Interesting analysis Warren. I believe from some things I have read that such a list was a bit of a tradition going way back into monarchical Britain where the monarch was absolute and the people did not know anything about inalienable rights.

Warren owning guns make you feel good. And yes I would rather go down fighting than go down like a lamb. But don't be lulled inot thinking that shotguns, 30/30's etc are going to protect your from the force of the law if it is against you. That guy at Ruby Ridge lost his wife remember. A deficit in government or a annual loss in business is the same thing. They are caused by a shortfall in revenue or excess of expenses. IF YOUR LOGIC IS CORRECT THEN AN ELIMINATION OF TAXES (100% TAX CUT) WOULD RAISE TAX REVENUE, kind of absurd don't you think. Hold on to your guns but don't let them lull you into complacency about using your voice. And use your voice for more than just talking about your guns.

Partly true but absolutely important in American democracy. Madison originally had 17 rights in his bill. The bill was massaged and modified by people (politicians) it did not drop from the sky. But we have enshrined it and it is a guiding star for our republic.

Mike you and Archer are idiots. I will defend the right of idiots as well as anyone else to speak their minds. But the minute I hear of you actually endeavoring to take physical force alone or with others against any government entity within these United States be it in Norwalk, or Connecticut I assume (is where you live) or the USA I will immediately report you to any and all competent authority I can summons. You are right in your seeming confusion about the term states/republic. The constitution declares that the United States will guarantee a republic (democracy) form of government to the states. So again if I hear of you taking up arms against your states republican (democratic) government I will turn your butt in so fast you won't know what happened. I will research your statement about the national guard.

Mike is it your position now that the United States of America believes in all of the things you said and rejects all of the things you said and none of the rest of the world does believe those things nor rejects those things. I thought you believed that most people in America did not believe those things or reject those things either just like the foreigners you accuse.

Mike in your church do they teach equality before God and brotherhood with each other. If not I don't believe it squares with the bible. If that ain't democracy I don't know what is.

I was in an Atlanta tavern last Friday. The beautiful young 20 yr. old waitress started talking to me. She is the daughter of a retired Italian-American army officer. She looked latino but spoke English and infomed me she was born in Seoul Korea, her mother was in the tavern kitchen. I told her I had served in Seoul and we found out that she went to American High School at Yongsan District Command where I served. I found out that her parents are now divorced and he is retired living in Korea "He likes it there", she said. So American born father lives in Korea and the Korean born mother lives in Atlanta. The young lady Amanda has only been here two years but talks and acts just like the rest of us. I have met sailors on leave who are shocked to see the international fleets of yachts and sail boats when they put into "foreign" ports all over the world. People from London, Cape Town, New Orleans, New York, Miami, Milan, Barcelona all hanging out and living in their boats in San Francisco for example and every where else. The world wide travel of people of course is an amazing phenomenon. Tens of thousands of Americans live full time in Mexico, Central America, Europe and everywhere else. And tens of thousands of foreign nationals have permanent residence in the Good Ol'e USA. Watching TV last night they interviewed professors from all over the world and many in America who were from all over the world.What term would you use to describe or define this mix up of the peoples of the world? It sounds like a community of some sort to me.

God did not want the Hebrew children to have a kiss ass King. Lenin here is stating the problems with kiss as hero leadership and the elevation of a single person over the body politic. Judeo-Christian ethic is the foundation of Western Democracy after we we got through the church state controversey and chruch state hierarchies of Europe. The European nobility model was thrown overboard by the American Revolution. Oh there were right wingers that wanted to make Washington a King and yes Burr wanted to be a dictator but we survived all of that elevation of a single person or hero. Thank God our guys can only serve 8 years. Open your eyes to the possibilities in people. Lenin is not saying anything we as a people generally do not believe in this statement. I would not be surprised if he stole his idea from the American experience.

