[GuyNamedGuy]

As long as the USA wants to claim to be the world leader, to be the example everyone else should follow, then that's when it becomes our *job* to live up to the standards we preach to the world, and set a good example for everyone. Otherwise, we're basically just a bunch of rich thugs with guns, and deserve to get treated as such.

The Constitution is a wonderful document - the Do-It-Yourself Government manual - but it obviously is not the be-all end-all of our government; that's why federal, state and local laws exist to supplement it, and what the Constitution clearly states can still be overridden by local laws. (For example, the Second Amendment clearly states "the right to bear firearms shall not be infringed"..... but any police officer will disagree that that phrase can be interpreted to mean that a criminal waving a firearm around cannot be disarmed while being arrested, or that schools, banks, businesses et al cannot ask people not to bring firearms into their offices. And I agree with the spirit of the Second Amendment! I own guns. I like guns. I think they're fun. But I don't think the Second Amendment gives me unlimited rights in regards to owning and using them, either. Laws in all fifty states uphold that view, contrary to the simple world of the Second Amendment.)

We're doing lots of things nowadays which are not defined in the Constitution, but which become necessary once a nation

a) changes over to a modern technological society and
b) wants (or is forced to be) a world leader.

To give an analogy: there is no law which says parents have to set a good example for their children. Yet everyone wants parents to do so. Everyone complains loudly when parents fail to do so.

Whether we like it or not, we're sort of a parent or older sibling (I hated to say "big brother") to the world. In return for helping out folks, we want/expect the world to sell us unlimited amounts of cheap natural resources - something they're not obligated to do at all. Our "pal"
the Shah of Iran started the whole oil price rise/embargo in 1973, right after the Yom Kippur war. Our good old buddy, the Shah.

Now, we could easily go back to being an isolationist country. We tried this during the 1920s and got World War 2 partially as a result. We tried it during the period from Jan 20 2001 to about 8:50 AM Sep 11 2001 and gee, that didn't work out too well, either, last I checked. With so many dependencies on foreign resources, we're stuck with being

As for the technology, yeah, I guess the jobs will eventually get offshored, but it would sure be nice to at least *try* to bring some manufacturing back into the country. Or at least own some patents for the technology. And there are jobs that would need to stay in the USA - such as washing solar panels, maintaining windmills, and so forth, which would be no doubt undercut by cheap foreign and/or illegal immigrant labor. But at least tens of billions of dollars would not be going overseas to hostile regimes, and we'd cut environmental damage costs which add up in quiet, hidden ways. We forget that $3,000 of a new car is for the platinum in the catalytic converter, for example.

Or we can go down the tubes. It's our choice. This country is no longer really willing to pledge its lives or its fortunes to defend itselfand its interests; when those are gone, the "sacred honor" is a meaningless phrase, a bag of hot air. I want this country to rise to the occasion, to save itself while it still has time, to show it can still work and sacrifice to keep its most precious resources - its independence and freedom. To show the world how it's done, and why the restof the world ought to respedt us. And hey, let's make money while we're at it - I got no problem with that. But there are days where I think I'm the only one left who feels we should sacrifice, or work, or do any-damn-thing, to save ourselves.