Come on ... Come on ... Keep cool. We are not that bad !

As far as I am concerned I 100% agree with OSB's assessment. The article is not to be taken at first degree.

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

I am not saying the UN would be forcing anyone into a new constitution. I am saying that eventually, the current membership of the UN will realize the ineffectiveness of the current confederation and may want to establish a more perfect Union.

The current UN does not have any more power over the several state than the US under the AoC, and could be seen as a valid reason for a better constitution.

The Iraqis also voted for their previous leader. It could have been interpreted as positive gesture for greater democracy from dictatorship, without the need to import any more democracy from the US.

Do you really want an initial, powerful central government? I think the US, with its separation of powers and form of federalism, has already proved that central governments will always encroach on the sovereignty of the several states over time.

A hypothetical US style Constitution would still give the several states great latitude in dealing with their current problems. The only difference would be, that in a generation or two, the UN could simply send the UN ATF to Baghdad to solve a minor problem instead of resorting to the sort of anarchy we are using now.

So what? Lots of liberal europeans are suicidal men anyhow. They are also fighting for the rights of the Muslims to conquer Europe, because if they loose, they are loosing her head and so they don't have to think. Remembers me to a president of the US named Bush. Must be a long time ago that he was president of the US. But you are right: "Politics" (=the summary of all stupid ideas in the world and to find the only one wise idea in it) seems always to be pretty funny. So in god I trust - he/she/it's more reliable.

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Scientia et potentia humana in idem coincidunt, quia ignoratio causae destituit effectum
Sir Francis Bacon

On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Nuclear backstrike! American attacks Europe.

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Scientia et potentia humana in idem coincidunt, quia ignoratio causae destituit effectum
Sir Francis Bacon

On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

By the way: Perhaps it's a good idea to make a dollareuro und a UnitedStatesEuropeanUnion-Union (USEUU)? Who knows? The only problem: I don't have any lousy idea how to elect a person or a good idea in the European Union. In decades I never found out what I did with my vote. Europe is a kind of "democracy" where no one knows what he is doing and everyone seems to feel comfortable with.

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Scientia et potentia humana in idem coincidunt, quia ignoratio causae destituit effectum
Sir Francis Bacon

On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The USA is doing politics? That's new to me - you are right. Or do you really think to ignore completly the CO2-production of the USA is politics?

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Scientia et potentia humana in idem coincidunt, quia ignoratio causae destituit effectum
Sir Francis Bacon

On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

LOL...How would you know?

Socialist Constitutions. Lovely. Care to give us some examples?

Sure. The reason you're still using the same Constitution is that you could never agree on a new one. I'm not sure you would even know how to proceed.

You mean, as opposed to the newly-ratified EU Constitution?

Oh, wait, there is no EU constitution.... Seems the EU could not agree on one.



Matt

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De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum

It is a simple comparison and none of the trash being put forth out there is focused on limiting the power of the central government/power like our Constitution is. They are all colossal power grabs of one sort or another or, at the very least, a step in that direction. "All for the good of the common folk", of course.

If you read carefully, you'll see I was more referring to socialist treaties. The various ones I listed (the various "human", "women's", "children's", etc... "rights" ones) are not crafted to mimic our actual Bill of Rights. They are social and economic [re-]engineering disguising pure socialism. Read 'em. They're all inferior to what we already have in place. Why would we cripple ourselves even if the treaties in question are a step up for some other countries employing barbaric practices?

Very few of the the innumerable changes other governments have gone through - especially in Europe - have been the result of the existing government "deciding" to draft a new Constitution and, therefore, a new government. Nope, in 1789 most of Europe was still kissing the asses of various [later deposed] monarchs who only ruled by virtue of the crotch from whence they happened to be yanked. Then they all spent a lot of the 1800's and first half of the 1900's beating the shit out of each other and themselves - steamrolling over each other's borders, toppling each other's governments, annexing each other and whatnot...nigh willy-nilly. It was like a very, very long demented game of Risk. It took until nearly the 1950's for European central governments to achieve the level of stability our central government has had since Blake published Songs of Innocence.

