They've been trying to fix this "bit of broken code" for centuries, and certainly for the last half century, to no avail. The more those who know point out the error of society's ways, the more the others, who don't, continue to head the wrong direction.

In this country, our laws and customs are still the antiquated ones that were used back when people raised their own food and took care of their own. They assume they have the same rights they had back when nobody else lived within gunshot range. They still have school vacations at planting, during the summer when kids used to weed the fields, and so on. They don't even notice that the kids are more and more ignorant every year. Of course, their parents aren't too smart either. They watch "Fear Factor" where people are paid to eat bugs and they can't tear themselves away from their iPods and cellphones. They buy poorly built, gas-guzzling automobiles of ultra-low quality because the football player on the screen tells them to do that. They can't think for themselves. How can anyone expect their kids to be any sort of an improvement on that?

Now, I've been a registered Republican since I turned 21. I've voted for only one Democrat, and that was the useless tit that opposed Dubya. Those two were certainly a prime example of a distinction without a difference.

Over the years, I've voted for only one Republican for President, and that was Richard Nixon. Since then I've voted for Gus Hall, Shirley Chisholm, John Anderson, and Ross Perot. It hasn't helped! The two parties offer, again, a distinction without a difference.

As for the relative intelligence of presidential candidates, like most politics, it's a race to the bottom. Who'd have guessed they could go so low? I think if you took all the politicians' collective brains, wadded them up, and jammed them in a cat's arse, the cat wouldn't notice.

It surely puzzles me that voters seem to want the dumbest and most corrupt in our country running things. Why else would they always vote for them? It must be that they're afraid that someone smart enough to do a good job would outsmart them.

In the meantime, I'm going to continue to advocate for zero population ... not just zero population growth.

RE