Thank you. It is this kind of encouragement that gets me thru many difficulties and obstacles.

April 8th, 2007 at 10:48 am

I don’t often respond to what I hear/read but I generally appreciate the thoughtfulness and sincerity of the commenter’s on this sit.

I really loved you last line in this post- It was nice to see someone get authentically past just hatred and speak from their inner thoughts.
Cool post-

perris @ 169

Kalliope @ 163

WE MUST RESCIND PERSONHOOD FOR CORPORATIONS

****
That, I think, is the A an O if persons such as you and me will want, not only survive but also flourish and lead a good and free life.

Considering that corporations exist only by Charter, we the people could simply revoke the Charter. But just because it is simple, does not mean that it is easy.

How do you want to start?
How do we revoke their personhood, that is, their rights without concomitant responsibilities?

I believe there is a supreme court decision that awards personhood to corporations…in the form of free speech, the supreme court has claimed restricitons on campaign financing is a violation of free speech

with a corporate influenced supreme court we will probably need a constitutional amendment that revokes personhood to any organization that exists by charter

we will need to revoke personhood from churches as well…freedom of religion does not mean personhood to religion

etc

Then we need to organize and do it; it will not happen by itself.

Are either of you two lawyers? I ask because I have not seen anyone outside of Thom Hartman raise this argument—one which I wholeheartedly support with respect to corporations.

The Prince may advocate ruthlessness, it also advocates restraint, self-knowledge, knowledge of one’s opponents, and marshalling resources for optimum use.

Of course. I think the present Administration has worked particularly with the first and last of these. The need for restraint was limited while the Republican Congress provided a firewall. Leaving the Chimp to one side, Rove and Cheney have shown that they are masters of their own and their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses.

[Machiavelli] knew that you had to expect to meet the same foe again and again. Hence, diplomacy. Ignoring a foe until it submits of its own accord is the surest route to nurture it, not defeat it.

Well, what is the foe? Here, the foe is the Democratic Party, the only plausible obstacle to the dream of a one party state Permanent Republican Majority. This was Rove’s War, and Diplomacy doesn’t figure in it, the DoJ does. Rove’s ‘06 confidence that he had The Numbers when he didn’t may be where Fortune saved us.

Machiavelli would have recommended that course only to a client who needed imaginary foes so that his subjects would have a false sense of his client’s indispensability, and so would ignore his weaknesses. Hmmm.

IMHO that is spot on for the GWOT, and (pace Gore Vidal and Orwell) a significant component of the basis for the Cold War.

All or nothing, would not have been Machiavelli’s advice, unless he thought it a sure winner for a particular moment. He knew that you had to expect to meet the same foe again and again. Hence, diplomacy. Ignoring a foe until it submits of its own accord is the surest route to nurture it, not defeat it.

Machiavelli would have recommended that course only to a client who needed imaginary foes so that his subjects would have a false sense of his client’s indispensability, and so would ignore his weaknesses. Hmmm.

This is what drives me nuts about so many “born agains.” You can do whatever evil things you wish, as long as you “repent” right before you die. Yes, that is a crap-shoot — you could be killed in a car wreck tomorrow. But most take that risk. Look at Lee Atwater — how sorry he was on his deathbed!

To all that, I say BS. If you ARE a Christian, you act like it every day. That is why I laugh, looking at Bush, Rove, Novak, etc. — going to church. What a laugh.

All you need to know about Strauss is that the people who believe his bullshit are the same ones who read Plato’s Republic and automatically think they’ll be the Philosopher-Kings, even when they’re dumber than dirt and have zero knack for true philosophy.