So, here's the idea. The turnout for the midterms was shit. The turnout for midterms is always shit. It is a civic good for more people to vote as this (in theory) makes government more representative. Coincidentally, low turnout favors (generally) Republicans and high turnout (generally) favors Democrats. Australia (IIRC) has compulsory voting. If you don't vote, you have to either justify it to a judge or get fined a small amount (like, $20).

So I came up with a few options but all of them require an automatic voter registration. That shouldn't be too hard to do. AFAIK, the US is the only democratic country where you have to actually register to vote. Every other country I know of, you're automatically registered by virtue of being a living citizen. So I'm proposing that, firstly, the US just start automatically registering everyone to vote, the Social Security register has everyone's name and address anyway, it wouldn't be too difficult to register everyone off that. Then, one of these options.

Option A: The US gets compulsory voting. You have to turn up at a polling place, mark or mail in a ballot or you get fined a small amount unless you can justify it to a judge (all proceeds go to funding future elections).

Option B: The US switches to entirely postal voting. In the weeks running up to an election, every eligible citizen gets mailed a polling card. They mark their choice, sign it and mail it back, just like with overseas military votes. Free of postal costs, obviously.

Option C: The US switches to fully online voting. The idea here is that there's a database in every state with everyone's name and SS number. You go to a website, input your SS number. The system checks against the database that you are eligible and haven't already voted. If you clear both of those, you get to pick your choice. Now, the drawback with this one is that, if it's online, it is potentially hackable. However, cyber-security is now at such a level that, given enough funding and expertise, you could make the threat of a hack virtually impossible.

Option D: Things carry on as they are, with barely anyone turning out for midterms.

This one's just for fun. Pick whoever you'd like for president. And I mean anyone. Living or dead, electable or not, fictional or real. Literally anyone.

But....

You have to make a case for why they'd be a good president.

Do you believe in the Lucifer of the Bible or a different version?

Difficult to explain. Essentially, you've heard teh expression that the victor writes the history? That's how we see the Bible, as a propaganda version of events that only tells god's side of things. So, while the Lucifer I pray to is the same one as the one in the Bible, the Bible version is incomplete and comes from his enemies.

If the Biblical one, do you see him as equal to God?

More or less. That's still to be determined. Essentially, while Revelation predicts that god will triumph at the end of time, that can be ignored as more propaganda. No-one really knows how it will go down.

If not, isn't your quest to defeat God doomed to failure?

I don't believe so but even if it was, doing teh right thing is more important. Better to be right than "saved".

Do you believe in demons evil spirits possession or summoning?

Um, sorta. Demons: There were those who followed Lucifer and fell with him. Most of them still exist and people have written about them through the years. They occupy a similar position as saints do in Catholicism.
Evil spirits: Well, in addition to the celestials, there are also natural spirits, the energy of a place or an event that attains a sort of crude consciousness. They can be nasty but they're rarely evil in the sense of making a moral choice, more crude and lashing out because they feel threatened.
Possession: Not exactly. No spirit can take possession of you or anyone else. They're not designed the same way. It would be like Hulk Hogan trying to squeeze into your shirt. What I have heard of (but never personally experienced) is a way that a demon can co-share a body. Not taking control of it but taking a back seat in the mind to experience physical being again.
Summoning: I'm undecided. I've heard of it but never seen it myself. I would have thought it was insulting to the being in question and so, I wouldn't do it either.

Do you wish to harm others i.e. Christians or Atheists?

No, absolutely not. There's a couple of Christians that I have a personal beef with but that's not because of their spiritual path, that's because there's heat between us personally. It is more important for people to choose their own path than for our paths to agree. Lucifer's fall, his war that I've chosen to be part of, was about the right to moral self-determination. The right of a thinking, feeling species, to choose it's own fate, to go from "thou shalt not" to "I will not" without the threat of hell hanging over their heads. Thus, it would be wrong of me to try and choose a path for others or to harm them (unless in defence of self or others). It is our job to minimise suffering. Since we have been fucked over by the Big Beard, it's imperative not to add to it by fucking each other over. We should instead aid others and not just through prayer, but by getting up off our knees and getting our hands dirty, "If the lot of man is to improve, the seer must become the do-er".

Finally, a quick debunking of common myths that you were polite enough not to ask:
- I don't sacrifice babies, children or animals. The only thing I sacrifice is a small pinch of herbs which symbolise Lucifer's sacrifice that I choose to share with him.
- I do happen to own a black cat but she's not a familiar, she's a pet and the only reason she's black is because she was teh one who needed re-homing most urgently. She and her marmalade sister are adored and spoiled rotten.
- I do happen to have a small alter. It's not actually necessary, I just like teh formalism of it. It has candles, a small statue, an offering bowl (for those herbs I mentioned) and an incense burner (no occult reason, it just makes the place smell nice) and I pray in much the same manner as most people, I go to one knee (the other is too wrecked to kneel on now), clasp hands and close my eyes.
- I don't take recreational drugs (I barely even drink because it reacts badly with my meds) and there are no orgies or, at least, no-one's even invited me to one.

I know that it's never easy to lose our babies. Our first two were Jelli and Mac, named after Jellicle and Macavity. They're long gone now but I still cry when I think of them. Got me crying now. But they'll be there, Jelli and Mac, Sandy and Suki and your Grace, up, up to the Heaviside Layer and we'll see them all again, in the place where no shadows fall.

Pretty simple, just check the one that applies to you.

EDIT: Yes, I know it doesn't include Muslim. It was there earlier but a couple of people were offended that I didn't include an option for Hindu. I couldn't remove any of the others because people had already picked them so I removed Muslim as that hadn't had anyone click on it and replaced it with Hindu. It's not intended as a slight, it's just that there's only 10 slots.

Essentially, Satanists come in four flavours:
- LaVeyan Satanists are atheists who have a philosophy that's essentially Objectivism with neo-mystical bolt-ons. Called "Satanist" largely because Anton LaVey liked annoying Christians.

- The Temple of Set don't consider themselves Satanists but everyone else does. They don't worship but do revere Set as an example of "willed self-evolution". They have a very complicated philosophy that I confess I don't fully understand.

- Luciferian Satanists (that's me) do believe in Lucifer and do worship him. We see him as the righteous rebel against a tyrannical god. We're an experiential faith, meaning no holy book in the normal sense and no dogma (beyond the duty of each of us to make our world a better place). Each worshipers individual take on the faith is constructed through personal gnosis. We're the smallest of the three main branches and completely lacking any kind of organization.

- Finally, there are the punk kids. Diane Vera (an influential occult writer) calls them "Black Circle Boys" after the film of the same name. They're the ones who smash up graveyards, torture/kill animals and use our signs and symbolism without any understanding of the belief system that underpins it. The rest of us loathe them, for fairly obvious reasons.

So I finally got Star membership and thought I'd celebrate by uploading my own avatar (same one use on everything) and creating my first poll in ages.

Simple question: Should churches be taxed?

Curious about what kind of net service my American friends get. If you don't mind sharing, how's your download speed and what do you pay for it?

Here (British Midlands), I pay roughly $50 a month for 150Mbs, no cap.

Would be a poll, except I'm not a star member so I can't post polls. Straight yes/no question. Assuming Hillary gets through the primary and is the Democratic nominee in 2016, would you vote for her (holding your nose if necessary)?

If you want to add your reasons why/why not, feel free.