Hi Mike,
Are the Germans still buying up Nova Scotia?
REH
Michael Spencer wrote:
> "john courtneidge" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > One ?significant? comparison between the US and Canada lies inthe
> > Constitutions:
> >
> > * The US focus on "Life, liberty and the pusuit of happiness."
> >
> > As compared to:
> >
> > * The Canadian focus on "Peace, order and good government."
> >
> > The former is the personal agenda, the second relates to our social needs
>
> The American phrase is from the Declaration of Independence, not the
> Constitution:
>
> WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created
> equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
> unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
> the Pursuit of Happiness ....
>
> The Declaration *recognizes* a putatively self-evident state of
> affairs. I think the impeachment of the Creator and His replacement
> with Biology leaves the Declaration's observation unchanged. But the
> authors wouldn't have suggested that people are innately endowed with
> a right to "good government", as they go on to make explicit:
>
> -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among
> Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed,
> that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these
> Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and
> to institute new Government,....
>
> Good government is an artifact which we have to exert ourselves to
> create and maintain through the exercise of the aforementioned rights.
> The US Constitution goes on, over a decade later, to institute a "new
> Government" and is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.
>
> So far as I've been able to see over the last 30 years and from the
> sidelines, Canada is ahead on points on the "good government" scale
> but it might do even better with a stronger dose of "Consent of the
> Governed". Of course, that would require a rather larger portion of
> the Governed to get off our butts and make our consent -- or the
> withholding thereof -- a force to be reckoned with.
>
> - Mike
