Free Republic

I simply don’t believe that anybody is equal period. There is no divine “Thou shall be equal” command, despite how innate and sacrosanct such a postulate is to modern man’s egalitarian intuition. Mel Bradford avows: Let us have no foolishness indeed. Equality as a moral or political imperative, pursued as an end in itself — Equality, with the capital “E” — is the antonym of every legitimate conservative principle. Contrary to most Liberals, new and old, it is nothing less than sophistry to distinguish between equality of opportunity (equal starts in the “race of life”) and equality of condition (equal...

Caroline Kennedy, the first daughter of Camelot, has decided to seek Hillary Rodham Clinton's U.S. Senate seat - a decision that rocks the landscape of the race to be appointed to succeed the outgoing senator. "She has decided she wants the Senate seat," a source close to Kennedy told The Post. She called Gov. Paterson today to let him know. The move makes official what some Kennedy family members had been urging her to do for weeks. Kennedy has already signed up powerhouse consulting firm Knickerbocker SKD, which advises Mayor Bloomberg - who sang her praises recently as a qualified...

Three judges agreed that the role of the island's unelected Seneschal - who is both president of Sark's parliament and its chief judge - contravened the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the rights of individuals to a fair trial. The declaration by the Appeal Court is not legally binding, but if the island's rulers do not implement the judges' recommendations to remove one of the Seneschal's two roles they could face further legal action in future which could force them to act. Sark has operated under a feudal system for 450 years, after Elizabeth I granted the island's...

Abstract: "The Irony of Populism: The Republican Shift and the Inevitability of American Aristocracy" analyzes the shift in the role of the Supreme Court following the movement towards a democratic Senate which culminated in the Seventeenth Amendment. The Supreme Court's shift is presented as the inevitable result of the system of mixed government that underlies the constitutional order, which orders American Government into democratic, aristocratic, and monarchical parts. While in the original conception of the constitution the Senate was the aristocratic part, the Senate would become part of the democratic part with the Seventeenth Amendment and prior procedural changes. Into...

Title: The Road to Mass Democracy: Original Intent and the Seventeenth Amendment Author: C. H. Hoebeke Published: New Brunswick, N. J.: Transaction Publishers, 1995. Price: $39.95 (hardcover) Pages: 211 Reviewer: Todd J. Zywicki Affiliation: Mississippi College School of Law The Constitution of 1787 provided for the appointment of United States senators by state legislatures. In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified, installing the current regime of direct election of U.S. senators. The bloated and special-interest-driven nature of the federal government during this century has led scholars in recent years to reexamine the original framework of the Senate and to...

There's a strange debate dominating the Democratic campaign so far. Hillary Clinton's calling card seems to be the experience that she possesses and that Barack Obama lacks. " 'Change' is just a word if you don't have the strength and experience to make it happen," she told an audience this past week, before promptly making the line the centerpiece of a new ad in New Hampshire and Iowa. "Hillary is the best-prepared to be president of any non-incumbent I have ever had a chance to vote for," the clearly biased Bill Clinton has said repeatedly on the trail this summer....

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Mayor Bloomberg is decrying the state of the 2008 presidential race, faulting the major party candidates for offering shallow, simplistic prescriptions, and scolding the press for failing to demand more from those seeking the White House. During an appearance at Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg said the televised debates among the presidential candidates have been, in essence, a waste of time. "They have absolutely nothing to do with the job and the qualifications. And they don't tell you anything about whether or not any of those candidates would be good or bad presidents....

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined a broad economic vision Tuesday, saying it's time to replace an "on your own" society with one based on shared responsibility and prosperity. The Democratic senator said what the Bush administration touts as an "ownership society" really is an "on your own" society that has widened the gap between rich and poor. "I prefer a 'we're all in it together' society," she said. "I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none."...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President and Mrs. Bush spent the weekend in Washington where they attended the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner last night. The Washington Post described the President's appearance this way: The evening took a turn toward the somber when the President took the stage. After a videotaped message from David Letterman ("Top 10 George W. Bush Moments"), he said, "In light of this week's tragedy at Virginia Tech I've decided not to be funny." And with that he handed the lectern over to Rich Little. "I'm not here to make any political points," the veteran...

FRANCE is finally atoning for the savage revenge it took on its ruling class more than two centuries ago, revelling in a new-found affection for the remnants of its aristocracy.The comeback of the upper class after the bloodbath of the revolution has never been so apparent. From the worlds of politics to entertainment, nobility is suddenly chic and les aristos, as they are known, are inspiring respect. “In the messed-up world we live in, people are in search of fine values,” said Charlotte de Turckheim, the actress and film director. “Today, aristocrats are seen as the guardians of these values....

DOUG SAUNDERS Globe and Mail Update NATO headquarters, Brussels — The following is an edited transcript of an interview with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Secretary General of NATO. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer: I have heard about the axeing of a Canadian soldier, and the death of [Canadian diplomat] Glyn Berry, and the other Canadian soldiers who died in a rollover . . . Question: The axe attack is interesting, because some of the reports indicate that they were visiting a village that had been aggravated by earlier U.S. searches. This is a topic that is alarming the public in...

Canada's historic opportunity by Peter O'Donnell This federal election gives Canada a historic opportunity for national reconciliation and healing. You may not have heard that interpretation of this rather vicious election campaign before, but I'll tell you why I think this to be the case. For the past twelve years, and probably to a lesser extent for most of the last half century, certain groups of Canadians were widely held to be second-class citizens. Canada has been governed by an elite, which the Liberal Party has represented almost exclusively, composed of certain business groups, media interests, and academic perspectives, together...

Decorated cups and fine silver platters were once again polished and on display Monday as archaeologists unveiled an ancient Roman dining set that lay hidden for two millennia in the volcanic ash of Pompeii.In 2000, archaeologists found a wicker basket containing the silverware in the ruins of a thermal bath near the remains of the Roman city, said Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, head of Pompeii's archaeological office.The basket was filled with the volcanic ash that buried the city when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. When experts X-rayed it, they saw the objects preserved in the ash, which killed thousands of...

I just watched on NASA Web TV the European Space Agency's bizzarre idea of how to present the first landing on a new planet to the public. It was a sorry spectacle - probably the worst PR disaster in the entire history of space travel. Never has a great technical and scientific feat been made to look more trivial. First, they did not place the raw images immediately on the Web in real time, or show them on TV, or even show them on internal monitors like JPL has done at least since Voyager. Instead we all had to wait...

ABSTRACT The debate over whether political democracy is the least bad regime, as Churchill once said, remains unresolved because history has been ignored or misread, and because recent statistical studies have not chosen the right tests. Using too little historical information, and mistaking formal democratic rules for true voice, has understated the gains from spreading political voice more equally. This paper draws on a deeper history, reinterpreting five key experiences to show how the institutional channels linking voice and growth are themselves evolving with the economy. Up to about the early nineteenth century, the key institutional link was property rights...

Johnny Hart is one of my favorite cartoonists. I recall as a child having several paperbacks of his Wizard of Id cartoons. On the cover of one of them, the king stands at a window in his castle, overlooking his kingdom. From below the alarmed guard yells ‘The peasants are revolting!’ and the king replies ‘They certainly are.’ If I still had the book, I would be tempted to paste a picture of the Prime Minister’s face overtop of the king’s. There has always been an element of aristocracy built into the Canadian system of government, but the arrogant attitude...