Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 11/26/2010 4:58:14 AM PST by markomalley
Our Constitution is fine the way that it is (save of for a few bad amendments). If officials would follow what it says then we would be in far better shape.
I agree. I'm looking forward to a new direction in Congress set by the citizen legislators we elected.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the new document will be very left leaning.
Agreed, must be something about the cold that brings out the far left in people.
“I have a sneaking suspicion that the new document will be very left leaning.”
I don’t think so; there is a lot of “TEA Party” type fury in Iceland that the people were screwed by their government and banks. They no longer trust their government.
Cold countries usually place a higher value on the independence of the individual, because there is only so much a government can do if your car is buried in a snowdrift in a valley with no cell phone reception miles from any other people. It isn’t the cold, but the availability of a safety net, that makes people dependent. Mother Nature takes no prisoners.
“Iceland elects ordinary folk to draft constitution”
That’s just a waste of time and paper. The politicians won’t pay any attention to it if it doesn’t feather their nest and pay their friends off.
Iceland is one of the most generically isolated nations in the world. Essentially most citizens are closely related. Perhaps Socialism is less offensive in such a situation?
It will be interesting to see what they come up with.
"We are hoping this new constitution will be a new social covenant . . ."
I can't imagine why you would think such a thing just based on these kinds of casual comments. /sarc
I noticed this comment right away, and I had that instinctive "reach for a gun" feeling. "Progressives" in this country always start shouting about "violating the social contract" when you threaten one of their pet programs. This guy's comment smacks loudly of that kind of language.
Generically = genetically. Smart phone text input strikes again.o
And don't you both think that this is the exact direction in which Obama is trying to "nudge" the country?
After all, wasn't it he who was complaining a few years back that the Constitution only contained "negative" rights?
Prosperity and luxury like we enjoy in the west brings about a sense of entitlement. That sense of entitlement makes people think that their baubles and toys must be paid for by someone first and foremost.
Reality is that you better get up early and work your butt off or you will find your world to be cold, hungry and dark.
Western societies have assumed they could borrow their way out of that reality, but lately have discovered they can't cover the bill.
Randomly grabbing people with no sense of reality or knowledge of the problem is only going to make the problem worse. They aren't even aware they have made that assumption.
Until several generations actually have to live cold, dark, and hungry, in disease and squalor, this assumption will reign.
Note to the uneducated reporter:
"The Althing is the parliament of Iceland. It dates back to 930, the year it first convened in a city called Thingvellir, which is located around twenty miles to the east of the capital city of Reykjavik. This makes the Althing the oldest assembly in all of Europe, but it also has meaning to the people of Iceland since it was also the official being of the commonwealth.
"The Althing parliament remained an official legislative body for centuries, but it was dissolved in 1800 shortly after Iceland united with Norway."
It "is" possible to have representative government without a Constitution. Probably not the best way to do it (that would probably be the New England "town hall meeting"), but possible.
My concern is that the Prime Minister of Iceland is a hard-core socialist and her comments about this constitutional convention have me concerned. If she is supporting it, I am leery.
That is what I am thinking too!
Blame the bankers for all of the problems and then write a new constitution that regulates the entire econonomy and greatly weakens the free enterprise system.
Good constitutions are created by extraordinary people that are divinely inspired.
That’s why there has really only been one that managed to survive(for the most part) for over 200 years.
Iceland will end up with a 1400 page book of rules that will make anything and everything legal, and wont have a single inspirational part.
When the Icelandic People discovered what the Banksters had in mind for them in the wake of the Global Collapse they threw a fit and bounced the Govt and held a referendum that no such slavery to them should ever happen.
Fascinating exercise in democracy, they are to small to be a real Republic, but I’d hope they would take the Swiss Route.
I understand; I’m not as familiar with the government itself.
I believe they have the oldest parliament in the world (Althing?); it was formed around 1000 AD if I recall correctly.
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