Free Republic

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq pulled off an election against all odds and the best efforts of insurgents to blow it up. Now comes the hard part: forming a new governing coalition, writing a constitution and winning trust. Achieving those goals will be tough because the election was tempered by the absence of many of the Sunni Arabs, who honored a boycott call and avoided the polls. Without Sunni support, even among those who stayed home on election day, the new leadership is unlikely to win the public support necessary to quell the insurgency and speed the day when 150,000...

Liberty and the Self-Empowering State Measuring Freedom and Social Control by Kevin Ellul Bonici In pursuit of freedom humans have developed social control, and in pursuit of social control they have attained a measure of security and freedom. That's one perspective. In pursuit of freedom humans have enacted laws, and in pursuit of laws they have eroded freedom. That's another way of seeing it. In pursuit of social control, monarchs and governments have sought empowerment, and in pursuit of empowerment they have brought misery and oppression on their people, causing their own demise in the process. That's an extended version...