Silenced said: "When I think of the lives Libertarians have saved

Science has proven that the Libertarians were about 100 times more right than even they believed they were when they backed medical marijuana initiatives and went to the barricades for medical marijuana patients."

Uh, those studies that prove the efficacy of medical marijuana (to mitigate some of the symptoms, NOT to cure cancer, so "saving lives" is sort of stretching) were probably mostly paid for by the NSF and conducted by big research universities, many of them state schools. That is, the libertarians might be right about getting rid of drug prohibition (I'm all for it!), but cancer is not going to be cured by getting rid of a few laws. It's going to be cured by hundreds of scientists who are being funded at least in part by the federal government, and doctors who practice in hospitals that receive federal funds. And those federal funds come from taxes.

Libertarians are agin that, aren't they? Has medical marijuana, good as it is, saved as many lives as federally funded medical research has. I'm for both-- but then, I'd never be a libertarian.

Calvin Coolidge: "In a Republic, elected representatives make the laws,"

In a *Democratic* Republic -- aka a Republican Democracy -- that is correct.

Calvin Coolidge: "ideally backed by some form of constitutional protections which dictate that certain rights are inalienable."

In the scenario like we have here in the United States we have constitutional protections that require a supermajority and a substantial amount of additional effort to overturn them - which is why we have what is known as a Constitutional Republican Democracy (aka Constitutional Democratic Republic). No rights however are or have ever been "inalienable" in our form of government.

Calvin Coolidge: "Even still, a large enough majority can amend the constitution and rule that all left-handed people are to be beheaded immediately."

Indeed.

Do you oppose our democratic form of government because that horrific scenario is a theoretical -- though decidedly very highly unlikely -- possibility, Calvin Coolidge?

And if you do oppose our democratic form of government because that horrific scenario is a theoretical possibility, then what form of government, exactly, do you believe would be a better one?

-------------

"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

-- Winston Churchill

Chiefpayne, you said that Texas is #9 in where military recruits come from. But if they're #2 in population, doesn't that mean they are underrepresented in military recruits proportionately? So maybe that's no great loss.

Okay some points are taken, but as these culture wars heat up, I gotta say something.

Yes, we in the South are forever guilty of racism. This is the plague of the South, the poison of the entire area...

However, when you state that most Republicans in Texas were Transplanted Northeastern Republicans from the Northeast..that is a bridge too far.

Do you mean like the Bush family?

Of course the racism and the tea parties are ugly, but has anyone stopped to think for a moment of the incredible financial dominance of the North?

Do you really think that being a Northeastern Republican that came on down South to scoop up the oil and the electoral votes is some great excuse?

I think this is part of the problem and not part of the solution. Look at the self interest - it is disgusting.

Scorpio69er: "Publicola, Lincoln's opinion is interesting."

That unilateral secession is unconstitutional was not just Lincoln's (and the Union's) opinion. That was also the opinion of the United States Supreme Court when it finally ruled on the issue in 1869 (Texas v. White).

Scorpio69er: "You may find this of interest:

A Constitutional History of Secession

http://tinyurl.com/dgxun9"

I may. With respect to the legal history of secession it appears interesting, though it also appears quite biased. "Yet when the Southern states exercised their legal right to peacefully secede, America erupted into a civil war" is a biased statement: that the Southern states exercised had a "legal right to peacefully secede," far from being a given, was very contestable even back in its day - so contestable that the United States went to war largely over the question.

The secessionists of course decisively lost that fight. They also decisively lost the ensuing legal fight as well - again the Supreme Court ruled in Texas v. White (1869) that unilateral secession is not permitted under the constitution.

If your Universal Health Care policy dictated by your beloved central government and supported by 68 Senators and a proportionate number of Congresspersons, decides that, in order to control healthcare costs, all citizens over the age of 65 are to report to the execution chamber, then they can make it happen.

Um, I hate to spoil your favoritest nightmare, but the dreaded Universal Health Care has been adopted in a whole bunch of countries, and the number of those that have lopped off the heads of senior citizens? Zero.

I see everyone else has schooled you about this being a democratic republic, and yes, it's what helps prevent (or, more accurately, break down) a tyranny of the majority. Preventing that occurrence is one of the primary reasons why we have an independent...err, sorry, activist Judiciary.

It's also why the Proposition 8-loving majorities have been losing the gay marriage battle.

played the game . . .

It was called Bioshock

These people should play it.

I have never had any respect for Texans. Whenever I travel and wherever I travel there are always drunken Texans screaming out how great they are and how great their state is.

They can leave the USA and take their state with them. Fine by me!

It's so fun and amusing to attack the 16% of Americans who aren't totalitarian thugs (particularly by smearing them with the beliefs of non-libertarian right wingers), but at the end of the day it will be your own country you wrecked with the horrific Reagan/Clinton/Bush/Obama repeal of the Bill of Rights and repudiation of the Declaration of Independence.