On Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:33:28 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:28:19 -0700, wrote:



The example of the past 8 years, when Cheney, the REAL
president, worked behind the scenes, as well as openly, to transform
the Executive Branch into "the "unitary Presidency"-- aka a virtual
dictatorship -- should terrify us all. The whores in Congress
and the sheep in the electorate just let it happen.

Actually it all boils down to the electorate. ALL problems in
government are voted in by them. The politicians are not the problem
in this country, the electorate is. As long as selfish, short sighted
and ignorant people vote, we will always have the same problems, no
matter what party is running the show.

You are, in large part, absolutely right.

(climbs up on soapbox)

It all begins in the home. If parents, who haven't a clue what
critical thinking is, don't teach their children early on to analyze
input, the kids will grow up so gullible that they actually believe
the propaganda put out on behalf of an empty suit like corporate-serf
Bush II (to name only the most egregious of recent liar-presidents).

The kids will grow up believing the propaganda pushed at
them from TV and other pop media. Their values will, thus,
be defined by "more, more, more" rather than "better".
And their ignorance of history -- thanks to a dysfunctional public
school system -- will make them even easier to exploit by those who
have their own interests rather than the national interests at heart.

No offense to reasonable believers, but it seems appropriate also to
indict extremist belief systems (religions) that favor blind faith
over rigorous analysis. How did that work during the Dark Ages --
before the Renaissance began to free human minds? How is it
working now, in those death-worshipping, frustrated, unproductive
elements of a certain belief system that is (still) trying to take
over the world by violence

Somebody earlier mentioned "snake oil". QED.