COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, June 20, 2011

We Really Need Someone Named Fareed Zakaria Advising Us to Scrap the Constitution

Zakaria was born in Mumbai (then Bombay), Maharashtra, India, to a Konkani Muslim family. His father, Rafiq Zakaria, was a politician associated with the Indian National Congress and an Islamic scholar. His mother, Fatima Zakaria, was for a time the editor of the Sunday Times of India.
____________________________

CNN

Is it time to update the U.S. Constitution?

We all know how Americans revere the constitution, so I was struck by the news that tiny, little Iceland is actually junking its own constitution and starting anew using an unusual - some would say innovative - mechanism.
The nation decided it needed a new constitution and it's soliciting ideas from all of Iceland's 320,000 citizens with the help of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  This social media method has worked. Ideas have been flowing in. Many have asked for guaranteed, good health care. Others want campaign finance systems that make corporate donations illegal. And some just want the country to makeshark finning illegal.
There is a Constitutional Council. It incorporates some of these ideas, rejects others, but everything is done in plain sight on the web. As one member of the Constitutional Council said, the document is basically being drafted on the Internet. 
Now, why do they need a new constitution anyway? Well, after Iceland was crippled in recent years by the economic crisis, they all wanted a fresh start. And, anyway, they felt the document was old and outdated, drafted all the way back in 1944.
Now, you might be tempted to say that Iceland doesn't have any reasons to be proud of its political traditions in the manner that the United States does. Well, think again.
Iceland is home to the world's oldest parliament still in existence, the Althing, set up in 930 A.D. The rocky ledge on which they gathered represents the beginnings of representative government in the world. So Iceland has reasons to cherish its history, and yet it was willing to revise it.
By contrast, any talk of revising or revisiting the American constitution is, of course, seen as heresy. The United States constitution was, as you know, drafted in a cramped room in Philadelphia in 1787 with shades drawn over the windows. It was signed by 39 people.
America at the time consisted of 13 states. Congress had 26 senators and 65 representatives. The entire population was about one percent of today's number - four million people.
America was an agricultural society, with no industry - not even cotton gins. The flush toilet had just been invented.
These were the circumstances under which this document was written.
And let me be very clear here, the U.S. constitution is an extraordinary work, one of the greatest expressions of liberty and law in human history.
One amazing testament to it is the mere fact that it has survived as the law of the land for 222 years.
But our constitution has been revised 27 times.  Some of these revisions have been enormous and important, such as the abolition of slavery. Then there are areas that have evolved. For example, the power of the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, is barely mentioned in the document. This grew as a fact over history.
But there are surely some issues that still need to be debated and fixed.
The electoral college, for example, is highly undemocratic, allowing for the possibility that someone could get elected as president even if he or she had a smaller share of the total national vote than his opponent.
The structure of the Senate is even more undemocratic, with Wisconsin's six million inhabitants getting the same representation in the Senate as California's 36 million people. That's not exactly one man, one vote.
And we are surely the only modern nation that could be paralyzed as we were in 2000 over an election dispute because we lack a simple national electoral system.
So we could use the ideas of social media that were actually invented in this country to suggest a set of amendments to modernize the constitution for the 21st Century.
Such a plan is not unheard of in American history.
After all, the delegates in Philadelphia in 1787 initially meant not to create the Constitution as we now know it, but instead to revise the existing document, the Articles of Confederation. But the delegates saw a disconnect between the document that currently governed them and the needs of the nation, so their solution was to start anew.
I'm just suggesting we talk about a few revisions.
Anyway, what do you think? Should we do this? And if we were to revise the U.S. Constitution, what would be the three amendments you would put in?

43 comments:

  1. I just turned on Mark Levin on WABC and he is beginning to talk about this. This should be good!

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  2. Levin is questioning if Fareed was from the US? The answer is no.

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  3. Just one amendment: Deport all Bombay-born asshats named Fareed Zakaria.

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  4. There are also indications that the administration, having learned from the U.S. experience in Iraq, will set deadline dates for the drawdown as it progresses, in order to keep pressure on the Afghans and give Congress mileposts.

    With Iraq as a blueprint, commanders will need time to figure out what they call “battlefield geometry” — what types of troops are needed where. Those could include trainers, intelligence officers, special operations forces, various support units — from medical and construction to air transport — as well as combat troops.

    Much of that will depend on where the Afghan security forces are able to take the lead, as well as the state of the insurgency. Part of the debate will also require commanders to determine the appropriate ratio of trainers versus combat troops.


    Update Wednesday

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  5. Nurses aren't supposed to laugh...

    "Of course I won't laugh," said the nurse. "I'm a professional. In over twenty years I've never laughed at a patient."

    "Okay then," said Raymond, and he proceeded to drop his trousers, revealing the smallest male part the nurse had ever seen.

