How dear Mike do we bring men into compliance with Natural Law. JFK said "On earth God's work must be done by man." Because of abuses by industry (polluting our streams, air and soil) by banking (you know what this is all about) and by bad food etc. man via government has had to step it. Natural Law does not work it seems with out an enforcer,

Being insulated in Austin I guess you never heard of Enron. I know that you are not so naive Jim to know about scams. A public consumer who knows that he can get a fair deal, an honest weight, a good meal free of any contamination etcetera and further knows that if he doesn't he can then sue and litigate is a happy consumer and will drive the economy and make these businesses prosper. That happy consumer can only be made to exist when there is a system of laws and protections that makes a fair playing field for everyone. In the short run someone may be able to better themselves at others expense but in the long run they usually get found out but it is often to late for some of the trusting public. Laws and a sense of securty for the otherwise unsuspecting suckers is a good thing in my value system. Adam is great, and simple but does not go far enough in these onesife quotes.

Dear Jim where do you think laws come from my friend if not "the government" which is us. Comrade Adam talks as if all these "good" people are going to trade honestly. Wish it were so then we would not need laws or the Better Business Bureau. In theory Adam is great but he leaves out some details concerning human depravity.

All my friends and I at the VFW call each other comrade. You forgot the "e" sad Jimmy! By the way are you also one of my comrades. Probably not since you misspelled it. So you have no problem with the private industry rip off artists.

Good stuff but simplistic. Laws encroach on "our" freedoms because it has been shown time and time again that left to our own freedoms we will kill, rob, and steal from each other one way or another. The latest is the financial sector, need I mention World Com, Enron and other heists over the last decade. Accounting Rules and Certified Statements etcetera were created because people are basically liars. Most people are now skeptical of individuals trying to better themselves as being some kind of rip off artist.

Yes but regulate the muthers to keep their hands off of the scale, water out of the brew, etc.

The question is mine friends, what are the laws of justice? I think they have been violated quite severly lately on Wall Street, in Banking, in Communication, in Energy. All these guys doing their own things their own way. The only bright sign on the horizon is they got Blagojevich before he did anything. If only private industry worked as well as government did in that case.

Hitler did not believe in democracy. Anybody who thinks that is a complete fool. Yesterday you same folks were lavishing praise on that Pennsylvania Banker Nazi who was poisioned. Do people claim to be democratically minded in order to get ahead, probably. Using a party label and believing in and practicing democratic values are totally different things. Hitler came to power for one purpose only and that was to be a right wing death squad for his enemies. His entire agenda was based on hatred for others, as we see in the right wingers of today from skinheads, Aryan Nation, ad infinitem.

As Shakespeare knew and apparently Archer does not, a name does not change what somenthing really is. Calling a rose a skunk cabbage will not change its fragrance and calling Hitler or his party democratic does not make it so. He never was democratically minded nor was his party. The fact that Archer is so easily duped should make us all wonder!

Congress is a "living" organism. Just like each other we should not take each other seriously but be flexible to see what each other are going to do next.

This quote is a waste of time and unhelpful to the dialogue on this site.

This type of "humour" is extemely trite and unhelpful. If that is the kind of respect we give these people I would not expect them to respect the American people in return. The problem as always is not the admirable people but the art and need for compromise and agreement. Compromise makes us all look foolish but is what greases the wheel of our great democracy.

As of Dec 2007 there was $829 billion in circulation and the majority is in use abroad that is overseas. Amount has increased significantly in recent years because of the demand for it abroad. Archer was off by something over 70%. Come to think of it that still might be the most accurate thing Archer has ever said.

Amen Mr. Jefferson. Now that we have another Democrat in the White House maybe we can return to the sanity of good old Tom the first Democrat. Hell the Republicans have fallen so far from his tree that Dick Cheney says, "Deficits don't matter."

This guy was a Nazi and Jew Hater (well the same thing). Why he is quoted on these excellent pages is a mystery to me. His legacy should have died with him.

Credit is a gamble a bet on the future. Without credit we would be a backward looking no progress society. Young people buy homes and have kids expecting to pay for these things in the future with future earnings or credit. What are future earnings except part of a gamble. If one had to postpone marriage and plans until he had all of the resources to carry him to the end of his plans, death that is, hell he never would be able to start living in the first place. I think you are correct Mike credit is necessary for progress, the question is how much credit, how much gamble. People who have excess sitting around having nothing better to do with it but to help others with their plans in the form of loans/credit.

The rich only get rich by providing goods and services to the poor at a reasonable cost effective price. The capitalist micro fallacy is that one can get rich by selling ones product at a high price and paying ones labor a low wage. When all "rich" do this then all "poor" wage earners are unable to purchase the products of the other. Of a truth the only place "rich" get their "riches" is from the "poor". Henry Ford new the game and he got really rich by producing cars at a cheaper and cheaper price, paid a good wage to his people for the times, and every one was happy. Churchill's quote flies in the face of the English Corn Laws which were enacted to prevent all wealth in England landing in the hands of some small percentage of the people.

Jim this mess was substantially caused by a hardheaded lack of White House leadership which slashed the ways and means and then ran a costly war etcetera. The new is going to improve the ways and means. Success under Garfield came when people believed that the greenback was just as good as gold. Today it still is with gold fluctuating every day along with the dollar on the open market.

We only have to support and defend the Constitution until we change it. We have to obey all law just as lawyers do but we do not have to like it. That is why there is an Amendment Process in the Constitution. The Constitution is as fresh as today and our views individually and collectively are as valid as were the framers. As far as tradition goes be aware of what Jesus said about them in reference to religion. "Don't follow the tradittions of men but the Commandments of God."

I have often had mixed feelings about this well worn phraseology of JFK's. I think the first part simply relates to the idea of Union, together we stand, divided we fall. Those who only think of profits, greed, self in effect and have no capacity to think of us, community, nation, is what he is talking about. In the same vain he is telling the nations of the world not to look to the USA selfishly but as a partner. And obviously in 2009 the world is freer and people have more freedom worldwide, need I comment on the fall of the Soviet Union or the somewhat new economic freedom of China etc. Because of my mixed feelings and the triteness and overworn use of this quote I give it only a three.

JFK's quote is very thought provoking. Increased security may be good but to the very limits of censorship and concealment may be a bad thing. Mike above as usual has flipped out.

Archer you still cannot read. Madison is saying that things must be paid for, borrowing as the Reagans and Bushes have done is not paying for them is not looking to the ways and means.

I saw the signing ceremony, an event I am sure all of the constitutional types would be happy to see, closing Gitmo and stopping the torture etc. I was a fence sitter on this issue a coward I guess, Cheney claims life saving info was gained by torture. So the high ideals of the American way are again enshrined into our body politic and I guess that is a good thing.

Obama is no more a messiah than McCain would have been or Bush or his people thought he was. Obama is a statement concerning the messianic abilities of the American people to overcome racial and cultural edivides such as cleanising etc to elect a well spoken, intelligent, family man. He was elected in a landslide, Bush was the narrowest elected President of all time twice. RBESRQ I will look for the press conf. immediately.

Sadly the Bushes never read or followed this sage advice. For them it was always cut the ways and means spend spend spend and sell bonds (the debt and the deficit). They and Reagan too have "hazarded the public faith in a manner contrary to every idea of prudence". In plainer words to the extent of 11 trillion dollars.