There is a satire in The Onion on a similar theme: "American People Ruled Unfit to Govern" (at <http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4026&n=1>).
Joanna wrote of:
>the offense
Are you saying that information about who gives how much to which political candidate in federal elections should not be available to the public or are you making a special pleading (e.g., such campaign finance data ought to be public except when they are about donations that are made -- or not made -- by you and those in whom you have special interests)? I do not recall a single member of the Anybody But Bush and Nader group standing up for the right to secrecy of Republicans concerning their campaign donations to not just Republican but also Democratic and Independent candidates. But let's set aside such inconsistency, glaring as it is. You have to change the federal disclosure law (for a brief history of the federal disclosure law, see, for instance, <http://www.citizen.org/congress/campaign/issues/disclosure/index.cfm>) to make federal campaign finance data secret and unavailable to the public. However, if you believe in making any such change, you ought to participate politically, giving time or money or both. And if you don't do so -- barring under circumstances that make it literally impossible to do so -- don't be surprised if others think that your belief in it is not a particularly deep-seated one, to put it mildly.
Speaking of politics, it is my opinion that many of the Anybody But Bush and Nader crowd not only foolishly forfeit their right to political participation but, worse, they egregiously demand that others do the same, by asking Ralph Nader not to run and applauding Democratic Party operatives who try to place obstacles in front of him, his supporters, *and, most importantly, Americans who consider voting for him*. As Nader wrote to Congressman Elijah Cummings, "do argue, oppose, and challenge vigorously, but unless you wish to tell someone not to speak, not to petition, not to assemble -- which is exactly what running for office comprises -- please don't tell anyone to withdraw and not run" (<http://www.votenader.org/why_ralph/index.php?cid=93>). Concerning "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances," First Amendment liberals and leftists -- not just Second Amendment liberals and leftists -- are also in short supply.
DP wrote:
>As I said before, I ask out of curiosity, not hostility. I genuinely
>wanna know how many LBOers have fired off live rounds
I have never even touched a gun -- as a matter of fact, I never laid my eyes on a real gun in the real world until I came to the States and saw American cops (till then, the only guns I had ever seen existed in yakuza movies and cop shows on TV) -- nor do I think that it is likely for me to ever find myself in a situation where I will feel compelled by necessity to get a hold of one.
As Jordan said, it seems fairly common for liberals and leftists -- to say nothing of those in Japan! -- to be prejudiced against gun ownership, the prejudice that unfortunately sometimes obstructs rational inquiry into vital questions of class, race, crimes, and civil liberties. Therefore, whether or not anyone does -- or intends to -- own or use a firearm (to repeat, I do not, speaking personally), I think it is a good idea for US liberals and leftists to make some efforts to work against the prejudice that exists among us and think harder about the question of the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments. In short, we might try to think of the question from the points of view of philosophers who champion the republican tradition and criminal defense lawyers who are advocates of civil liberties at the same time. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>