The closest we ever came to breaking our streak of contiguous government was the Civil War, but, as you may be aware, we got through that - Constitution in tact.

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"Compassionate Conservatism"?!?! That is a stupid phrase. Conservatism is inherently compassionate. It is liberalism that is cruel for the sake of maintaining a constituency.

Except that the UN is NOT a Confederation. It is not a form of government in any way, shape, or form. Nor was it ever intended to be. If they choose to go ahead with such a concept, they can do it without the United States.

Wrong. The AoC established a federal government, and bound the states into a perpetual Union. The UN charter does nothing of the sort. The AoC had more power over the states than the UN has over its member states (which is none at all).

You are honestly trying to tell me the elections held under Saddam were anything other than a sham?

No, I don't want a powerful central government. I want a government that fulfills its obligations as laid out in the Constitution.

The big problem I see with your hypothetical "World Constitution" is the fact that different people around the world have different ideas on what role federal government should have in their lives. I would not, and nor would America, agree to any form of constitution that takes away the rights I currently hold. For example, do you honestly see the rest of the world agreeing with our 2nd Amendment? Or our 1st for that matter?

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Success is measured in blood; yours or your enemy's.

what? What does this have to do with anything?

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Success is measured in blood; yours or your enemy's.

When people talk about constitution differences between EU and US. I love the EU way.

We call it a living Constitution which is changed regulary to the attitudes of the day... Ireland has had about a dozen constitution change in the last 15 years to match our society's changes. We have voted (the people in reforemdums) in changes to Abortion, Death Penalty, EU treaties(a number times), Immigration, International Crimnal Court....

Next year we are getting two
2008
Referendum on Child Protection [PROPOSED]
In February 2007 the Government published the proposed wording of the 28th Constitutional Amendment to replace Article 42 of the Constitution, which affirms the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children. No date has been agreed for the referendum, but it seems unlikely to be held on the same day as the Referendum on the EU Lisbon Treaty.
Referendum on EU Lisbon Treaty [PROPOSED]
On 26 May 2005 the Government published a bill for a referendum on the ratification of the EU constitution. The referendum was expected some time in 2006, but was postponed following the No votes in France and the Netherlands. The vote on the revised Treaty is expected some time in 2008. Ireland is the only country in the EU which by law requires ratification of EU treaties by referendum.

Elections Ireland: Referendums

It is a great way to run a country. We often note how fonding leaders of our country would have gone blue if they knew what we did... But they would hopefully understand that the times we live in are different to ones now as will 100 years time be different to our time...

Not a big fan of the concept of a "living constitution" myself. To be, it opens up a very slippery slope.

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Success is measured in blood; yours or your enemy's.

A Constitution that is too easy to amend is destined to be a mess. "Becoming a mess" [unfortunately] is what legislation is for - legislation that will be, at least eventually, validated against a sturdy Constitution.

A core document that doesn't hold some absolute [Capital "T"] Truths to be self-evident and is subject to societal (and, sometimes, dictatorial) whims is something to which I am privileged to not be subject.

Battling the whims associated with the "Attitudes of the Day" are precisely what Conservatism is all about. Thank God for Conservatives or we would have actually reacted to the "scientific" nonsense RE: "The Coming Ice Age" in the 1970's or react now to the similarly ridiculous "Man-Made Global Warming" tripe of today.

The less "living/breathing" our Constitution is, the better. To wit: The Second Amendment is not to be re-interpreted by the "Attitudes of the Day". If liberals don't like the Amendment, get it changed. Good luck with that.

EDIT: Good luck carrying around (let alone actually knowing the contents of) that "Pocket EU Constitution"...if not now, within a few years.

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"Compassionate Conservatism"?!?! That is a stupid phrase. Conservatism is inherently compassionate. It is liberalism that is cruel for the sake of maintaining a constituency.

I dare to claim I have somewhat an overview of at least the very basics of American politics. I still would go with the Democrats...

but I would have no illusions about them. More a thing of the lesser evil.

I dont think the support for the conservatives would rise significantly if most Europeans would know the whole deal about American politics. Less of them would however support the Democrats.

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Vienna Central-Cementery:
"Half the size of Zürich, but twice the fun"