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#741
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Dangers of Global Warming
On Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 7:23:34 AM UTC-7, Martin Brown wrote:
But it doesn't. You can easily end up with an elected dictatorship even if you start out with a democracy. You always need a system with checks and balances so that no one party can ever grab absolute power. It's a tradeoff. Yes, the Parliamentary system can easily be subverted if a dictator is elected - since the only check and balance is either an elected President, or the monarch. The American system, therefore, has greater long-term survivability. But it pays for that; states' rights allowed segregation to survive into the modern era; it took the Supreme Court, through _Griswold vs. Connecticut_, to legalize contraception; in Canada, we have patronage politics, but eventually the negative feedback deals with it - in the U.S., they have pork-barrel politics, which has positive feedback. Thus, while Europeans have reason to shy bricks at the U.S. for being backwards, it may perhaps be just as well that Americans endure the greater imperfections of their political system at the moment - because, being the only democracy with nuclear weapons, it is critically important that they _remain_ democratic. Robert Heinlein was extremely optimistic to think that the rest of the world would have been able to just ignore Nehemiah Scudder. John Savard |
#742
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Dangers of Global Warming
Quadibloc wrote:
On Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 7:23:34 AM UTC-7, Martin Brown wrote: But it doesn't. You can easily end up with an elected dictatorship even if you start out with a democracy. You always need a system with checks and balances so that no one party can ever grab absolute power. It's a tradeoff. Yes, the Parliamentary system can easily be subverted if a dictator is elected - since the only check and balance is either an elected President, or the monarch. The American system, therefore, has greater long-term survivability. But it pays for that; states' rights allowed segregation to survive into the modern era; it took the Supreme Court, through _Griswold vs. Connecticut_, to legalize contraception; in Canada, we have patronage politics, but eventually the negative feedback deals with it - in the U.S., they have pork-barrel politics, which has positive feedback. Thus, while Europeans have reason to shy bricks at the U.S. for being backwards, it may perhaps be just as well that Americans endure the greater imperfections of their political system at the moment - because, being the only democracy with nuclear weapons, it is critically important that they _remain_ democratic. Robert Heinlein was extremely optimistic to think that the rest of the world would have been able to just ignore Nehemiah Scudder. John Savard So you are suggesting that France, Britain and India and Pakistan are not democracies? Nehemiah Scudder would be admired by many Americans. |
#743
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Dangers of Global Warming
On Sun, 29 Nov 2015 05:52:42 -0800 (PST), "Chris.B"
wrote: On Tuesday, 24 November 2015 20:54:05 UTC+1, Paul Schlyter wrote: Then it might be possible to see if gun control would really be helpful or not. And since the people decided, the US still has few restrictions for gun ownership, and the US also still hasn't gone metric. In Europe, democracy arrived later. Meanwhile, European governments decided to go metric, and they also disarmed their people. So when democracy arrived in Europe, people were already used to metric units, and also to live without guns. Know any Americans who don't know the meaning of a 9mm? ;ø] You lost some space probes due to conversion errors between metric and US units. The more often such conversion must be made, the more likely those occasional conversion errors will be. |
#744
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Dangers of Global Warming
On Sunday, November 29, 2015 at 7:10:00 AM UTC-7, Mike Collins wrote:
So you are suggesting that France, Britain and India and Pakistan are not democracies? France and Britain together would be insufficient to defend the world from Russia and China. Pakistan is not a democracy; non-Muslims do not have equal rights there. India, although a democracy, also has serious problems with "communal violence", as they call it, and its nuclear arsenal is also unequal to those of Russia and China. It is the United States that stands between the world and a dark night of totalitarian slavery. John Savard |
#745
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Dangers of Global Warming
On Sunday, November 29, 2015 at 9:53:13 AM UTC-5, Quadibloc wrote:
On Sunday, November 29, 2015 at 7:10:00 AM UTC-7, Mike Collins wrote: So you are suggesting that France, Britain and India and Pakistan are not democracies? France and Britain together would be insufficient to defend the world from Russia and China. It's worse than that. France and Britain together with USSR were insufficient to defend even themselves from the Nazis. Pakistan is not a democracy; non-Muslims do not have equal rights there. That is irrelevant. It is most certainly possible to have a "democracy" that does not grant equal rights to all, in fact it's very likely. |
#746
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Dangers of Global Warming
On Sunday, November 29, 2015 at 9:34:12 AM UTC-5, Paul Schlyter wrote:
On Sun, 29 Nov 2015 05:52:42 -0800 (PST), "Chris.B" wrote: On Tuesday, 24 November 2015 20:54:05 UTC+1, Paul Schlyter wrote: Then it might be possible to see if gun control would really be helpful or not. And since the people decided, the US still has few restrictions for gun ownership, and the US also still hasn't gone metric. In Europe, democracy arrived later. Meanwhile, European governments decided to go metric, and they also disarmed their people. So when democracy arrived in Europe, people were already used to metric units, and also to live without guns. Know any Americans who don't know the meaning of a 9mm? ;Å™] You lost some space probes due to conversion errors between metric and US units. It was really a "cultural" error, much more so than conversion. The more often such conversion must be made, the more likely those occasional conversion errors will be. Which is one reason why English units are provided on most consumer products. Metric is not particularly helpful in most such cases. |
#747
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Dangers of Global Warming
On Sunday, 29 November 2015 15:53:13 UTC+1, Quadibloc wrote:
It is the United States that stands between the world and a dark night of totalitarian slavery. John Savard Why is it that US comic artists and story writers spend so much time inventing superheroes? Is it a lack of faith in US justice which demands a super being to set matters right in the face of all that is corrupt? Is this the same reason why so many Americans believe in aliens? They hope for outside help to remove the countless villains which spoil their day? Is this also why so many Americans abuse illegal drugs and end up in prison? Any means of escape from hideous [US] reality is better than none at all? Hence the obsession with gambling, the lottery and Las Vegas? More escapism from everyday, US reality? So many questions so few [sensible] answers. ;o) |
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