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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RMF who wrote (200011)	8/29/2006 12:25:27 AM
From: Ichy Smith	Respond to of 281500

....you STILL didn't speak to my Alabama scenario. I would like to take a stab at it. The flaw in democracy is that it makes everyone more or less equal. your question about Alabama is a good one, and yes for a time they might have a period where only Christians were elected and Gay people left Alabama. But not all Christians retain their adoration of hard line christianity, and some of the less strict will come to miss their gay children and someone will marry a Jew or Muslim and want them to be equal and slowly the need to become more inclusive becomes etched into the psyche and low and behold the laws change. 50 years ago if you had said two gay men would be able to get married in Canada, Canadians would have asked you why two men would want to marry. Today, it is getting to the point that the sky didn't fall and the divorce rate for heterosexuals is not higher and well, it really is a tad boring. I remember when black people didn't sit on a bus unless the white folks were all seated. I remember when Alabama was never going to have de-segregation. And now in Toronto some Blacks are suggesting they may need their own schools because black children don't learn as well in the presence of white folk, so they want schools with no white folk...... So given a chance all societies get less strict and then more strict and then less strict as we stumble along trying to find our way. I don't see the same kind of thing from Muslims. and the killing people and cutting heads off and whipping people and beating their wives seems a tad barbaric.

To: RMF who wrote (200011)	8/29/2006 1:40:16 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

RMF.. I'm sorry, but the world doesn't revolve around you, or some hypothetical scenario you choose create. I responded as I thought was pertinent to the discussion at hand. And no.. when I speak about "Democracy", I'm referring to a broader concept, not just the US model. We're a bi-cameral representative republic. But that doesn't mean that our model is the only, or the best, one for the rest of the world. But at its heart, democracy MUST create a marketplace of ideas, all submissive to the will of the electorate and cognizant that their goals are all to offer a better life to the people. Then let those people decide whether this is what they want or not. As for "absolute freedom of the press", then what are you saying.. that people want to be lied to by their media? Or that the majority wants the media to act as a instrument of their propaganda efforts? What if they didn't want the press to print ANYTHING objectionable to their religious beliefs? How is that any different than what's occurred throughout our history, and even to the present (just looked at how p*ssed off the Scientologists get when you criticize their "religion")?? I personally believe in Freedom of the Press, so long as they are held accountable to a journalistic standard. Freedom of the press is not a license to libel and defame, nor to fabricate. And I believe that such freedoms are critical to developing a successful democracy. Hawk