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To: Winkman777 who wrote (78727)	11/12/2000 8:51:01 PM
From: kodiak_bull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

OT: Winkman, Let me clarify, once more, what I said, which is a question of general morality. There are people who decide that the end (their desire, their goals) justifies means which are unfair, illegal or deadly. When a person decides that his "end" (having money, providing for his family, buying a house, buying a fancy car, supporting a mistress, getting rich, getting powerful) justifies any means (fraud, lying, stealing, dealing drugs, etc.) then you have a basic problem of immorality. Very simple. It is what informs the cad, the cheat, the louse, the liar, the criminal and the dictator. It is what turns the bank teller into an embezzler, a truck driver into a cocaine distributor, a farmer into a marijuana grower, an investment banker into an insider trader, and a government leader into a tyrant. It's very simple. The only difference between the local drug dealer and the Colombian crime lord is one of scale. Mao killed 10s of millions of Chinese because he could, the same for Uncle Joe. Joe McCarthy, had he had his way, would have created an archipelago here in the U.S., imho. Joe McC was the prototypical "ends" guy. Ivan Boesky was an "ends" guy, he would do anything, within his power to get what he wanted. Stalin was an "ends" guy, he would do anything within his power to get what he wanted. The difference? The amount of power. Now, that doesn't make Boesky a Stalin or a Hitler, it simply means that he is informed by the same immorality. What kept Boesky from becoming a Stalin or a Hitler was simply his area of conduct (arbitrage vs. totalitarian politics). What worries me about Clinton/Gore and the general direction of their politics is that they are openly "ends" guys, no matter what they said. Neither has any respect for the rule or law or the basic social contract. Perjury, obstruction of justice, anything is fine as long as you get away with it. "Bulletproof," according to the Sat Night Live skit. Incidentally, I believe in 20th century American politics the vast majority if not the totality of voter fraud has been Democrat Party urban machine politics. LBJ in Texas, Richard Daley in Chicago, the Irish machine in Boston, and various machines up and down the east coast. Many elections have been stolen in the dead of night; this is the first one the Democrats are bold enough to try to steal on national TV. I agree with every other one of your points.