The detainees in Gitmo were picked up on the battlefield of Afganistan in the fall of 2001. The Patriot Act was passed much later. It had nothing to do with picking up Al Qaeda terrorist on the plains of Afghan.

De Tocqueville usually recorded things accuratelly as he saw them. The thinking of the day may have been correct as he stated it but the legal question of secession was still brewing. The trend since the revolution was for greater and greater union, thus the Constitution was wriiten "in order to form a more perfect union". All societies experience union and disunion voices. Great Britan has those in Scotland and Wales who want disunion. The French had trouble with those of Normandy or Brittany the Bretons, the Spanish with the folk in the NW province etcetera. In de Tocqueville's day the distance of the states from each other and from Washington made independence or secession more imaginable but today with travel and economic interdependency the idea is toally old hat. We are now virtually one state and the old state borders might just as well be eliminated.

Leave it to Archer to be the only one to know what the quote is about. The fact is that trials and lawyers are that way for the sheer fact they we do not have to tell the truth if we are indicted. The only one who knew and still knows the truth in the OJ case is he and God. The rest of us just have our opinions, and people who I generally loved and respected thought he was innocent, go figure.

Paul raises some good points. War is when one nation declares it upon another with the intent of subduing and subjugating it as long as it wishes or is able to. The US intent in Korea and Vietnam was to hold the line against aggresion. The US nor the Southern halves of those nations were intent on subduing or subjugating the North(s), thus it was a "police" action and not a war. As far as terrorists becoming rulers, yes it happens but international relations are based on recognitions between political entities of their independence and hegemony. No recognized government claims Al Qaeda or the others as their own. The way that Afghanistan got into trouble is that they gave Al Qaeda free reign within its territrory and thus became a defacto sponsor of it and in effect virtually one and the smae thing as Al Qaeda. The gitmo guys deserve humane treatment they do not deserve the treatment afforded US Citizens. The US does not control world policy it just seems that way from these shores. It is a player and has significant influence. It is an entity much bigger than the individual states of Europe, which are not much bigger than the individual American states, so it stands to reason that the US should be more influential than one Europe government etcetera.

D.E. Nowells equating of Happiness with Acquisitiveness or Personal Property is oh so banal and shallow. It is interesting that he did not include real property.

Only citizens and residents have constitutional rights. Soldiers would have to arrest and read rights to enemies if it were otherwise. Enemy combatants are different than citizens although I seem sometimes to find some American citizens to be enemies of our democratic way of life also.

Can you prove it Jimmy?

All societies and communities have done it since time immemorial. I believe that it is wrong for you to call it socialism while looking down your nose at it. It is the way civilizations have always acted.

Peope have a right to their privacy and of course the indicted and their lawyers do not have to tell their whole story to the jury. They are there to keep their secrets as private as possible. In my job as an auditor, an auditee said it response to one of my inquiries "that is for me to know and for you to find out". Yes that is what audits and trials are all about. If we could guarantee that every one tells the truth at all times, no trial or inquiry would be necessary. I give it a five for accuaracy and for the fact that it is the way that it should be in our "innocent until proven guilty world" of private lives and private secrets.

The wheels of justice turn slowly just like all democratic institutions. The justice system is not so bad, it got OJ did it not. A rush to judgement is what should be feared, patience my friends patience should be our watch word.

Anne your questioning is as old as Plato and Aristotle. Plato said that "they are all our children" and Aristotle said "nonsense we know that each prefers their own over those others". So welcome to the argument.

So Anne I agree that any system in which we join together for the common "good" is a form of social action. So when we come together to put in sewers, establish a police force, or a Continental Army to secure an independent nation, and to educate children by the communtiy it can be called "socialism". Welcome to the real world. And praise to social action that has brought us these wonderful things, like sewers, and things. It would appear that it is your pocket book you are most concerned about.

Government does not practice censorship generally. Ever heard of the Library of Congress. Every think published is virtually enshrined in that institution. Now some local obtuse entity of a county or city or school may attempt censorship, but the government in the US does not do so, quite the opposite my friends.

Diversity of opinion within the framework of loyalty, means that one is to respect and listen to others. A society that practices free speech must be one that listens to each other and is loyal to that concept of respectfull attentiveness. The blowhards and shouters who wish to drown out everyone else are enemies to such a nation of respectful dialogue.

