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Re: [OT] Re: How do you make your life secure (software based)?



(Since were completely OT, you may want to reply to me privately.)

Ron Johnson:
> On 11/28/07 03:48, Jochen Schulz wrote:
> [snip]
>> 
>> To end my my rant: the German minister of Interior Politics recently
>> said to critics that he agrees with them in that there is a "red line"
>> which lawmakers should not cross in the "fight against terrorism". This
>> line is drawn by our constitution. But, he said, if this line stops him
>> from doing what he thinks is necessary, one can still change the
>> constitution.
>> 
>> So much for his loyalty to our constitution.
> 
> How difficult is it to amend the German constitution?

You need a 2/3 majority of all attending members of the Bundestag (most
important German federal parliament). While this is usually quite
difficult to achieve, currently it is technically possible because the
government consists of the two major German parties (CDU/CSU + SPD,
"Große Koalition") who occupy 446 of 613 seats in the Bundestag.

> FWIW, the US Constitution *could* be amended to turn the country
> into a (literal) Satanic Dictatorship.  Then, all sorts of nasty
> "Satanic" stuff would be completely constitutional.

Legally this is impossible in Germany because a part our constitution is
protected by the "Ewigkeitsgarantie" (§79/3, guarantee of eternity), a
paragraph stating that the constitution may not be altered in a way
contradicting §1 and §20.

§1 essentially says that the protection of human dignity and human
rights has to be the basic motivation for every more specific law (even
taxes ;-)). §20 codifies Germany as a federal state which draws its
power directly from its people. State power is seperated into judiciary,
legislature and executive and bound by the law. Finally, §20 even gives
every citizen the right to (forceful) resistance against anyone who
tries to abolish this order.

Both the Ewigkeitsgarantie and the right of resistance are lessons
learned from the deficiencies of the Weimarer Republik which made
Hitler's (perfectly legal) rise to power possible.

Funny side aspect: our constitution is called "Grundgesetz" (basic law)
because its authors in 1949 wanted the German people to freely give
itself a new constitution after reunification with the sector occupied
by the Soviets. But although reunification happened in 1990, for minor
legal issues no poll by the people concerning its constitution has
happened at that time, and never since.

J.
-- 
I cannot comprehend the idea of chemical and biological weapons.
[Agree]   [Disagree]
                 <http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html>

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