Rharv,

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It was pretty cool to see a community pull together and say 'we've had enough of your intruding in our lives' and do something about it. It turned into an issue of right to assemble, and right to enter public waterway, and the community wanted to retain those rights.



Way to go rharv! That’s exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. It’s great to see a community rally together and remind authorities who they actually work for.
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Pat,

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herein lies part of the problem... because different people define "what is right" differently... so you have to go by "what is law"



Glad to see you weigh in. Rharv’s communities civil disobedience is a perfect example of doing what is right vs. what is legal, so I don’t think it needs much comment, especially since I’ve been talking so much.

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in a democratic society, it should be the majority of voters who decide what is law



I’m not taking you to task my friend, but this is incorrect. We don’t live in a democracy, but a representative Republic, so voters have very little, if any, say over individual laws. We elect representatives to make those decisions for us. They are then answerable to the voters for their actions.

Democracy in its purest form is nothing more than “mob rule”. I like this quote from Wiki:

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In modern republics such as the United States and India, the executive is legitimized both by a constitution and by popular suffrage. James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, compared republican government to democratic government, and found democracy wanting.



Our Constitution is meant to prevent the “majority” from taking away the rights of the “few” and to limit the powers of the government. The government should fear the “people”, and not the other way around.

Shifting gears a little, your treatise on “finished product” vs. “raw materials” was spot on and fits the Gibson situation perfectly.
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Mac,

“The Patriot” is one of my all time favorite movies and should be required viewing in our schools. It lays out the sacrifices and hard decisions made by our forefathers better than anything I’ve ever seen.

Bob
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http://soundcloud.com/bobcflatpicke/music-in-the-mountains