Really alive and invigorating.

I would even go further

Obama said: “For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it’s appropriate for them to be prosecuted.” But why not?

Nuremberg Principle IV states:

“The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.”

by Zak Maymin
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one comment

all it takes for evil to suceed is for a few good men to be silent.A famous quote and an honest one.if we are silent about torture it will continue and include us next time.

by liberalsrock
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Reply: We are already included

They read our emails, listen to our conversations, and follow our cells without warrants. Plus we learned that the Homeland Security consider us – be it conservatives, or Ron Paul followers, or veterans, or just people who don’t like the big government – as terrorists or potential terrorists.
For some reason what scares me the most is the fact that Homeland Security is going to save $52 million in office supplies. In freaking office supply!

by Zak Maymin
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A Buick is not a car

One often hears that America is a constitutional republic, not a democracy.

But this is completely wrong. A constitutional republic is a type of democracy.

You have only to ask yourself, how are the representatives in a constitutional republic selected?

A: They are selected democratically.

Thus, to say America is not a democracy is like saying a Buick is not a car.

by Perry Logan
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Reply: Ah, semantic wordplay

There’s a difference between a democratically elected republic and a pure democracy, and you know it. It’s the same way there is a difference between a school bus and a prison bus. Yeah, they’re both buses. Yeah, a republic is a type of democracy where democracy is interpreted broadly to mean any kind of political institution where people have some kind of vote about something. But by that interpretation, even shareholders and company bylaws are all a type of democracy. But the word has no interesting meaning.

In this context, the author’s point #4 is that we elect representatives, we don’t vote on issues. And therefore the representatives have a duty to make the right decision, even if it means disagreeing with the majority of their constituents.

In a democracy, the majority can vote to kill the minority and the only ones responsible are the voters. In a republic, if the elected officials vote to kill the minority, under the claim that that’s what the majority wants, they are still the ones morally responsible (in addition to the majority).

Try driving a Buick where every passenger gets a vote on whether to turn left or right, and then you’ll know the difference between electing a driver and voting for every speed bump.

by Man B. Free
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A carriage is a car…

… because it has wheels.

Our Constitutional Republic has similarity to democracy in using democratic process to elect representatives to pass new laws. The critical difference is in the Constitution limiting the powers of the government and protecting individual liberties.

Our founders feared a purely democratic government. They knew that “a democracy can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.” (Alexander Taylor?)

The Pledge of Allegiance refers to our country as a Republic and our constitution and the Declaration of Independence do not mention the word “democracy”.

Article IV Section 4 of the Constitution states: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion . . .

James Madison, Federalist Paper No. 10:
In a pure democracy, “there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual.”

At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Edmund Randolph said, “… that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy.”

John Adams said, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

Chief Justice John Marshall observed,
“Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.”

By Zak Maymin
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