Cadence

Ah, democracy is an interesting topic indeed and am reading something that has changed my views on the same. Hope to share with this forum after I complete. But Nicky why do you say that the US war of independence was fought to establish a democracy - the founders established a republic, did they not? Hope mhx clarifies what they mean by their quote. Doesn't make any sense at the moment.

Your proposition is on the lines of Plato's men of gold/ the philosopher king. Is not moral and hence also not practical. Eventually power is concentrated in the hands of the aristocrats who have vested interest in enacting laws and regulations to keep the non-aristocrats backward and prevent them from rising.

Agree with dream_weaver, Harrison and Nicky. A nuke (or any weapon of comparable power) is fit to use only in case of a full-scale war with an enemy. There may be several objectives other than large scale destruction of an enemy, where limited military action achieves the objectives while a nuke would be counter-productive.

I remember coming across this idea somewhere that regulations are an inversion of a principle of justice in that one is assumed to be guilty unless proven innocent. In the sense that they restrict freedom, they are an essential feature of the welfare state. I would say that 0% regulation is laissez-faire, 100% regulation is socialism.