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[guillaumeb]

11. thanks jimmy

My family has lived in Quebec/New Brunswick area since 1600. I live in the Chicago area, but retain the Canadian view on many things.

Gun fetishism in the US is somewhat scary, given that the US might be the biggest threat to world peace. I feel that the clear intent of your Founders regarding gun ownership is that ownership is linked to a "well regulated militia". I do not feel they had in mind the various right wing separatist groups that claim to be militias or the Red Dawn fantasists and their vision of defeating a trained military force with small arms and patriotic fervor.

Also scary is the right wing hatred of a government composed of one's fellow citizens. How self government translates for these right wingers into an "overbearing occupying force intent on stamping out freedom" escapes me.

I have said this before, think it needs repeating. We had a Prime Minister in Quebec in the 1960s named Jean Lesage. In a debate on the role of government he said, in translation, "the (Quebecker) government is not an enemy among us. It emanates from us, it is from us and of us. It does for us what we cannot do alone". Best short description of the role of government that I have ever heard.