“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
– Plato

Though I see the above quoted often, I personally cannot find that precise quotation. I like the above, and think it may be a more succinct translation (summary) of the following passage from The Republic.

“That is perhaps why to seek office oneself and not await compulsion is thought disgraceful. But the chief penalty is to be governed by someone worse if a man will not himself hold office and rule.”
– Plato, The Republic

OOH! And Palin was on the news again tonight! She’s got herself a nifty new campaign video about “mama grizzlys.” Everyone can bury their heads in the sand, but don’t blame me when she ends up in charge of something.

John McCain was *not* born on base; check your facts. He was born at a hospital off the base, and outside the states (plural). He was born on foreign soil, and this fact is not contested. You’ll have to show me your definition of “natural born citizen” in U.S. law. The bill you mention states citizen, but that is not necessarily sufficient. For instance, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a citizen, but not eligible to run for President.

The age of the parents is not taken into account in US law with respect to citizenship, so that’s a red herring. Saying there is “some confusion as to where exactly he was born” is incredibly disingenuous. His birth in Hawaii is sufficiently established beyond any reasonable doubt. Show me evidence otherwise. There is corroborating physical evidence that he was born in Hawaii (newspaper announcements), and public officials have testified that he was.

Certification of live birth vs. birth certificate? I quote the following.

“They’re just words,” said spokeswoman Janice Okubo. “That (what was posted on the Internet) is considered a birth certificate from the State of Hawaii.”

“There’s only one form of birth certificate,” she said, and it’s been the same since the 1980s. Birth certificates evolve over the decades, she said, and there are no doubt differences between the way birth certificates looked when Obama was born and now.

“When you request a birth certificate, the one you get looks exactly like the one posted on his site,” she said. “That’s the birth certificate.”

As for the theory that Obama’s original birth certificate might show he was foreign born, Okubo said the “Certification of Live Birth” would say so. Obama’s does not. Again, it says he was born in Honolulu.

As for whether he was ever an Indonesian citizen, that’s just another red herring; it has no bearing on the matter.

Oh, and IAAL.

Plus, I do not see in which case Type Erasure is a good thing. When I see what weird things the Scala folks did to preserve the type information, it just gets ridiculous.