<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Just my 2cents.</div><div><br></div><off-topic relevance="related to previous comment"><div><br></div><div>The rule of law only works when both the leadership and the people are willing to submit to the law. When we adopt a whatever-benefits-me mentality, then the rule of law becomes meaningless because those in power will do whatever benefits them. Frankly, I see this whatever-benefits-me mentality pervading American society and it will hurt us. This is true whether it comes from the people or the leadership.<div><br></div><div>The Soviet Constitution is a case in point. The Soviet leadership did not deny themselves what they denied to the general population. The current situation in Zimbabwe is another example. </div><div><br></div><div>America was successful in the past because we did our best to follow a whatever-benefits-us-as-a-nation mentality. We weren't perfect, but that was the general trend ... until now. Now it is a "whatever-benefits-my-special-interests-and-hurts-my-ideological-opponents" mentality ... on all sides.</div><div><br></div><div></off-topic></div><div><br></div><div>Call me a cynic, but that's what I see.</div><div><br></div><div>Stuart<br><div><div>On Jul 10, 2008, at 11:49 , Nathan Stien wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 11:19 PM, Colin Burnett <<a href="mailto:cmlburnett@gmail.com">cmlburnett@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> I suggest, to whomever in general, reading Restoring the Lost<br> Constitution by Randy Barnett:<br> <br> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoring_the_Lost_Constitution" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoring_the_Lost_Constitution</a><br> </blockquote></div><br>Either the constitution allows this spying crap and the other usurpations, or it has been powerless to stop them. In either case, I must question its usefulness; the Soviet Union "guaranteed" free speech in their constitution, too [1]. And that worked out famously. Paper tigers.<br> <br>[1]: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Soviet_Union">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Soviet_Union</a><br><br>- Nathan<br><br> _______________________________________________<br>Cialug mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Cialug@cialug.org">Cialug@cialug.org</a><br>http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug<br></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>=