Voter Registration Forms in Color

According to the New York Post, Peter Rivera, a New York State Assemblyman from the Bronx, seeks to introduce a bill to require racial and ethnic data on voter registration forms.

This is, of course, absurd on its face. For one thing, there has not really been any racial purity amongst the population for the past 2,000 years or so. How would someone of diverse parentage and grandparentage fill out the form? And, of no less concern, what would be gained by placing what would inevitably be a strain on the New York State Budget, which is in poor shape as it now is?

What is even more amazing (though not at all unwelcome) is that the Congress for Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) and the NAACP are not warming up to the idea! Given the historical stances taken by those two groups, one would not be surprised to see either back such a scheme.

But it does sort of make sense for CORE and NAACP to steer clear of this one. They stand to gain little, and in fact, it may well backfire by yielding statistics which would embarrass them. There is too much of whatever credibility CORE and NAACP may possess that would be risked. Hey, it is so easy to register to vote by mail anymore that NAACP and CORE would be very hard pressed to find any of their constituents actually being denied the right to vote on racial or ethnic grounds.

Whether the nonplussedness (if there is such a word) of CORE and NAACP is based upon principle (which I sort of doubt) or practicality, it should be a signal to Rivera to forget about the whole thing and stick his proposed bill into the paper shredder.

Nanny Says You May Vote

I'm busy, fatigued, and burnt out, so this will be a short post.

Seems that the New York State Board of Elections has not yet mailed out all the absentee ballots to the voters, including and especially the military servicepeople who are getting their toochases shot at to defend us and our freedom. So now all the politicians are castigating the BOE (as they, and everyone else, rightly well should).

The BOE already got a waiver from the Department of Justice until 1 October, but they still haven't complied with the law. Apparently, the BOE has refused help from other individuals and agencies as they have fallen behind in the matter.

I share everyone's indignation! What I find ironic, however, is NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's grandstanding on the issue. In America, the ballot is the quintessential exemplar of autonomy and free choice. Since when is Bloomie a proponent of free choice? He wants to prohibit the use of food stamps to buy sodas, he has pushed through legislation to cut out the unhealthy transfats in restaurants, and he has already curtailed people's right to smoke. And I won't even begin to discuss the Second Amendment issues as they affect New Yorkers.

Now understand that I personally wish to see the fatsos (including and especially my dear wife) take better care of their health and stop bulking up on the fattening foods. And I am in total agreement that smoking is a burning health hazard (pun intentional).

But evil as cancer and obesity may be, Bloomie's attitude that the people of New York (and America -- he has the White House on his radar) need a nanny state to make their personal choices for them is even more pernicious.

I therefore find it most ironic that Mike Bloomberg is sticking up for New Yorkers' free choice when he himself has done so much to remove our free choice options.