Don't see Lenin or anyone else through rose colored glasses. You Archer are not discussing the quote but you are discussing Lenin. Is not our government and our idea of democracy based on one man one vote and not on hero worship? One man is as powerful as another in the voting booth. Fascism is based on dictatorship or the power of one. Read the Book of Samuel. Coming out of Egypt God gave the Hebrew children judges to rule over them and a form of democracy. They were stiffed necked and wanted to have a King "just like the other nations" they said. God said no because he did not want them to be like the other nations, whose citizens all went around trying to get close to the King and kiss the hero's a**. God wanted each to be a sort of small king and small hero in their own right. But the Hebrews kept insisting and God relented and they got the Hero Saul. After that the infighting started and the Hero David fought Hero Saul etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. You need to grow up Archer and learn to be able to read even those whom you think you don't agree with. The Apostle Paul furthered the idea of democracy, equality and brotherhood when he said in the book of Hebrews "We have but one High Priest the Christ who cannot be touched with the infirmities of man (like heros can be touched with graft, corruption etc). Paul goes on to say that since we all report to one King in The Sky we are therefore all equal. You need to learn to be able to read more widely Archer and don't prejudge someone, even Lenin may have said something provocative and interesting. Don't be afraid of knowledge and learning, embrace it.

We have no unpayable debt in this country, the richest country the universe (as far as we know) has ever seen. The only thing we lack in this country is political will. And the system does not take 35% of your earnings from noble labor but only up to 35% from your TAXABLE INCOME after allowing you a generous portion for mortgage interest, charitable giving, and work related expenses, and a hefty exemption amount for you and each person you support. And the generosity of the government knows no bounds because they refuse to tax funds that you had to use for medical care etcetera. Thus a family of 4 making $50,000 would pay tax on only approximately $20,000 at around 15% or $3,000. This comes out to 6% of the noble laborers fruit. You are probably to young to remember when the progressive rates went up into the 90% range, so you cannot appreciate the low rates we have today. Archer if you and I cannot get at least the facts straight between us (two grown men) how can we talk and solve the problems of our community, state, and nation? (PS: Many folk pay more to local via real estate, state via sales tax than they do to federal tax from the noble laborers fruit.)

I agree with the above comments but it would appear Madison was talking of the admirable Swiss model where all citizens are armed volunteers. Unfortunately such a system never worked in this country. Madison is only stating his opinion because the Constitution clearly states the right, power, and obligation of the United States to raise and maintain a military and to provide for defense.

A natural and inevitable occurrence. But the word community may need to be defined.

This quote is very Christian. The Bible tells us that there is no east or west, no shadow of turning, no male or female in Christ. We are all equal in God's sight. I see little difference in what Lenin is saying. Our politics should be based on rational thinking about what is best for ourselves and body politic not on the adoration of one individual as Leader as in Fascism and Nazism.

Banking worldwide (so it has nothing to do with the USA or government theives or anything like that) creates "money" in the following manner. It takes deposits and tells you that you can have your money anytime you wish on checking deposits and maybe can make you wait 30 days on saving deposits. In a sense they are lying to you because the very same day later in the afternoon they may loan out as much as 90% of your money. If you went in after that and asked for it they could only give you ten bucks. But they are playing a statistical game and very exact science it is. The government does not print money willy nilly and put it into circulation. They only print money to replace worn out bills. The money supply today is approx. 500 billion. However assuming the population spends that 500 B. today and the recievers of the money spend it tommorrow and the next day etc. until the end of the year you will find that that 500 B of greenbacks has turned over 365 times. The speed at which people spend greenbacks is called the accelerator effect. 365 x 500,000,000 is a lot of "money" or at least value. You might enjoy learning Archer that in Korea in the 1960's we were paid monopoly money. A five had a picture looked like Marilyn Monroe in a sable cape etcetera. My understanding is the Army/government did not want greenbacks being spent downtown and winding up in North Korea, they also did not want us to spend our Army monopoly money either downtown but just on the base. On occasion they totally changed the issue and declare the old issue worthless. One had to make sure he exchanged his old money timely or take a loss. Story was told that cases of the stuff was once stolen off of the harbor I guess in Inchon so the Army just revoked that issue and started over again. That story sounds like folklore to me. I think you are off base on your understanding of the money system. I use to know this stuff for I was a bank internal auditor for 3 years, but when you put $100 in your bank, the bank lends out say 80 and is reguired by law to put 10 into the regional Federal Reserve Bank; this is what the term Reserve Requirement means. With all of the banks in the New York District putting 10% into the Fed you can see how that will really add up. Of course this reserve requirement reduces how much the bank can lend out. If the Fed relaxs the reserve requirement more green is available to the market if it increases the reserve then less green is available. This is just part of the operation. All industrialized nations in the world operate this way. I think your evil empire approach is wrong. From frbatlanta.org I got the following information about cash in circulation: 1910 through 2000 showing just the billions: 1910 3 1920 5 1930 4 1940 7 1950 27 1960 32 1970 54 1980 127 1990 266 2000 571 I understand how many have different understanding of these things, that is why they call economics the evil science. I read that when Lincoln was in the White House, he told Sec of The Treasury Salmon B. Chase that he thought he would have to sign every Treasury Note.

