The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
- Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)
The tragedy of modern war is not so much that young men die but that they die fighting each other, instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.
- Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)
I go through life constantly bemused by all the weight that people put on partisan political loyalties and on adherence to the normative demarcations the parties promote. Henry Adams observed that “politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” This marshalling of hatreds is not the whole of politics, to be sure, but it is an essential element.
Of course, it’s all a fraud, designed to distract people from the overriding reality of political life, which is that the state and its principal supporters are constantly screwing the rest of us, regardless of which party happens to control the presidency and the Congress. Amid all the partisan sound and fury, hardly anybody notices that political reality boils down to two “parties”: (1) those who, in one way or another, use state power to bully and live at the expense of others; and (2) those unfortunate others.
Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.-Martin Luther King, Jr.
No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. -Alexis de Tocqueville
Words fail me. Except to note that when Congress spends time doing stupid things it shouldn't be doing, it is not doing even stupider things it shouldn't be doing.
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money
- Alexis de Tocqueville
The burden of our civilization is not merely, as many suppose, that the product of industry is ill-distributed, or its conduct tyrannical, or its operation interrupted by embittered disagreements. It is that industry itself has come to hold a position of exclusive predominance among human interests, which no single interest, and least of all the provision of the material means of existence, is fit to occupy.Whether you refer to it as Western civilization, the rat race, or any other name I certainly feel this pull in my life. Perhaps this is only a problem we can have at this point in history when so many of us have so much leisure freedom. If we were living on the edge of hunger or survival from danger I am sure we wouldn't have these worries. The realities of our lives though is that we must face the question of where to place material goods and the getting of them in the priorities of our lives.
- R. H. Tawney, historian
Our kitchens and other eating places more and more resemble filling stations, as our homes more and more resemble motels. "Life is not very interesting," we seem to have decided. "Let its satisfactions be minimal, perfunctory, and fast." We hurry through our meals to go to work and hurry through our work in order to "recreate" ourselves in the evenings and on weekends and vacations. And then we hurry, with the greatest possible speed and noise and violence, through our recreation - for what? To eat the billionth hamburger at some fast-food joint hellbent on increasing the "quality" of our life? And all this is carried out in a remarkable obliviousness to the causes and effects, the possibilities and the purposes, of the life of the body in the world.
The rule of law, in its most basic form, is the principle that no one is above the law. Thomas Paine stated in his pamphlet Common Sense (1776):I can't speak to the how the rule of law applies in contemporary America, but I love the ideal.
"For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other."
Expropriating property from people who did nothing more than accept money they were legally due sounds uncannily like a bill of attainder—a legislative measure declaring someone guilty of a crime, and imposing punishment, without trial. This weapon was expressly forbidden by the framers of the Constitution because it is fundamentally unfair, at odds with the rule of law and driven by mass hysteria rather than dispassionate fact-finding.I can't seem to find my Political Science Dictionary, probably a casualty of a past cleaning effort, so I am relying upon Wikipedia. The United States Constitution explicitly forbids a bill of attainder in Article I, section 9, clause 3. This is a part of our constitution because it had a history in British law (though no longer). The Wikipedia entry includes some relevant legal references that I found interesting.
Once upon a time, those were considered bad things.
from Cummings v. Missouri:Since in the case of bonuses I have read that contracts existed concerning these bonuses the following portion concerning bills of attainder from various state constitutions is intersting.
A bill of attainder, is a legislative act which inflicts punishment without judicial trial and includes any legislative act which takes away the life, liberty or property of a particular named or easily ascertainable person or group of persons because the legislature thinks them guilty of conduct which deserves punishment.
The constitution of every State also expressly forbids bills of attainder. For example, Wisconsin's constitution Article I, Section 12 reads:
No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, nor any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall ever be passed, and no conviction shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate.
Contrast this with the subtly more modern variation of the Texas version: Article 1 (Titled Bill of Rights) Section 16, entitled Bills of Attainder; Ex Post Facto or Retroactive Laws: Impairing Obligation of Contracts: "No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, retroactive law, or any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall be made".We find ourselves on a slippery slope when we forget the freedoms which the founders of this country found so important and fail to defend these freedoms in the face of a perceived public uproar or panic. I for one fear the actions of our government in attempting to protect us more than those things from which they are attempting to protect us.
Don't they know there's a recession going on? How dare they award their employees for doing a good job? They should all give a bunch of the money back to the government. What? The bonuses aren't being funded by taxpayers? How yes, I remember. This is how capitalism once worked. Successful companies rewarded their employees and lousy companies disappeared.
“Point being, U.S. corporate executives politicians are unapologetic about running their companies the country adrift, accepting giving away billions of tax dollars to supposedly help, and then spending being surprised when those tax dollars get spent on travel, huge bonuses, etc,” [Grassley spokeswoman Jill] Gerber said.I realize that this is a few days old, but I enjoyed it too much not to share.
English common law was largely customary law left unwritten, until discovered, applied, and reported by the courts of law. In theory, a judge did not create law but rather discovered it in the customs and habits of the English people. (reference)
Laws or legal principles that have been established by courts over the years. May be codified into a statute or overruled by a statute passed by the government. (reference)
I wish the bonuses would stop, too. I don't believe in rewarding people who destroyed their company. Note to the President: when you stop sending them money, the bonuses will stop.
