America the Exceptionalist
Gail-Tzipporah and I have some similar views about America -- with important nuances. She loves America's free expression, but it "kills" her to see anyone use free expression to criticize America. She loves how immigrants such as her father or my father can come here to build a better life but is more wary than I of future immigrants. She believes that people who don't like it here can "leave the kitchen" -- but I note the irony, as Jonathan does, that it's usually the most brazenly patriotic persons (the Palins, anyone?) who are quickest to argue for the right of their state to secede from the great experiment of our Founding Fathers.
Me, I'm incomparably proud to be an American and would exchange it for nothing, under any circumstances. I love how America filled itself up with people from around the world who said, "We can do better," and who put their money where their mouth was. That progressive and reforming spirit imbues this country with the spirit of reinvention that always keeps us at the forefront. Other great nations were mainly just proud of their ancestry -- but we always believe we can do things better -- and over the long haul we always do.
How ironic, then, that you show even tepid support for political trends that threaten to sweep away the very things that make America what she is; that make her different. The term "progressive" seems to mean overFederalize everything, which is in DIRECT contradiction to what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
Again, it is an exercise in intelligent patriotism (rather than that knee-jerk kind that liberals are so un-fond of) to discuss secession. A federation of states has that right, Rob--that IS American in every sense of the word, and states' rights is at the very HEART of this "great experiment." As I pointed out to Jonathan, there is no irony in acknowledging the Constitutional veracity of that--while also offering a "farewell and best wishes" to those who insist on acting as if this is the worst country on earth. You know, like the liberals who spout nonsense like "9/11 is our fault" and other patriotic stuff like that. They don't love America, and getting all misty-eyed on the Fourth of July changes that NOT.
Bernie Madoff will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the biggest crooks ever to walk the earth. Today, the awaited Bernie Madoff sentencing has been handed down, and for running the largest Ponzi scheme in history, the culprit has been given 150 years, effectively a life sentence. Some have already pled for the release of Madoff, as his crime is revealed, and there won't be unsecured loans to repay his victims or reestablish any credibility for him at this point. The judge decided that the prosecution was correct in asking for the maximum sentence, and gave him 150 years in the clink. Billions in quick cash won't help Bernie Madoff now.
150 years for Madoff. No. 150 sound impressive but it will never work. Madoff will die before the sentence is completed. Give him 45-50 and if Madoff die before his time, put a member of his family (any one of them) in jail to finish the sentence and if that one die before the allotted time, put in the next one and the next one...until Justice is served.