I am so sorry about your experience Mike. I assume you are unaware of policemen shot in the line of duty or firemen that die while putting out fires. I am truly saddened by your view of these people. I would think that you have never had the opportunity to deal with the public on a regular basis. I know of even strore clerks who complain about the hassles of dealing with the public so how much worse is it for someone like a cop. Your negative view of people is really sad. That same negativity comes across in your not just complaining on this site about political philosophy and government but about popular culture. While you espouse your love of freedom you come off as if you would deny freedom to pop culture to do what ever it wants to do. If there is something about pop culture such as DRINKING COWS MILK or using CREDIT CARDS that you don't want to do DON'T DO IT but don't deny it or even complain about other people doing it. I really don't think freedom or liberty is your true interest but dictating to others and to pop culture is what you are all about. I won't deny that sometimes there may be a bad cop just like there is bad everything else but to make statements like you made about cops and firemen is beyond the pale in my opinion.

Dave said it can only be changed by Amending the Constitution. That would appear to say that it is somewhere in the Constitution. My understanding is that there were numerous currencies or bank notes used throughout the country for decades. So each bank note had its own vaulation. Until corrected I will stick to my understanding that it is not in the constitution.

Archer first of all to my knowledge "governments" never run the elections. They may warehouse the equipment between elections and then distribute it out to the precincts but the workforce on election day are volunteer (lightly paid volunteers) citizens usually divided between the parties. I was a judge in Pennsylvania. The voter upon identifying himself is checked off in a book and he signs something, so that is the paper trail I guess. He then would enter a machine that was actually mechanical and would push down a series of levers for his candidates. When he opens the curtain to leave the vote was added to the totalizator I guess you would call it. And the end of the night I had the priviledge of opening the back of the machine and calling out the totals. While I did this a person of the opposite party would look over my shoulder and would be veryfying what I said. As I called out the numbers no less than 6 or 7 other folks of opposing parties are writing all the results on large spreadsheets. In the end there are half a dozen spreadsheets of this data if anyone wrote down wrong numbers on their sheet it would be caught as an anomaly with the others. The paper trail in this system would just be a total number of persons signing at the registration table and the total number who entered and left the machines. They may have done away with those machines, they were very bulky to haul around the county. I think todays system of mark sensing is better and yes it does create somewhat of a paper trail.

I don't follow your understanding of money at all. If I have a dollar in my pocket you say it means I owe it to someone? I don't get it. My understanding is if I have a dollar it means I received it for exchanging my services generally in the form of labor. We really are in a barter system. The baker, the doctor, the preacher etcetera are given dollars based on what their services are worth in a free market place. The difference in their dollar receipts represents the different values placed on their services. Some of them may save some dollars and rent them to others for a time and receive what we call interest (or rent) and later get their dollars (principal) back. Instead of the baker, the doctor, and the preacher keeping deatailed records about their dealings with each other and so that the baker doesn't have to send over a bunch more bread to the doctor who does not need anymore bread, the doctor allows the baker to just sell bread to others and send him the dollars that he receives from others. Without the dollars the bakers customers would have to go over and do something for the Doctor on behalf of the baker in order to pay back the baker. You can see how confusing life would get very quickly without the paper dollar. So a dollar has no value in gold, or silver or anything else, its' value is in orchestrating these complex relationships between jobs, occupations, skills of labor etcetera. The most valuable thing is not property, gold or silver capital but human capital. Paper is a lot easier to lug around than tons of gold and silver. Real estate is a great way of keeping property and value because it is limited (no one is making any more of it) but its' lack of liquidity does not make transfering the value from one to another very easy. What is wrong with this understanding of money?

