Random Thoughts (Political Edition)

:lmao: I apologize for having a laugh at your expense, I even beckoned my wife over to have her read your words, she thought it was quite funny. Richard Daley, King Mayor of Chicago, will never be voted out again. The city is run by one political party, and THE HELL if someone else is going to muscle in on their racket.
When I moved from Madison Wisconsin to here 5 1/2 years ago, I was genuinely appalled by the corruption of state and local politicians. If that happened in my home state, the capitol would get raided and the politicians would be stoned to death. Why do my now fellow Illinoisans tolerate this?

My point still stands that if people cared enough, or if it was a enough of an issue, they'd either have to change the law or risk being voted out. Or the supreme court may find the law unconstitutional (which they did with regards to the ban). In any case, I highly doubt that Chicago is the dictatorship you're making it out to be.

That being said, I'm generally against gun control laws and Chicago's are fairly absurd, but I do believe that state and local governments should have the right to limit or regulate these things if their constituents feel it necessary...within reason.
 
Last edited:
I'm a monarchist. With regards to King Harald V of Norway, I am also a royalist. If I was Swedish, I would probably not be a royalist, as Carl Gustav does appear to be a cock.

You're in a different position, you atleast have a Norwegian as your head of state, we in Australia have a foreigner as our head of state which is just unacceptable in my opinion. My only wish is that the Queen would intervine in Australian affairs in such a way to piss off the majority of Australians so we can get rid of her.
 
Just do what we did and toss some tea into the great barrier reef

We had a referendum in the 90s and the stupid Australian public voted against getting rid of the Queen.
 
You're in a different position, you atleast have a Norwegian as your head of state, we in Australia have a foreigner as our head of state which is just unacceptable in my opinion. My only wish is that the Queen would intervine in Australian affairs in such a way to piss off the majority of Australians so we can get rid of her.
King Harald is a second generation Danish immigrant. As for the Queen..

"You put the Queen on your money. You're British."
- House
 
King Harald is a second generation Danish immigrant. As for the Queen..

"You put the Queen on your money. You're British."
- House

Atleast he lives in your country. :p
 
So does the Queen. You put her on your money, so you're British. She lives in Britain, so she lives where you live. :p

Must be sad for her to be away from home, though, as she's German.
 
A little example how fucked up politics can get:

In 2007, AFAIK all federal German states passed some sort of Anti-smoking law, restricting smoking in Bars and Restaurants. Since all 16 States did this themselves, each one did their own thing in a different way and it?s all a big clusterfuck across the nation.
But while every representative poll has shown that we germans are not in favour of having Anti-smoking laws like (for example) in the United States, a majority of people support some sort of ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. But as the laws were passed in 2007, a loud storm of protest (at least in the media) broke lose. Note that I didn?t write "big", but "loud". It wasn?t many people. There are many Smokers here, but even a huge part of them were "pro-ban" in Bars and Restaurants. But those who opposed the ban, managed to gather quite a media following to their "outrage".
And as those calls got louder, some politicians got scared. Especially those of the Christian Socialist Goverment in Bavaria who had their federal elections the next year. So Bavaria then lifted the ban again, ironically after having passed the strictest anti-smoking law of all 16 States earlier. 3 Years later now this past weekend, Bavaria had a referendum about the topic on if to reinstall the very strict anti-smoking laws that were in place only such a short time. And the referendum passed with 61%.
Now the law that the Christian Socialist Goverment of Bavaria once passed but then retracted will be in place once again.
Why is this relevant (to you far far away) and why is this a mess? Because it shows how few people, yelling extra loud into the ears of politicians who fear losing power can swing legislation away from what the general public wants. In this case it might just be something trivial as anti-smoking laws in a Place most of you will ever visit ... but remember this the next time the media back some special interest people that are yelling extra loud for legislature to change and make themselfs and their goals much bigger than they are.
 
Last edited:
Yeah. It's the same reason people seem to think that most muslims want us to whip adulterers to death after summeric sharia proceedings, that christians want to make it illegal to be gay and that everyone in the Netherlands go around smoking pot, selling sex and putting their grannys to death.
 
