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Opinions on World Affairs

Jerusalem - It should be declared an 'International City'.  It should not be considered real estate, and should belong to no one.  It belongs to Humanity.  I would suggest a council of all the religions which hold claim be formed to oversee it.
It is nobody's city.  It is everybody's city :)

"The sovereign, after taking individuals one by one in his powerful hands and kneading them to his liking, reaches out to embrace society as a whole. Over it he spreads a fine mesh of uniform, minute, and complex rules, through which not even the most original minds and most vigorous souls can poke their heads above the crowd. He does not break men's wills but softens, bends, and guides them. He seldom forces anyone to act but consistently opposes action. He does not destroy things but prevents them from coming into being. Rather than tyrannize, he inhibits, represses, saps, stifles, and stultifies, and in the end he reduces each nation to nothing but a flock of timid and industrious animals, with the government as its shepherd.
    ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. 2 [1840]

-- “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
    ~ Abraham Lincoln

-- "The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."
    ~ Winston Churchill


-- "When fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
    -- Sinclair Lewis

-- "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power."
    -- Benito Mussolini

"We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization."
    --Franklin Delano Roosevelt

-- "A patriot supports his country all the time, and his government when it deserves it."

    ~ Mark Twain

-- “Should my administration prove to be a very wicked one…or a very foolish one, if you, the people, are true to yourselves and the Constitution, there is little harm I can do, thank God.”
    ~ Abraham Lincoln

“I am increasingly persuaded that the Earth belongs exclusivly to the living, and that one generation has no more right to bind another to its laws and judgements than one independent nation has the right to command another.”
    ~ Thomas Jefferson reflectiing on the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution in the HBO miniseries John Adams

-- "The basic moral principle underpinning a non-interventionist foreign policy is that of rejecting the initiation of force against others. It is based on non-violence and friendship unless attacked, self-determination, and self-defense while avoiding confrontation, even when we disagree with the way other countries run their affairs. It simply means that we should mind our own business and not be influenced by special interests that have an ax to grind or benefits to gain by controlling our foreign policy. Manipulating our country into conflicts that are none of our business and unrelated to national security provides no benefits to us, while exposing us to great risks financially and militarily."

    * Extolls the benefits of the federal government. "The unity of government...is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence...of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize."
    * Warns against the party system. "It serves to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration....agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one....against another....it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption...thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another."
    * Stresses the importance of religion and morality. "Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?"
    * On stable public credit. "...cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible...avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt....it is essential that you...bear in mind, that towards the payments of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not...inconvenient and unpleasant..."
    * Warns against permanent foreign alliances. "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world..."
    * On an over-powerful military establishment. "...avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty."

The 'Higher Powers': Martial Law vs. Christian Responsibility

A Century of War: Lincoln, Wilson, and Roosevelt

Martial Arts Constitutional Ammendment - a way to codify the difference between the rights of the average American citizen and those of citizens who have taken martial arts classes.  New rules?  Let's write them down, folks...

John Adams - starring Paul Giamatti.  The excellent historical drama miniseries from HBO.  Recommended viewing if  you would like to know how the American Revolution came to be, and what issues the fledgling government of the Unites States dealt with.

Can a Liberal be Libertarian? - Cherniak on Politics - I really like this guy's take on Libertarianism


1) LIFE and SELF GOVERNMENT: That an individual being - and the life of this individual - is sacred, ergo the violation of the individual and the robbing of an individual life is fundamentally evil. Furthermore, the choices I make, as a thinking individual, regarding my own body, is ultimately my own business, and no one should have the power to intervene without my consent.

2) EFFORT AND OUTCOME: That my limited time in this universe as a living being, is invested in efforts that results in an outcome, namely money - and these money are, by natural right, mine to keep and spend as I see fit. The denial of this right is theft, no matter what label it is applied, and the injustice of this theft increases proportionally with the magnitude of the theft.

3) PROPERTY AND OWNERSHIP: That Capitalism is the only economic and political system that allows an individual to live free from opression and tyranny, and to choose his own way of life. Additionally, I assert that my drive to acquire property is a natural function of my being, and the robbing of or denial of private property does not only deny me that which gives me satisfaction, and hence happiness in life - it denies me of that which by nature makes me human.

4) STATE POWER: That the growth of the state happens at the expense of the freedoms of the individual. That the state is, despite whatever noble ideals it may act on, and whatever benevolent actions it may occasionally make, ultimately an organ of control and force - and as such, it is an entity that will eventually violate my body or mind. As such, the smaller the state apparatus, the better, and likewise, the less governing over individuals the state governing organ maintains, the better.

5) FREEDOM OF MIND: That the freedom of my mind naturally includes my freedom of speech and my freedom of expression. That there is no obscenity bigger than that of censorship.

6) PROTECTION OF SELF: That an individual has a sacred right to protect himself from violations of his body and mind, with force if necessary. As such, I assert that the ownership of weapons, that give me the power to protect and enforce my freedom and oppose injustices and brutality, is a right, and furthermore, that my freedom is ultimately a contingent of whether I am armed or not.

7) HUMAN NATURE: That all human beings are fundamentally the same as myself - that we are equal in nature, and in most respects equal in desires. That the violation of another human is comparable to myself being violated by a third party.

8) VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION: That there should be no restrictions of voluntary association and interaction between human beings. That an association committed between two consenting individuals is morallly sound and may not be violated by third parties.

These assertions outline my ideal of a free and fruitful life in this universe.

- Peter Bjørn Perlsø, 26th of May, 2004

"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying -- lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else,"
    ~ George Carlin

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