I find it rather amusing that conservatives, typically characterized by the media as "hawks" as concerns the war on terrorism, are beating each other up to be the first to see the new movie The Passion of the Christ in which the hero (Jesus) encourages one to love one's enemies. In fact you should love them as you love oneself, if not more, and take their blows on the cheeck, presumably until you die (like Jesus) or until they give up or are miraculously changed into loving you as well. In fact, this is the explicit foreign policy of the conservatives' policitical enemies, the liberals. They preach, quite openly, that it is not the fault of the terrorists, they come from poor countries, instead of throwing bombs at them we should be throwing money at them, and if they attack us more then we're not throwing enough money to them. Hence, both conservatives and liberals agree on the insidious morality of Jesus of Nazareth (as he wasn't the messiah and therefore not the "Christ"). Why do conservatives fight terrorism (though in an ass backward and ham-fisted way) and liberals refuse to do so? Because the liberals already beat them to the "surrender America first" political slogan? I don't know for sure, but it's a rather disturbing thought when you consider how little really separates both of these political movements.

"For empirically, taking the twentieth century as a whole, the single most warlike, most interventionist, most imperialist government has been the United States." - Murray N. Rothbard, For A New Liberty

"Throughout the tragic Vietnamese conflict, the United States maintained the fiction that it was a war of "aggression" by the Communist North Vietnamese State against a friendly and "pro-Western" (whatever that term may mean) South Vietnamese State which had called for our aid. Actually, the war was really a doomed but lengthy attempt by an imperial United States to suppress the wishes of the great bulk of the Vietnamese population and to maintain unpopular client dictators in the southern half og the country by virtual genocide if necessary." - Murray N. Rothbard, For A New Liberty

"J.K. Galbraith: A negotiated relationship between shop-floor pay and executive pay might be the best form of salary restraint. Following the current French discussion, if a full-time assembly-line worker in the United States got $12,000 a year, then a top executive would have as a ceiling, say, five times as much, or $60,000. That is a living wage.

Nicole Salinger: It would be a terrific reduction!

J.K. Galbraith: Make it ten times, or $120,000, then. It's the principle that counts." - Almost Everyone's Guide to Economics Galbraith was the Ambassador to India under President Kennedy, he also served as a general advisor to the President.

"There must also be enough jobs, and the right training, so the people who need them can fill the positions that are available. There must now also be a full employment program - work for all." - Hubert Humphrey, Beyond Civil Rights

From the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" from Applewood Books: Bedford, MA. By Eleanor Roosevelt et al. pg. 6-8

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable renumeration ensueing for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

Article 26

1. Everyone has the right to education.

Article 27

1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

Article 29

1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

Constitutional Amendment to Ban Gay Marriage
By Alexander Marriott February 6, 2004

"The family enjoys the protection of the state. Marriage is based on the free consent of the woman and the man; the spouses are completely equal in their family relations."

This sounds much like an initial draft of a constitutional amendment for the United States constitution to "protect" heterosexual marriage. Conservatives and liberals both get something out of it, explicit definition of marriage as between a man and a woman and equality of the sexes. Consider the second half of this actual segment of an actual constitution,

"The state helps the family by providing and developing a broad system of childcare institutions, by organising and improving communal services and public catering, by paying grants on the birth of a child, by providing children's allowances and benefits for large families, and other forms of family allowances and assistance."

Of course now most people would have a problem with this constitution. The consitution in question here is that of the Soviet Union as of 1980. The point of showing that such a country did what the President and his surrogates are now suggesting is to show what such an amendment implies, oppression.

To codify an abrogation of individual rights, the right to freely make contracts that don't harm the parties or any third parties, would be an abomination on our country, much as the 18th amendment to prevent the consumption of alcohol or the 16th amendment to allow the levying of income taxes. Of course the constitution did implicitly allow slavery to exist by defering the question to the individual states, but this would be the first time since the triumph of the temperance movement that the constitution was amended to curb rights rather than secure them.

Marriage, contrary to recent alarmist and absurdist statements, is not the cornerstone or foundation of Western Civilization. It is an important contractual and moral committment two or more people make to each other to do certain things, i.e. love one another and not break their contract together, and if they do to fairly divide their joint property amongst them.

This contract needs no protection as it is not under attack, but it does need to be enforced and upheld when it is broken by one of the parties, which is the case for all contracts. Pehaps the government should be more concerned with actually following the provisions already in the constitution before considering new amendments, especially those that would work against the spirit of individual rights, the idea upon which the constitution is built.

Chapter Seven

The Basic Rights, Freedoms, and Duties of Citizens of the USSR

ARTICLE 40: Citizens of the USSR have the right to work (that is, to guaranteed employment and pay in accordance with the quantity and quality of their work, and not below the state-established minimum), including the right to choose their trade or profession, type of job and work in accordance with their inclinations, abilities, training and education, with due account of the needs of society.

ARTICLE 41: Citizens of the USSR have the right to rest and leisure.

ARTICLE 42: Citizens of the USSR have the right to health protection.

ARTICLE 43: Citizens of the USSR have the right to maintenance in old age, in sickness, and in the event of complete or partial disability or loss of the breadwinner.

ARTICLE 44: Citizens of the USSR have the right to housing.

ARTICLE 45: Citizens of the USSR have the right to education.

ARTICLE 46: Citizens of the USSR have the right to enjoy cultural benefits.

From "The New Constitution of the USSR" printed in 1980, pg. 250-252.


Chapter IX

International Economic and Social Co-opertion

Article 55

With a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, the United Nations shall promote:

a. higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development;

b. solutions of international economic, social, health, and related problems

from the Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice.