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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (16643)	6/14/2001 12:08:32 AM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm right. You're both wrong. Americans like Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed and Bonnie & Clyde. A successful American terrorist would have to abstain from taking human life, have a creed and the tacit approval of the American people. And most important there would need to be a reason for change and eventually a popular movement behind it. I would guess that movement would need to be a constitutional based roots movement. There is no real reason now as America is still a pretty good place to live.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (16643)	6/14/2001 7:01:50 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Do "the people" approve of a government which allows collecting $3million because you were stupid enough to hold a styrofoam cup of hot coffee between your legs and, duh, got burned when it splashed out? Who do you think gave that woman all that money for being stupid? It wasn't the government. It was a jury of people. Look at the award that smoker just got. The people on those juries, the very same people who vote, want to compensate suffering people regardless of the irresponsible behavior that caused their own suffering. I wouldn't do that. You wouldn't do that. But the people keep doing it. Do"the people" like the way Congress runs, like gridlock in Washington... I think that the people prefer gridlock to the alternative. I've posted before that I regularly vote the pro-gridlock ticket. It's not the first choice. People's first choice is always to get everything they want handed to them and to keep the other guys from getting an equivalent free ride. They're looking at gridlock as a glass half full. Do "the people" want a government that prohibits the use of medical marijuna? It would seem so, according to the polls. Do "the people" want the number of laws, and lawyers, we have? Again, it would seem so. What the media and the politicians report as the priorities of the people is always a laundry list of new laws. I think the top priorities now are a Medicare drug benefit, a patients' bill of rights, and some education programs. I don't see any demand for law reduction. The bill of rights cries out to the law schools to up their productivity. You lived and worked in the system for so long that it's natural for you to feel supportive and perhaps a bit defensive I'm not defending the government and you know it. I likely have some insights into what's wrong with it that you can't even imagine. What I'm defending is a civilized society. In a civilized society we don't blow up what society has put in place, however misguided it might be. Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm right. It doesn't matter who is right. The people have processes for expressing themselves. Your interpretation or my interpretation of what they want doesn't matter. The people don't express their preferences through us. We are each part of the people. Our role is to express ourselves and to try to influence the rest of the people to want what we want. Our role is not to make their decisions for them by taking things into our own hands. No one elected you or me to speak for them. Or blow things up for them. Karen