Letters to the Editor
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Ah, semantics
inalienable adj. belonging to a thing by its very nature; "form was treated as something intrinsic, as the very essence of the thing"- John Dewey
To violate a right, to prevent its free exercise, is not to - as you say - "alienate" it. It doesn't take the right away.
I guess your point is that people's rights are violated all the time. Is that, really, it?
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@Jonathon
I find that I often grasp things almost instantaneously which take me a great deal of time and effort to explain to others.
That is a common symptom of schizophrenia.
You have not grasped a single thing said to you, while your sophomoric point was immediately grasped by all - that's why everyone kept on asking you what you're point was, in hope you had something valuable to say. We couldn't believe you kept on going on about something that most have realized since high-school. If you are in high-school, that is reasonable and laudable and the arrogance is simply a function of age. Otherwise, get medical attention immediately.
Do you also find that you get deep insights while high that others don't quite "grasp"? That would be the same effect.
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Gira al centro
Interesting how libertarians and old new leftists like myself are finding a center, however small it is, and putting up sharpened stakes around in defense against the idiots of all kinds who've turned the Republican Party into a circus which only Fellini could describe. Half of them are singing Giovanezza, and the other half Onward Christian Soldiers. Where's a sane conservative to find refuge?
Well, not with us, I think. The libertarians are already uncomfortable, except perhaps for Mona, with all this talk of reviving social democracy, and conservatives, who hate taxes even more than they love living in a civilized country, wouldn't think much of any liberty which didn't allow them to sit like Fafnir on top of every penny they ever earned.
It ain't the right we've got here, and it ain't the left, but at the moment it ain't the center either. What to do, what to do? Do you suppose that we might actually find some sort of concensus in conversations like the one we've been having here today? Maybe, but I can't imagine such conversations getting anything but short shrift in either of our two political parties at the moment.
There's much work to be done, clearly.
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Ed
Why am I not surprised by Brooks's latest article? Simple: He has always been a fascist pig!
This is unreasonable.
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jojo
That is a common symptom of schizophrenia.
Personal insults do not enhance the viability of your argument. In fact they make you look childish and petulant.
You have not grasped a single thing said to you, while your sophomoric point was immediately grasped by all - that's why everyone kept on asking you what you're point was, in hope you had something valuable to say.
I grasp what is said to me, I just disagree with it.
And in fact not "everyone" kept asking me what my point was, at least one person said that I had a point.
We couldn't believe you kept on going on about something that most have realized since high-school. If you are in high-school, that is reasonable and laudable and the arrogance is simply a function of age. Otherwise, get medical attention immediately.
More personal insults. Is this your normal form of argumentation?
Do you also find that you get deep insights while high that others don't quite "grasp"? That would be the same effect.
And even more personal insults, you're really building your case with exquisite care.
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Avanti
WT, I think it may be something like what we radical anarchists said way back in those simpler days of yesteryear: neither right nor left, but forward.
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valentinian
From what source do you derive the existence of "inalienable rights"?
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Valentinian:
Is The Forward still in print?
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Equal vs. unequal liberty
McBrie: What makes a liberal a liberal is the belief in equal liberty; what makes a conservative a conservative is the belief in unequal liberty.
What in the wild world of sports is this supposed to mean. What is, pray tell, "unequal liberty".
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casual observer
All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.
Re: unequal liberty.
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a Valentiniano
As in that other Italian golden oldie?
Avanti populo
alla riscossa
Bandiera rossa,
Bandiera rossa....
Ma chi trionferá, eh? That's the question, innit?
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answers
@jonathan: I have balls the size of pummelos.
@jojo: Odem yesode meofe vesofe leofe' - beyno-lveyno iz gut a trink bronfn.
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while you're at it
Arriba,
a Bajo,
al centro,
ad entro.
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@WT
Riscopri dopo tanto il pianto
E una canzone radicale ti consola,
Che viene dalle radici di te, di quando
Cercavi di capire cosa
Proprio da te voleva
Il futuro sudato di paura.
Ha una sua dolcezza la vecchiezza.
--A.Velato
Buona sera a tutti quanti...
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valentinian
If you cannot give a source from which come forth "inalienable rights" then how can you know they exist?
To state that something exists is a long way from proving it's existence.
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Rights
I believe unalienable is the term used.
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I wonder,
Valentinian, if bebop knows that one. (I'll bet he does.) In any case, it sounds like a sentiment that he would endorse wholeheartedly, as do I. Thanks for the consolazione.
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O/T: Digby
I leave for a good portion of the day and was just coming back to tell everyone to check out Digby’s latest (as always, he is spot-on: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/machiavellis-inbred-children-by-digby.html), and it seems we have quite the eruption of both high and low philosophy going on. Jonathan, did you know that our whole solar system could be, like one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being? It's true.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled discussion.
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valentinian:
That photo of the marine and his bride. It really is enough to break your heart. It should be permanently placed in a place of honor in the oval office. Who pays the price, indeed.
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Corporate Feudalism
The subject line says it all - the equivalent phrase to Neoconservative radicalism. The concentration of wealth and power in an entrenched privileged class is already greater than in the European monarchies of the eighteenth century that spawned the American Revolution, but they still want more. Why else would anyone with a billion or more dollars want even more other than to guarantee a privileged existence for their family for generations?