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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>>…</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Omar Rahman<br><b><span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span></b></span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>I can see the positive potential in well regulated capitalism, can you see this negative potential in unregulated capitalism?<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Ja. The real problem is that the term regulation assumes government intervention, and all governments are for sale. Humans have never invented a form of government that was anything other than Plutocracies in various disguises, completely without exception. Marx theorized a hypothetical alternative. Humanity experimented with his notions at enormous cost in human suffering. We should go ahead and rip away the masks; recognize that all governments everywhere run on gold, at every level everywhere and everywhen. It’s the most universal truth of human behavior. All efforts to defeat that observation have merely reinforced it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span> A lot of 'western' thought is influenced by Calvinist/protestant thought which basically states that financial or worldly success is a tangible sign of 'God's blessing'. <span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Hmmm, Calvinism. From my own view, religions are equivalent in that they are superstitions. They seem to have vastly differing impacts on the societies which embrace them. For instance, animism is dominant in places like Haiti, I forget what they call that religion that is popular in places like Sudan, Afghanistan, Middle East in general, Buddhism in Japan, Catholicism in most of South America, a loose-fitting form of Calvinism has shaped North American and Europe in general, definitely the USA. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Of those, assuming you don’t embrace the superstition but must live in a society shaped by those religions, which do you choose? I would choose to live among Calvin’s mind-children. The Mormons make good neighbors, as do the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, etc. They tend to have small well-fed and well educated families, they keep their yards clean and their houses neat, they keep their children home at night. Buddhists would be OK too, ending at mostly the same place from a different path. If societies are shaped by their superstitions, which do you choose?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>Does money have any moral value in itself?<span style='color:#1F497D'>...</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Calvin’s legacy is to have societies that value having money in the hands of good guys rather than in the hands of bad guys.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>Spike, to pretend that violence in Chicago is linked positively with stricter gun registration is ludicrous. Ever heard of a guy named Al Capone? That was significantly before Chicago's attempts to control gun ownership. Also, at no point were all guns completely illegal in Chicago. ( <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Illinois">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Illinois</a> )<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Al Capone is an example of what happens when governments are corrupt. The city government of Chicago and even the state of Illinois has been corrupt since the days of Al Capone. Of the last seven Illinois governors, four have served time for corruption. Capone was in bed with the politicians. He is a perfect example of bad guys with money and bad guys with political power.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>…</span>For the record I am a 2nd amendment supporter as stated in the constitution<span style='color:#1F497D'>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Me too. More guns equals less gun crime. Bad guys get shot.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span> This is not an unfettered right as many supreme court decisions have made clear. The framers intention was to provide the population with the legal framework to form militias capable of resisting the state if a tyranny should form. Capitalism is fully able to form a tyranny, please refer to the history of the East India Company for one (but not the only) example<span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span> Best regards, Omar Rahman<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Agreed with part of it. The big difference is companies cannot force you to buy its products. The federal government can. It is doing it now, with the “affordable” heath care act. It is compelling its citizens to buy a product under threat of penalty from the IRS. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>We had a case where 2000 pages of legislation passed into law with very little senate debate against the unanimous will of one of the political parties, then enforcement of the will of the other major party was put in the hands of the national tax collection agency, which has few or no constitutional limits on its power. This enforcement power was immediately shown to be corrupt: an IRS chief suppressed a political party, then testified before congress that she had done nothing illegal, then took the fifth amendment right to not incriminate herself. Those two positions are contradictory; it was given in testimony before congress under oath, lying under oath is a felony, so the USA now has a pre-conviction felon who was in charge of enforcing the will of one of the two major political parties against the will of the other. How do you suppose this is going to end?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Conclusion: better to have corporations with the power of wealth; if they are evil, you buy from their competitors. If their competitors are evil, you give up cola for coffee.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Capitalism is the way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></body></html>