    It's length and width was almost identical to a AAA battery.

    Unable to control herself, the nurse tried to stop a giggle, but it just came out.

    And then she started laughing at the fact that she was laughing.

    Feeling very badly that she had laughed at the man's part, she composed herself as well as she could.

    "I am so sorry," she said. "I don't know what came over me. On my honor as a nurse and a lady, I promise that won't happen again. Now, tell me, what seems to be the problem?"

    "It's swollen," Raymond replied.

    She ran out of the room.

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  6. A Chicago man was charged with felony animal cruelty after cops caught him operating on his pet dog while drunk, The Chicago Tribune reported Monday.

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  7. .

    Shut Up, He Explained

    By Mark Steyn

    Daniel, re Lindsey Graham’s suggestion that everyone should just “shut up” about the Libyan Non-War, you’ll recall that the last time the Senator attracted any attention in these parts he was also telling everyone to shut up — this time about Islam. Maybe it would be easier if he just issued the rest of us with an approved list of conversational topics.

    Alternatively, here’s a suggestion for Senator Graham: Why don’t you shut up? Not permanently, but just long enough to:

    a) reflect whether this apparently reflexive response of yours is really appropriate for a citizen-legislator in a self-governing republic;

    b) articulate a rationale for the Libyan mission that would be so persuasive it would save you the trouble of making a fool of yourself by insisting that those who have the temerity to disagree with you are beyond the bounds of public discourse;

    and c) spend ten minutes in a darkened room with a nice cup of herbal tea and ponder, re your assertion that those who won’t “shut up” are “empowering Qaddafi,” whether that line has any credibility coming from a member of the Congressional jet set who only two years ago was “empowering Qaddafi” by taking tea in the pock-marked transvestite’s tent as part of some greasy little Senatorial outreach mission.

    It was striking that, at Monday’s debate, even the more hawkish candidates were unable to articulate a rationale for the present Afghan mission. It’s hard to win a war when you don’t have war aims, and, as I wrote in National Review a couple of weeks back, America has gotten into the habit of unwon wars — in part because a buffoon like Graham and his dictatorial air miles are what passes for geostrategic “expertise” in Washington.


    .

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  8. And, before that, he was telling us to "shut up" about illegal immigration.

    He's startin' to wear a little thin.

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  9. You can survive a too-large budget dificit (for awhile.)

    And, you can survive a huge trade deficit (for awhile.)

    You can even survive unending foreign adventures (for awhile.)

    But, you can't survive the three, all wrapped up at once, for any amount of time at all.

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  10. .

    Is Growing Income Inequality Helping Bankrupt Social Security?

    If you didn’t read Peter Whoriskey’s report on inequality in Sunday’s Washington Post, please do so now (well, as soon as you finish me!). It’s a very important piece of work that should shift the nature of the inequality debate in the capital (although I’m not holding my breath on that, alas). And it reminds me, in this open season on entitlements, of the important but very infrequently discussed link between inequality and Social Security—why more of the former helps bankrupt the latter...

    Now, what does all this have to do with Social Security? This: over the years, Social Security was structured so that the payroll taxes that fund it (13.4 percent of wages, half from the employee and half from the employer up to about $107,000 in salary, a figure that rises a bit each year) would be applied to 90 percent of total U.S. compensation. The actuaries calculated that hitting that 90 percent should keep the trust fund in pretty good shape…

    Today, though, Social Security payroll taxes are collected on only about 82 to 84 percent of total compensation. The difference is immense. And why does the difference exist? Rampant inequality, and compensation arrangements at the top that give executives their pay in the form of capital gains and stock options and other income forms to which payroll taxes don’t apply. And, if middle-class incomes had grown respectably since they instead stagnated in the 1970s, we’d have millions more Americans making $60,000 instead $50,000 and $100,000 instead of $80,000, and the Social Security trust fund would have that much more money…


    .

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  11. Sohana Jawed, dressed in a blue and white school uniform, recounted her ordeal during a news conference with police in Lower Dir district. Militants in Pakistan have often used young boys to carry out attacks, but the use of young girls is rare.

    ...

    Asif Khan, the police chief in the area of Peshawar where Jawed said she lived and was kidnapped, Hashtnagri, said they haven't received a complaint of a missing girl and haven't identified a resident with her name.

    Police in Lower Dir plan to ask Jawed additional questions after she is examined by a psychiatrist, who is helping her cope with the trauma of her ordeal.


    Girl Kidnapped

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  12. Q :
    Is Growing Income Inequality Helping Bankrupt Social Security?


    For the life of me, I cannot understand the justification for an income cap on social security. Certainly compensation for service in any form, wages, stock or bonus is compensation and is income to the earner. Compensation should be synonymous with income and should be taxed the same for a Hollywood Liberal as a McDonald's hamburger flipper.

