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

To: kumar who wrote (237142)	7/19/2007 11:22:18 AM
From: Ish	Respond to of 281500

Try not paying the real estate tax on your property and see if you own it.

To: kumar who wrote (237142)	7/19/2007 3:24:47 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 281500

I heard a really interesting guy on NPR today- last name Patel (first name sounded like Ebu- but I only heard it a couple of times), he was an Indian Muslim, and he recently wrote a book on reaching kids with an interfaith message of tolerance. He made some great points. One of the best, imo, was that while what the extremists do is "sexy", and thus newsworthy, his voice is hoarse from talking about how he, as a moderate tolerant Muslim, does not support violence or intolerance, but since that isn't a sexy message no one really cares or listens to him, or the other people like him. That has to be amazingly frustrating. I guess that's part of the reason he wrote the book.

To: kumar who wrote (237142)	7/20/2007 12:28:06 AM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I think that what the chorus of people responding to your post are saying is that unless you are completely free to do anything you want then you are not free at all. If there is a tree in front of your house you might own it but you might not be allowed to cut it down. You cannot cut it down because in a free society the rule of law sometimes constrains our actions -- we cannot do as we please in all cases. Law serves the "common good", and that means limits on our freedom, including our freedom to own and dispose of private property as we see fit without any constraint. Living with the rule of law drives these people crazy -- they want absolute freedom. But there is a problem with there concept of freedom -- without the rule of the law there is no foundation for freedom. You have found the rule of law does not unduly constrain you -- most people agree and are glad there are laws for the common good. Many on this thread want a world without government at all -- a lawless world where the common good be damned. They don't view taxes as your share of the price we pay for living in a free society -- they see taxes as confiscation of their private property.