Exactly, and the reason there is such a degree of free speech in the good ole USA is that the government (that is us) are totally secure. We have a 230 year old democracy and ain't no MF going to upset the rule of, by and for the people, because the government (that is us) is ruled by free speech. How absolutely glorious is our secure national fabric.

As far as the NRA they are purely self-appointed supporters of the 2d amendment. They have no particular standing. A telephone solicitor called me onece to subscribe to their rag of a magazine and he asked "Who is going to protect your 2d Amendment Rights". They are building a business out of this thing. I told them "I will take care of my own second amendment rights". All of my relatives who were life long members have dropped out of this goofy organization, we all still have our guns but now we have also gained a large measure of self-respect that comes from rejecting the pure stupidity of the NRA.

Anne you and yours are obvioulsy of the intelligensia. Most folk decided long ago that it is best if people be taught to read and write, and thus passed laws requiring it. That some still drop through or out is unfortunate. Georgia is no different than any other state. States and localities often brag about their schools in order to attrat residents. A state or localitiy without a public school is normally considered a backwater of ignorance. Now discussing the issues of schooling and education is important but I just thought that your wording appeared radicalized and beyond logical discussion. Just when did our system become socialism. In the old west where they may have "imported" some youn school marm from the east to educate the children of pioneers, or in 1880's, 1920's etcetera. Just when did it become "socialism" for communities to educate their children.

Yes Ben yes. And those who attempt to practive free speech but then resort to name calling and categorizing opinions as from this school or that school (conservative, liberal, socialist, communist) are also the enemies of free speech. Some think this sight is just for the expounding of one view point. Such a site should never becalled liberty.com and those who think it is just for one point of view do not believe in freedom the one that Old Ben did.

"Freedom lovers prefer not to be irritating" what pure BS, goes along with Nixon's "silent majority". And the American Nazi Parties "we stand up for you decent, God fearing people" the ones with out a voice who do not wish to be irritating. Archer probably believes that propaganda about "things go better with Coke" also.

Freedom is a difficult thing to understand or comprehend. One usually wants his views or perceptions to prevail and I would think that Woods and Archer cannot understand the subtleties of freedom. Neither could Hitler! While Conant's quote may sound a little mushy about loyalty to free society Archer most often sounds down right scary with his attacks on it.

Your rejoinder and your words would appear to indicate that you have been radicalized and beyond really discussion upon the subject of public schools. What is socialism in your view? People have historically considered the quality of schools when they seek a place to live. If Georgia did away with education do you think that the folk might decide to move to a different state. First of all most states have a law requiring that children be taught to read and write. Now if that is true how do you propose that the law giver (the state or the people) should enforce its laws.

J Carlton you are so naive. American Riflemnan and NRA arer the mind control agencies of gun manufacturers. The only objective of the NRA is to sell guns. I can recommend much better reading for you especially the publications of the North American Hunting Club. They are not into all the political BS that the NRA is into. They talk about guns and hunting for guns and hunters no for gun nuts who think guns are for taking on government. Anne if the state closed down the system every one would flee. Most folk like to have good schools. If you look at the public schools in affluent areas they have Olympic Size swimming pools etcetera, that is wher the doctors and lawyers live and every one else try to move too. A society without an educational system or edudcation is not a place people want to live. If the people of any state closed their "state" run schools they would start a new system overnight. The people are the state and the state are the people.

Media publishes what people want to read. AOL home page is full of gossipy, semi-slanderous trivia eveeryday. I am sure they know how many hits it creates and if the hits are good they will print more the next day. No different that newsprint. As Limbaughs ratings go up he gets worse and worse, just like Hilter. These people have to keep out doing themselves to keep their ratings.

Yes Ken, the market is up and expected to continue in the Second Half. I just drove from Alabama to Illinois. I saw lots of highway construction thanks to the Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Act or something of that name that related to the stimulous bill. I spent yesterday in downtown Chicago, people are upbeat, beaches were crowded. Am sorry for the sad little depressed and I guess forever raining world in which you live there. You need to get out more. People are just about as hppay as they want to be. I don't think you want to be happy until 3 1/2 years from now at a minimum. Passage of health care will be a quantum leap in the nations happieness level and a big boost to our pocket books as our costs go down.

We are in agreement Mike about Limbaugh having influence over the non-thinking crowd, he is not stupid in that way no he is a genious in that way and so was Hitler. But he and Hitler are both just gutter politicians who know how to sway the ignorant and unthinking. They should know who they are. Limbaugh is especially smart in his ability to bank a $400 million dollar contract for his duplicity in deceit and lies.