From the thinking geeks favourite web comic. Already mentioned here & here, XKCD is a very special piece of the web. Educational, controversial, lovable, remarkable, all delivered by a small set of Stickman characters.

In the wake of Charlie Hebdo & the associated emotional outpouring, amid the incessant wailing of short-thinking liberals who think about as far as the fashion of the moment requires them to, those who believe America really is the land of the brave and that they truly should be the world’s policeman, XKCD presented this:

Think about it…

I had it said to me a few days ago that the people reclaiming their own lands after 70 years of UN-led & USA-enforced separation (ISIS) don’t have the benefit of democracy. You know what? For 70 years they haven’t had their own land either. While the oil that lay under the desert was mined, shipped and consumed by the same “authority” that stole their tribal lands post WWII.

And the very same America, I pointed out, (“We will vigorously defend democracy” – G Bush jnr) doesn’t have true democracy anyway. If they did, Bush would never have won his second term. The weird (& definitely NOT 1 man, 1 vote democratic) College vote system took care of that idea.

In New Zealand, your vote is worth approx 1/2,500,000 of a decision. So what’s democracy actually worth? Is it a feelgood thing that you’ve been conditioned to need? I don’t really know, but what I do know is that the most vociferous proponent of the system does not use it themselves.

You are free to say what you like, you are free to have thoughts of your own. Except when they can be interpreted as offensive to America, in which case you can’t. And it’s not just the American vigilantes who can claim justification in silencing a constantly, repetitively, mortally-insulting voice.