[geeks] Socialized medicine [was Re: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro]

[Michael Parson]

On Fri, 23 May 2008, Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> On May 23, 2008, at 14:53 , Michael Parson wrote:
>
>> I'm a bit of a conspiracy nut on this one, but I almost believe that
>> there is a purposeful movement out there to make the citizens of the
>> US believe that they live in a democracy, which we don't, as you said,
>> we're a constitutional republic.
>
> Ha, it's pretty blindingly obvious if you ask me.

It's always obvious to those of us that see the conspiracy. ;)

> For example, find a textbook that has been in print for 50 years, and look 
> how different the original version is from the current in how it describes 
> our government.
>
>> We were never supposed to be a democracy, those that wrote the
>> constitution did everything they could to ensure we would never be one.
>
> ...and people who didn't like that almost immediately started trying to 
> change it.
>
>> The only part of the federal government we, as citizens, were supposed
>> to have any direct say in was the election of members to the House of
>> Representatives.
>
> It's a little more complicated than that.  The House was supposed to also be 
> the government's representative in a way, but made up of districted elected 
> members to dilute federal influence.
>
> The Senate is supposed to represent their sovereign states, but of course 
> they stopped doing that some time ago, most of them anyway.
>
> Just for curiosity, I ask people now and then at random if they know what a 
> US state is, and most don't.  They don't realize they are independent nations 
> and that the republic is (supposed to be) a voluntary union.

I ask a variation of that, do they understand why we call the members
of our of our union 'States' while most others out there call them
'Proviences.'

<snip of a bunch more stuff I basically agree with>

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org