation of the ego in politicians, however, that sets their vanity on a whole different plain. This week Vanity Fair released its November edition with an exclusive article claiming that President Obama considered putting Osama bin Laden on trial if he had been taken alive.   The sources?   Top national-security officials and the President himself.   This claim is a whopper and proves that the id, ego and super-ego are on full display in the 2012 Presidential campaign. On May 1, 2011 Navy SEALS raided a compound in Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden.   The Pr...