Thoughts
No one has a right to enslave or kill another to progress towards their idea of Utopia.
Constitution vs. Democracy:
The purpose of the Constitution is to the secure the natural rights that belong to each individual.
Nobody grants us these rights. They are our unalienable rights that are part of our very being.
The process of democracy is where a group of individuals make a decisions based on some sort of majority or super-majority vote.
Democracy does not trump a constitutional right.
If there are 9 men and 1 woman in a room, the nine men have no right to rape the one woman even if there is a 9 to 1 vote to take
this action. This is a clear case where majority rule does not supercede the rights of the individual.
Government and Morality:
A government is immoral if it is anti-freedom, anti-liberty, confiscatory or dictatorial,
even if it has the support of the majority of its population,
even if it has the support of all but one citizen.
It does not matter for what reason a government wants to confiscate the property or the fruits of the labor of anyone,
or wants to restrict the non-violent actions of anyone. That government does not have the moral authority to do so.
Common thread to Iraq and terrorism:
We are fighting a crusade to westernize Islam. Is this the best way to accomplish our goal?
Westernization of Islam is inevitable, but is this war helping or creating a backlash?
Islam was westernizing. Consider Turkey, Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Kurdish territories, Iran under the Shah, Iraq under Saddam,
Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Muslim populations in India and around the world. These recent developments in Iraq may be causing
more Muslims to sympathize with their traditional Islamic heritage. The "Islamic extremists" bring to their attention that
they are deviating from their faith in this process of westernization and get many to question where they should place their
allegience.
Cold War:
We fought to keep capitalism safe from communism. The USSR bankrupted itself and may have done so sooner than later
because of the cost to them to compete with us strategically. But, the USSR and any nation based on communist economic
theories would probably bankrupt themselves eventually anyway because of the flaws in communism's understanding of
natural human behavior. Adam Smith had a much better understanding of economics and human behavior than Karl Marx.
Links:
"Rich or poor, nobody should be forced to pay more than 10% of their income to the government."
"When the government taxes commerce, it is consuming the seed instead of the harvest."
"Personal liberty can be achieved more quickly through promoting economic freedom
than by fostering democracy in tribal states."