Just a small note, toqueville in his book shows the decadence that could come from a democratique government... To make a long story short democracy induces in people the sens that they should make politics the job of only a few, and that the masses shouldn\'t bother with it. he then goes on to show that a state were people a disconected from their political rights (duties ?) is no better then totalitarism. He uses the US gov. as an exemple because that is the place were it started to be the most noticable, but nowday it as pretty much spread to all democratique states ( oh and on a side note a rebublique can be democratique --> France).
now that the philosophie lesson is done on to biologie (I\'m a science student after all). To kill somthing it would have to be living. Bilogicaly it is not possible to define \'living\'. It is possible though to determine when somthing is dead. An embryon with a brain not fully constructed is just a mass of cells beeing organised. Abortion occurs BEFORE the brain is finnished, thus you\'re not killing anything. As to my view on the subject, I\'d rather prevent a child coming into this world (condom, abortion,whatever) then knowing I doomed sombody to have a life of misery because he is unwanted.
As for politics, well I think people tend to forget we all mean the best. Somehow people are convinced that people who don\'t hold the same believes do it because they want to be evil, ruin the economys\' country, kill children, ect... I maintain two rules when discussing politics (or I try ), assume the other only wants the best for is country, familly, ect... And critic the ideas, NOT the people. I can\'t stand people who make fun of bush, chirac, poutin, ... First of all chances are they are much smarter then you (and me), and secondly they are doing what they think is best.