I know Avo is of the opinion that
any op-ed which uses television to make a point turns the argument into farce; however, Albrechtson is arguing for
a permanent state of exception and directly repudiating liberalism.
Since marxism collapsed as a political and economic competitor to liberalism in the 1980s, conservatism has arisen as the new doctrine of governance to challenge liberal and republican forms of democratic governance. Liberal republicanism being a system predisposed to maximum liberty and with government balanced by three equal branches who act as checks and balances on each other.
Modern conservatism espouses government by exception, this is where the executive is elevated above the legislative and judicial and can act without checks or balances in the name of emergency. This is the closest thing we have to organised tyranny in a liberal democratic system.
Because the executive can act independently it becomes free of the rule of law, free from constitutional checks and balances, and free to act arbitrarily. The conservative conceit is that the executive philosopher kings will act in good faith to solve the emergency (usually national security concerns) and like cincinnatus give back the constitution in a time of non-emergency.
This a fallacy as new enemies are constantly being fabricated at home and abroad. A good example of emergency governance is in Washington DC - a local council - that uses all manner of emergency legislation to get past public oversight, regulations and even get to meetings on time. Permanent emergency has become a style of governance which Australia is not immune to.
Republicans, liberals, progressives and libertarians are going to have to be aware that this form of governance breaks the very components of liberal democracy. Modern conservatism and liberal democracy cannot co-exist they are different forms of government. Once a government goes into a state of exception, it is no longer liberal democracy - it is a new form of governance.
Nationalists need to be aware that this form of conservative governance affects them as well. Citizenship is not the protection from state discrimination any more. The executive is free to define the 'enemy' that requires the exception, and as Hicks shows, citizenship has no bearing on determining who the state will choose to isolate into a legal never-world.
I am not saying that conservatism is the enemy. I am saying that it is an inefficient form of governance that directly repudiates and trashes the liberal republican/democratic principles. As a system of government, republicanism and conservatism cannot co-exist.
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