A few words from Machiavelli:

No new ruler, let me point out, has ever disarmed his subjects; on the contrary, when he has found them disarmed, he has always armed them. For, when you arm them, their arms become yours, those who have been hostile to you become loyal, while those who have been loyal remain so, and progress from being your obedient subjects to being your active supporters ? But if you take their arms away from those who have been armed, you begin to alienate them. You make it clear you do not trust them, either because you think they are poor soldiers or disloyal. Whichever view they attribute to you, they will begin to hate you.

The Prince, Chapter 20.

I know that to some Machiavelli was evil but in reality The Prince was only a portion of his argument. His ultimate goal was Republicanism and to realize this one must examine his Discourses on Livy. The Prince was only the first step in a plan that would eventually create a republic (a republic in the Italian 16th meaning of the word but a republic none the less.) That is not to say that I thought him evil before I knew of his Discourses on Livy. Monarchy has its uses and depending on how it is practiced it can be quite successful.
 
Last edited:
^ It's a great quote, but only slightly applicable to today. Arming people back then worked because rulers usually called upon people to fight who had the means to fight, aka had weapons and such. Today, governments provide the weapons to those who choose to fight, so it doesn't matter of the citizenry have them or not, in that respect. One of the main points of the Prince was that a ruler should, in most cases, be feared by his people (simplified). In a modern republic, the intention is for the government to fear the people, which is why the people should be armed.
 
A little example how fucked up politics can get:

In 2007, AFAIK all federal German states passed some sort of Anti-smoking law, restricting smoking in Bars and Restaurants. Since all 16 States did this themselves, each one did their own thing in a different way and it?s all a big clusterfuck across the nation.
But while every representative poll has shown that we germans are not in favour of having Anti-smoking laws like (for example) in the United States, a majority of people support some sort of ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. But as the laws were passed in 2007, a loud storm of protest (at least in the media) broke lose. Note that I didn?t write "big", but "loud". It wasn?t many people. There are many Smokers here, but even a huge part of them were "pro-ban" in Bars and Restaurants. But those who opposed the ban, managed to gather quite a media following to their "outrage".
And as those calls got louder, some politicians got scared. Especially those of the Christian Socialist Goverment in Bavaria who had their federal elections the next year. So Bavaria then lifted the ban again, ironically after having passed the strictest anti-smoking law of all 16 States earlier. 3 Years later now this past weekend, Bavaria had a referendum about the topic on if to reinstall the very strict anti-smoking laws that were in place only such a short time. And the referendum passed with 61%.
Now the law that the Christian Socialist Goverment of Bavaria once passed but then retracted will be in place once again.
Why is this relevant (to you far far away) and why is this a mess? Because it shows how few people, yelling extra loud into the ears of politicians who fear losing power can swing legislation away from what the general public wants. In this case it might just be something trivial as anti-smoking laws in a Place most of you will ever visit ... but remember this the next time the media back some special interest people that are yelling extra loud for legislature to change and make themselfs and their goals much bigger than they are.

And this is much of the problem with California, a vocal minority (the environmentalists, unions, and the under educated) scream the most, and scream the loudest. The first 2 seem to take advantage of the last 1 to make more noise.
 
As long as they don't pour a nice, English beer into the sea, I can live with it.
 
Australian beer into the sea, now that I can get behind.
 
Yes, that would be a humanitarian action.
 
And this is much of the problem with California, a vocal minority (the environmentalists, unions, and the under educated) scream the most, and scream the loudest. The first 2 seem to take advantage of the last 1 to make more noise.

And the same problem with the extreme anti-abortion crowd. There aren't that many in that far extreme wing that think abortion should be illegal no matter what without any exceptions but they are by far the loudest. The more moderate anti-abortion groups that put in the incest, rape, life of the mother exceptions are a very loud and vocal minority too just somewhat more numerous.

Another big problem with California is all the stupid ballot initiatives. It really shows what a bad idea straight up democracy really is.
 
Top