Back in the late 80s, I worked in Korea, and obtained my private pilots license at the Osan air base aero club. I flew off and on for several years between '87 and 94, with an instructor who had left the club to work for KAL, and returned a year later. He raised this exact issue as one of the reasons for his departure. Respect for elders is deeply engrained in Korean cultural. So much so, that younger pilots were unwilling to point out errors to older ones. While I wish we had a bit more respect for ours in the U.S., this has no place in a cockpit.

Disclaimer: This is in no way meant as an offense to Koreans (I was married, and have a kid with one).

Laws are passed based on public opinion. Courts judge them based on the Constitution. Lady Liberty has a blindfold for a reason. If enough people feel strongly enough about an issue that is deemed unconstitutional, then the Constitution may be amended. For example, California held an election to in which the public opinion banned gay marriage. A court deemed that unconstitutional. Arizona has passed laws on immigration that were supported by public opinion that the court deemed unconstitutional.

The problem is that there is always going to be someone that calls any war or anything military illegitimate. Also, surveillance is important even in times of peace. It is worthless if everyone knows what we are looking at and what we find.

Since secrets are important to a government, regardless of your opinion, and since courts are public and have no current ability to hear cases where the matter is deemed secret by those charged, there is no oversight at all. Your resistance to court oversight that can keep things that need to be secret secret,is supporting the status quo where government has virtually unlimited power because any abuses can simply be called "national security" and court oversight is completely avoided.

The court system is supposed to be above public opinion and pubic opinion is not supposed to have any effect on the court's decisions.

No, this court, like any other, would work within the law. The problem is that without the appropriate clearance, judges are not legally allowed to hear the evidence in the case so judicial oversight is not possible right now. All this would be is a court where the judges have the clearance to hear the cases and the evidence. The evidence in the cases as well as most of the information about the cases could be kept secret so these cases could go to court without damaging national security or the government using that as an excuse to keep the cases from ever being heard.

The justice system is supposed to be blind and not "trust" anyone. I don't think the FISA court was set up to deal with the Constitutionality of the law itself, but to grant or deny warrants.

We need a separate court that is secret like FISA whose purpose is to deal with cases brought up where the evidence brought up in the case should not be made public. They could handle the cases of terrorists, for example or any challenges to instances where the government is doing something that needs to be kept secret, but may or may not meet Constitutional muster.

I think the fact that this has been made public and that the government itself is no longer denying this negates any attempt to call this "state secrets".

However, there will be cases that deal with actual state secrets. For those, we need a court set up to deal with that sort of thing, not just a court to approve warrants, but a court to handle cases brought up by whistle blowers that evaluate the Constitutionality of cases like this.

I'll see your 500, and raise you 14500....
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090108121618.htm

There's just a bit of a difference between being overrun, and a peaceful election.

As for language changing all the time...yours isn't?...BS.

You're speaking only of the top leadership. The vast majority of our government is managed by career employees, who don't change from election to election.

Depends on your point of view. If you're arguing that there wasn't a U.S., that would just be incorrect. If you're arguing that the south broke off, even though still claimed by the US, and reunited, well, does that matter? Somewhat different, but how about when various states were added. Should we start from when we added Hawaii? By your Sig, none of them existed prior to 5 seconds ago anyway.

So, does that mean we have 50+ (remember Guam, Virgin Islands, Samoa, Purto Rico & Mariana Islands) "countries"? They all have different rules too.

No, because the only people who will give a shit, are those who attend Star Wars conventions, or live their lives through role playing. 99% of the consumer base does not.

I guess your definition of system doesn't include anything like the fuel system, or the exhaust system.

Try doing that in rush hour here (DC area...some of the worst in traffic nationwide), and you'll only end up in another lane with someone else a few feet off your tail at 70mph. Yes, you can, and should take action when you possible. Don't pace other vehicles in their blind spots, watch ahead of the vehicle in front of you, etc., etc. I've been driving nearly 40 years, and only been rear-ended once as well...not a damn thing I could do to avoid it as the twit driver was chatting with her unbuckled kid in the front seat, and I was at a full stop behind another vehicle...all I could do was brace for the impact.

Short story, where I was technically at fault, but believe I was set up.

I pulled up behind another vehicle stopped at a Y intersection with a yield sign in front of the vehicle ahead. As the vehicle ahead started to pull away, I let off the brake, and started rolling toward the stop, and glanced over my shoulder to see if I could continue to roll, or needed to stop. No traffic in sight, and I turn forward, only to see the other vehicle stopping for no reason, and with only a split second to apply brakes, but not enough to avoid contact. There was less than $1k in vehicle damage. The driver had her two children in the back seat, one with stitches in his head from a prior accident. Fire trucks showed up, with police, and it was determined that we could all go on our way after exchanging info for insurance. She later was given $5000 by my insurance company against a medical claim...I suspect to just make her go away.

My fault? Legally, yes. Morally, I say bullshit.