In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as for religious rights.
James Madison in Federalist No. 51
Category: American Affairs
Who are they kidding?
I’m thinking of those ridiculous online ads that purport to be something about Maine but show us images of urban Arizona or maybe Miami, the furthest opposites to where I live yet purporting to be local for here. You know, most affordable housing or food delivery or the ten best restaurants or plumbers in Eastport. We don’t have nearly that many. Got it?
Many of them somehow zero in on tiny East Machias or, for our weather almanac, as St. John, New Brunswick, or Halifax, Nova Scotia. Do note that East Machias is not Eastport. They’re an hour apart.
There’s also the Microsoft ab that proclaims “Eastport light traffic,” which is truly baffling. There are only three or four traffic lights in the entire county, OK? Heavy traffic, apart from road construction, is usually three or four vehicles.
These are even worse than the late-night TV commercials that couldn’t come close to properly pronouncing where we lived in the Pacific Northwest.
People first
A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; second, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best obtained.
James Madison in Federalist No. 62
Being subjected to the laws they pass, too
The House of Representatives … can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interests and sympathy of sentiments of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny.
James Madison in Federalist No. 57
This may seem petty but …
Do we really have to wait another year for the new Interstate 395 leg from Maine Route 9 to I-95 itself to open?
It’s only a few miles and minutes but eliminates a lot of aggravation in getting from here at the eastern edge of the country to most of the rest of the USA. That half-hour of narrow roadway competing with Canadian tractor-trailers on icy pavement plus small-town radar speed traps is an aggravating bottleneck, believe me, even before you factor in all of the Acadia National Park seasonal crush. The new route will ultimately get us around Bangor/Brewer more swiftly and maybe save us ten minutes or so at most, but on a five-hour drive that can be huge.
As it is falls back into a Trump-era vision of what’s supposed to be good at least as the fireworks and firearms retailers along the way declare.
What’s the biggest traffic hang-up you hate?
As iron sharpens iron
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
James Madison in Federalist No. 51
Shelter-in-place boredom? You kidding?
This post was supposed to appear four years ago but somehow it fell through the cracks. With a few tweaks, it retains relevance, IMHO.
Here goes, from back in Dover, New Hampshire:
~*~
Catching up with my dentist, now that his office is open again, we noted our astonishment that so many adults were complaining of being bored during the official shutdown of most businesses, schools, churches, and public services.
Bored? I repeated my adage that boredom is a luxury of the teenage years – most adults I’ve known simply don’t have time for it. Alas, it must say something about the people I associate with. (Well, frankly I find most TV to be boring, but others might say the same thing of the operas I’ve been streaming every night. ‘Nuff said there.)
My dental doc, meanwhile, expressed his gratitude for the time off as “paternity leave” he suddenly had to devote to his two- to four-month-old daughter, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as well as time to catch up on a pile of desired novels. Not a bad combination.
We also touched on studies of the eye damage being done to children under age two by their extensive use of digital screens. Well, and their need for boredom to allow essential self-exploration, discovery, and growth, too.
On my end, I have to acknowledge how little cash I’ve used since March 11, the last time I went to the bank. Mostly, it’s been plastic, which fortunately hasn’t spiraled out of control.
What did you discover in this period of changed focus?
A multiparty political system is predicated on a loyal opposition
Its origin, I’ve heard, arose in the Quaker peace testimony of 1662, with its refusal to swear oaths. Before that, political factions were supported by their own armies. The Quakers, or Society of Friends, promised to hold firm to their beliefs and yet not coerce others to their stand. Persuasion was another matter altogether. And William Penn, in the colony of Pennsylvania in the years we knew it as the Holy Experiment, insisted on having at least two candidates for every public office.
The Quakers not only refused to bear arms but also conducted their faith community business by consensus, without ever taking a vote. Minority opinions were respected, often leading to a third solution superior to the original options. This was not, do note, a compromise, seen as the lower common denominator, but rather something superior.
Theologically speaking, we sensed that Christ had a better answer for us, if we would only listen. “Mind the Light,” as we said.
Flash ahead to today’s death grip in the United States, where one party has steadfastly stood to obstruct anything proposed by an administration other than theirs. President Obama learned the hard way that they wouldn’t participate in crafting a third way. And he faced their open disrespect, which continued during President Biden’s term. Just look at the F— Biden flags for confirmation. Or their chants of “Lock her up,” regarding T-guy’s first opponent. Not that they would acknowledge the same for their guy, for far better documented reasons.
The Don Old, as we’ve seen, has significantly worsened the conflict and is threatening to imprison those who don’t agree with him.
The conundrum with a democracy could rapidly pivot on what to do with a disloyal opposition.
This could get very ugly, indeed. Before and after the national election.
Keeping justice in mind
Justice is the end [goal] of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been, and ever will be pursued, until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign, as in a state of nature where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger …
James Madison in Federalist No. 51
National or state identity first?
If, therefore, … the people should in the future become more partial to the federal than to the State governments, the change can only result, from such manifest and irresistible proofs of a better administration, as will overcome all their antecedent propensities. … But even in that case, the State governments could have little to apprehend, because it is only within a certain sphere, that the federal power can, in the nature of things, be advantageously administered.
James Madison in Federalist No. 46
Jnana's Red Barn 