Friday, July 31, 2009

Pakistan's Supreme Court understands how laws apply to leaders - and we could learn from them!

What does it say about America's commitment to the rule of law, and our Constitution, that Pakistan's Supreme Court can rule that Gen. Musharif's imposition of Martial LAw in 2007 was unconstitutional - setting him for a trial on treason charges - yet here in the U.S. we won't (volitionally) even empanel a grand jury to look at whether the Bush Administration authorized torture in violation of U.S. federal law and international treaty?

Who is teaching whom about democracy, exactly?

2 comments:

jg said...

Grumbine just added a comment to his scientific literacy post that I find relevent: words to the effect that those who know little but think they know a lot are the easiest to fool. In the U.S., we own the brand "democracy" therefore, we have in place the part where we think we know a lot. How we manage to know little is an ongoing discussion in so many areas.

Philip H. said...

Agreed - and there are so many causes that "blame" is hard to ascertain, much less act on.

In the case of democracy, are we loosing our way because of public education? Television? deceptive oliticians? Lobbying? No matter which way you throw the proverbial rotten fruit, you can hit a cause.

More to the point, which is a reason I blog baou tthse things, is hwo do we arrest the slide?