    Someone making twenty million dollars for doing something as silly as acting for a movie should be delighted, euphoric and on their knees thanking the gods above for their selection in being paid $20,000,000 to make a film. Paying into the system, bringing it to solvency is the least they could do for their adoring fans. They could brag on how much they pay when on Jay Leno, for Christ sakes.

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  13. Anyway, anything new from the dumbest president ever?

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  14. Let me check the tape. Surely he did at least one significantly stupid thing over the weekend.

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  15. Here is a shocker from Obama:

    WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama spoke Monday at a fundraiser for potential Jewish donors to his 2010 presidential campaign and assured then that Jerusalem and Washington's relations were unshakable.

    "One inviolable principle will be that the United States and Israel will always be stalwart allies and friends, that that bond isn’t breakable and that Israel's security will always be at the top tier of considerations in terms of how America manages its foreign policy – because it's the right thing to do, because Israel is our closest ally and friend, it is a robust democracy, it shares our values and it shares our principles," Obama said to roaring applause.


    There must be an Amendment to the Constitution called the Israeli Fealty Clause. You really need to read this twice:

    "One inviolable principle will be that the United States and Israel will always be stalwart allies and friends, that that bond isn’t breakable and that Israel's security will always be at the top tier of considerations in terms of how America manages its foreign policy – because it's the right thing to do, because Israel is our closest ally and friend, it is a robust democracy, it shares our values and it shares our principles,"

    It is almost reminiscent of this quaint little ditty:I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

    How could a US President, under oath to the US Constitution to defend the laws and rights of its citizens, make such a claim and pledge to a foreign power?

    ...Israel's security will always be at the top tier of considerations in terms of how America manages its foreign policy Now, why is that so? What happened to American security? If Netanyahu decides it is in Israel's interest to attack Iran, does that set the course for US foreign policy? When did this happen? Is the Israeli Knesset the new fourth seat of US governance?

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  16. Why are we ruled by such midgets?

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  17. We have a Muslim from India advising us to scrap the Constitution and a President of The United States with Muslim and African roots subordinating American interests to a religious based Middle Eastern country of seven million.

    Any act of questioning such astonishing action will be subjected to charges of anti-semitism by those incapable of hearing truth.

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  18. I object.

    If POTUS feels the need to make a loyalty oath to a foreign power and a free thinking person who objects to such an outrage is derided for questioning such behavior, what have we become?

    The history of "loyalty oaths" is not pretty. It was used by the Nazis, Soviets and by tyrants on the right and the left. Americans, politicians and citizens alike, should be making loyalty oaths to American principles and not to political entities of foreign powers.

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  19. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, ...

    Life leads that list.

    As our resident Zionist tells US, Israel is not bound by such self-evidence. Jewish lives are more valuable, in Israel, than are the lives of practitioners of other religions.

    They find release in bigotry.

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  20. They're big on creating loyalty oaths, in Israel, too.

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  21. Please do not try and draw reason into a discussion about Israel. It is not possible. If you do not believe that look at US Christian fundamentalists who gave 27% support to Obama. Jews on the other hand gave 76% support to Obama. Jews, in private hold Christian fundamentalists in contempt. Christian fundamentlaists love Israel and Jews.

    The US sucks up to Israel because it is the only non-Arab western-friendly democracy in the middle-east. It's America's wedge into the region. This must be maintained for geopolitical and ideological reasons.

    AIPAC has elected US officials by the balls because they are a massively powerful lobby of Jewish Americans who wrap themselves in the American flag, vote & donate money in huge numbers, and are able to quickly & effectively mobilize their members to vote and fund whichever party/candidates suck up to their interests the most, which effectively means both parties. Many members of AIPAC are also very powerful people within the government and private society. These AIPAC members do not have to be paid, They pay others to do their bidding. It's similar to the military-industrial complex in a way, it's all about lobbies & the nature of the American political system.

    Basically, if Obama wants to get reelected next year, he ain't gonna fuck with AIPAC. There has never been anything like it in American politics.

    Every time anything is posted on this blog or others that is remotely critical of Israel, the Jewish counter-attack begins. Imagine the pressure puts on the American Political establishment. American Jews are to the right of Israelis and there is nothing you or anyone else can do anything about it. Get on board and suck it up.

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  22. No attack...

    Just a statement...

    Another thread that blames the jews...

    now who would think that!

    and at the Elephant Bar...

    you guys just make me laugh...

    paranoid motherfuckers...

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  23. I have no patience with foreign entanglements, or religious wars right now.

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  24. I am one of those MOST powerful MEN...

    Yep I am...

    I control 2 Congressmen...

    Count them TWO...

    They do my bidding and I give them LARGE donations...

    Let's see...

