the plank:

increase spending on education, especially primary education, and child care.

reduce spending on defense. reduce spending on manned space exploration (the shuttle and space station).

end patents on mathematical formulae, software techniques, business models, and gene-sequences immediately.

preserve what nature we have left, reduce pollution limits, stop subsidizing oil consumption. allow high density urban growth. promote walking and bicycles. don't build highways to stimulate the economy.

end corporate welfare (many tax credits, bail-outs, protectionism). i am pro NAFTA, and pro free trade. trade with nations with oppressive labor or human rights is a difficult question. i am for the free flow of goods, services, information, labor. end farm subsidies, anti-dumping laws. allow foreign ownership of US assets. prevent very larger mergers that threaten diversity of ownership, especially of media companies.

increase respect for civil rights. increase oversight of police violence, especially against minorities. stop insisting on back-doors in cryptographic systems - allow personal privacy. end the death penalty as a matter of practice. stop requiring telecommunications equipment to be wire-tap-ready. the application of RICO (asset seizure for suspected violation of drug laws) was wrong.

more respect for immigrants. the INS has some truly draconian practices that must be curtailed. there is nothing wrong with speaking spanish!

this country still has a race problem, so affirmative action is still necessary.

change drug policy to treat drug addiction as a medical problem, rather than wage war on ourselves. respect individual choice in medical issues, including pregnancy and abortion.

every child must have health insurance.

completely accept homosexuality as healthy & normal (if uncommon) including health care benefits, marriage, adoption, etc.

legalize and regulate prostitution. run needle exchange programs. educate children about birth-control and evolution.

we should reduce government spending and pay off the debt before cutting taxes. beware of the stock market bubble.

less frequent use of force in our foreign policy, but when we do use it, be more decisive. for example using cruise missiles against bin-Ladin and the somali "chemical weapons" factory was a terrible mistake. Kosovo makes a fine illustration of the difficulties. On one hand is principle of sovereignty and non-violence. But the brutality moves me, i cannot stand by while my innocent friends are slaughtered. Our reaction should have been ultimatum and massed troops on the border, and full invasion all the way to belgrade and put slobo in jail is the only way to go. The refusal to put our soldiers in harm's way was insulting to suffering of kosovars. "clean war" policy is revolting.

microsoft is an abusive monopoly in massive violation of its consent decree. while in principle i am against government interference in business, microsoft only exists by copyright law, which is similar interference. so the right solution is to eliminate copyright, but in lieu of that, must take action: release their source code, prevent them from using their patents offensively, break them up into OS/internet/apps divisions, require that any hardware which they certify been publicly documented.

gun control is a very difficult issue. on one hand, level of violence here is shocking, and it appears to be result directly from prevalence of guns. the problem is that people's normal psychological mechanisms to prevent violence don't work with guns, since they are so nonlinear/discontinuous: a fight or an accident can suddenly have terrible results due to just a moment's insanity. on the other hand, simply making something illegal doesn't generally have the intended consequences especially given they are already widespread. i don't believe the 2nd amendment prevents us from making a law that one could not carry a gun outside of your own home. i do not believe that personal firearms provides any substantial deterrent to tyranny (the US military is so beyond the populace it doesn't matter - there's no hope of keeping up). possibility: make ownership legal, but outlaw carrying in metro area. ie you can have a gun, but must leave it at home.

free cryptography for all (domestic and export): stop trying to put back-doors in commercial and government procured systems. escrow sucks. lack of regulation will allow personal key management sw to develop. otoh, we need to be sure that important computer infrastructure is safe from hackers - cyberterrorism is real and becoming more threatening. one way to make systems secure is to use Open Source Software. key escrow itself represents yet another central authority that terrorists could threaten.

military needs to be smaller & faster & cheaper. reduce number of soldiers but pay them more. merge forces to reduce overhead. prefer joint strike fighter over F22. most important is to end use of military as pork system. i oppose building missile defense systems because the prototypes don't work, and they violate the ABM treaty. but continue research that might lead to a working system. part of the military industrial research pork complex is the manned space activity. primarily of patriotic and military purpose - real research is done more cheaply with satellites and robots. the commercial space industry is independent and healthy.

ending patents on software techniques, gene sequences, and other soft/abstract objects only the beginning of what must be a major shift of direction on intellectual property. with the possible exception of drug patents, the cycle of invention-patent-reward is no longer functioning. if the patent system were simply obliterated, the effect on the computer, software, and internet industries would be increased competition, faster development, lower prices for consumers, all without companies changing their business models (except they could fire a bunch of lawyers). patents represent government & lawyer interference, not a foundation for commerce by extending ownership to the information age.

the tax system should be seriously and fundamentally changed. the first and most important step is to immediately simplify the system. i am wary of using the tax system for incentives. but beyond that, it makes more sense to tax consumption rather than income & investment. this saves work because there are fewer businesses than individuals and they already do careful accounting. so instead of income tax, use a tax on sales and services. there are a couple of ways of making the system progressive: the obvious way is to tax luxuries at a different rate. another is to give people a rebate in inverse proportion to their income. neither of these is completely satisfying (people will fudge what is a luxury, and the poor are exactly those who will be unlikely to fill out forms required to get a rebate) but if these difficulties can be overcome perhaps such a system can be made to work.

copyright protection should be reduced, not increased as disney and microsoft's lobbiests claim. are we really ready to fight a trade war with china over the copying of compact disks? just how much damage and liability results from (for example) sharing MP3 files and other "warez"? we need reasonable punishment for people who make non-commercial distribution of copyright information. we need to reduce the duration of copyright, not increase it. we need to increase fair use provisions, oppose copyrighting of databases. we need to put more books online, available for free, especially textbooks.

utopia vs reality: concrete direction (positions on current & past issues), abstract motivation (self-determination, individual responsibility, complexity). i am a democrat/libertarian, principled, but accepts the nonrational & historical. direction more important than destination, for consensus.

i believe in a small government based on direct democracy, civil rights. end corporate welfare including most defense spending and copyright, numerous tax breaks. i am for drugs, sex, rock&roll, abortion, crypo, environment. no tariffs. i am for the free flow of goods, services, labor, people, information. foreign policy based on same principles: non-violence, non-interference, balanced against defending basic human rights (self defense). legally mandatory insurance. that means basic health care (not to mention food & housing), an excellent free education, flood/fire insurance for those who choose to live in dangerous areas, and auto insurance (not to mention licensing). gun insurance? child insurance? growth neutral.

end the patent system: it is a boon to big business, enriches legal profession, does not encourage real progress. phase it out, some industries may need something like it at least for now (eg pharm). trade with mexico & china: it seems reasonable to allow a company to run a factory or invest in an area if they can demonstrate that high standards are followed by the suppliers and associates.

my response to this nonsense.

originally ~march 2000, last modified 6/29/00