Tuesday, January 21, 2014

"Liberty cannot depend on…good intentions"

"Our system of government is built on the premise that our liberty cannot depend on the good intentions of those in power; it depends on the law to constrain those in power."
[Barack Obama, 44th President of these United States, January 17, 2014,
Remarks by the President on Review of Signals Intelligence]



Official Senate portrait of Senator John Edwards,
via Wikimedia
Important point that way too many people--especially Americans--forget. Take for example the guy--supposedly a top lawyer, no less--who told us he supported the Patriot Act because:
"The attorney general told us that he would not abuse his discretion."
[First posted on Facebook.] 

Apparently the Brown Sahibs think "stupid" is a humane, sensible comment


Apparently, "stupid" is considered a cultured, sensible comment by the Brown Sahibs of Pakistan. First the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf [they who want "To establish a just society based on humane values" and work towards "political and economic options in accordance with our social, cultural, and religious values."] claims to posts a comment from one of their members (?) that describes people who don't agree with the party as "stupid" and then Newsweek Pakistan ["Sensible. Reliable. Authoritative." they describe themselves as] editorializes on the recent social media campaign against the foreigners-only French restaurant in Islamabad as "stupid". [How I wish there'd been a campaign to open the "French Beach" in Karachi back in the day to us "bloody gareebs". But I digress.]

References:

https://www.facebook.com/PTIOfficial/posts/10151951146764527

and

https://www.facebook.com/newsweekpakistan/posts/10151785501886486