    One I gave 100 dollars to 3 years ago and handed out leaflets for...

    The other?

    Never gave a dime...

    And yet?

    The support Israel's right to be.

    They Support Israel's security (and Ameirca's)

    hmmm...

    maybe you folks are just full of shit...

    yep...

    that's the ticket...

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  25. Not to worry, Obama hates Israel, no matter what bullshit he says..

    He just wants the donor's cash...

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  26. Duece: Israel's security will always be at the top tier of considerations in terms of how America manages its foreign policy Now, why is that so? What happened to American security? If Netanyahu decides it is in Israel's interest to attack Iran, does that set the course for US foreign policy? When did this happen? Is the Israeli Knesset the new fourth seat of US governance?



    Rufus says just evil joos OWN America....


    Yep you are all under my control....


    1st. I want all your women....

    (you can keep your fat hairy ones)

    2nd. I want all your industry.

    (you can keep automotive & ipads)

    3rd? and most importantly

    I want all of your warm coast line.

    4th? I want to see Tim Horton's CEASE and DESIT making what they call bagels. It's a crime

    5th I want a national holiday for my greatest sons of Israel.

    Moses? He gets a day

    Jesus? already has one (actually 2)

    David? he gets a weekend

    Queen Ester is to replace the "superbowl" it will now be called "ester's contest"

    Ruth? She get valentine's day renamed for her...

    Solomon? He get MLK day

    Isaiah one and two? they can share groundhog day...

    I control it all!!!!!

    Next? I want to outlaw all mayo.

    Then? a law banning any meat sandwich that doesnt contain at least 2 inches of meat.

    Yes the Joos rule it all..

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  27. Rufus II said...
    I have no patience with foreign entanglements, or religious wars right now.



    and you dont think that was the PLAN by obama all along?

    america the impodent...

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  28. I didn't say it, Wio. My Jewish buddy, and Ariel Sharon said it. I just reported.

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  29. Rufus II said...
    I didn't say it, Wio. My Jewish buddy, and Ariel Sharon said it. I just reported.



    Oh now your drunk jewish beer drinking buddy said it and that fat guy in a coma said it...


    sure...

    getting weak there rufus real weak...

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  30. the level of paranoia here is getting thick...


    lol

    what a bunch....

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  31. This ain't Germany, wio. The fact is: 99.999% of Americans don't give a shit about Jews. One way or the other. We have other stuff to worry about. 20% unemployment/underemployment comes to mind. Isn't there a nice Jewish/Israeli/AIPAC blog somewhere?

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  32. I didnt bring up aipac or israel on this tread.

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  33. I woke up thinking about $2.00 kw installed solar, $100.00 oil, and 9.1% unemployment.

    Then I got to thinking about the Great Depression, Bank Failures, and reactionary Republicans, and tight money.

    What a bunch of crazy Israelis think was the furthest thing from my mind.

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  34. the fact is that America is at war with jihadists murderers...

    and have been since 1783...

    aint the jews fault...

    get used to it...

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  35. Deuce said...
    Here is a shocker from Obama:

    WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama spoke Monday at a fundraiser for potential Jewish donors to his 2010 presidential campaign and assured then that Jerusalem and Washington's relations were unshakable.





    yep, rufus blame your fearless leader for the israel and jew bullshit...

    Not me...

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  36. Rufus II said...
    I woke up thinking about $2.00 kw installed solar, $100.00 oil, and 9.1% unemployment.




    I woke up this morning thinking about all the freaking orders I have waiting for me...

    The amazing lack of quality of most job applicants that are applying for my crappy warehouse jobs...

    How funny it is to watch us all get fucked about oil AGAIN by russia and opec....

    but the good news?

    Just bought this nice Henry 22, folds up into the stock and 1000 rounds.... get for a overland escape...

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  37. WIO
    you must be an Ohio State fan too?

    similar traits. just sayin'

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  38. http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=36597


    check it out

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  39. Gag Reflex said...
    WIO
    you must be an Ohio State fan too?

    similar traits. just sayin'




    Gag,

    Sorry to let you down...

    Not a fan of any sports team

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  40. .

    the level of paranoia here is getting thick...

    This from the man who worries about EMP attacks from Iran, who has his Bat Cave stacked with survivalist gear, who is one of the main reason it takes me six weeks to get my ammo from Cabelas, and who just bought a Henry 22 for his overland escape.

    The irony is palpable.

    .

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  41. the level of paranoia here is getting thick...

    This from the man who worries about EMP attacks from Iran, who has his Bat Cave stacked with survivalist gear, who is one of the main reason it takes me six weeks to get my ammo from Cabelas, and who just bought a Henry 22 for his overland escape.

    The irony is palpable.



    Yep!

    Here in ohio we have at least 200,00 islamists.

    The good news? ONLY 10% are radical.

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