I don't know about 5% Mike but let us not forget 3700 in Iraq and those in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, WWII, WWI and the Civil War. And let us not qualify those lives and benovlence to be any less that Patrick Henry's. I am also thinking of Nathan Hale who actually gave one life. Oh some will say these other folks were duped by government propaganda ecetera. As for me I give them just as much honor and respect as Mr. Henry and Hale. And Americans put their lives on the line every day as Police, Firemen, DEA Agents, etcetera out of respect for right (as they see the right) versus wrong. We still have many believers. The main purpose of vehicle registration is in order to help persons keep track of movable property. Without registration theft of movable property would be rampant. Go steal a car and try to register it and you will see what I mean. Some have stated or at least I think inferred that the Governors of the Federal Reserve are secret and unknown except for the Chairman. I have tried to get a complete list of the Governors of the 12 Districts but have not located it yet in one easy compilation. I have in a short time found much information and news items about Presidential nominees and Senate Banking Committee hearings for filling vacancies. So this is not some sort of secret cabal. Some of the names are: William J. McDonough, Gov NY Fed, Doanald L. Kohn, Roger Ferguson, Peter Fisher, Stanley Fischer, Susan Meredity Phillips, Alan S. Blinder, Lawrence Lindsay, Janet Yellen. The proof that we are NOW a free people is the fact that a free economic entity Chicago Bulls can pay a guy Michael Jordan mega bucks (plus all of the other superstar sports salaries) to play a game of amusement. It made full economic sense (cents?) because he was worth every penny. They doubled the attendance and the whole deal was a total success. No government or social planner told anyone that they could not pay a sports star that kind of money. That is pure economic freedom. We all have it. We (you) do not have to follow the herd mentality that you are criticizing. Live your life how you choose and let others do the same. There are ares of cooperation and common sense and common sacrifice required in especially a more and more populated world which can improve life for all of us and for the planet. I speak of the green issue and while embracing it together may seem like a socialist limitation of our freedoms in the short run and I believe it will create a new birth of freedom in the future. What often seems like a restriction of freedom for one person may be an increase of freedom for another: I SPEAK OF THE SMOKING ISSUE OF COURSE.

Dave can you cite where in the Constitution the dollar was fixed to silver?

This quote is why a Flag Burning Amendment or law is a bad idea? Folks would burn the flag just to get some free meals. Question: If burning the flag were illegal would it mean just the US Flag and leave us free to burn any other flag we choose?

A revolution is only successful if it is gotten away wtih. In other words the revolutionary idea, movement, turn of events, change in leadership holds sway. A revolution that fizzles out ain't much good for nothin'. and in the end was no revoulution worth its salt to begin with. Cf. to the late unpleasant Bolshevik affair.

Those attacks Mike are not from "society" but from businessess that want your wortless paper money. Whose fault is it that you give it them.

Education is the only answer. Lots of education. The less educated cannot see the abstraction of politics and the further away the abstraction is (state, nation, world) the less they are able to see it and care. Pay me for my vote or give me some benefit I can see clearly. Not unlike the poor of France that first needed religious statutes in order to relate to church doctrine and later needed stautes to define the concepts of liberty and justice.

This is the exact feeling I had when I got my first paycheck and saw the SS Withholding. Glad to be on the receiving end now however. Children have no sense to hold the door for the person behind them. This practice which creates a quantum leap in the happiness level of society is one of the earliest learned social graces. Such social graces make living with others tolerable.