Shireroth

Welcome back mi'lord *kiss*You were missed

A... more formal constitution? What? Who? Where? When? How? Why? Though they go mad they shall be sane,Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;Though lovers be lost love shall not;And death shall have no dominion.

Well, I am back. Getting my internet connected took a bit longer then I expected, but it is up and running and I should be online pretty much 24/7 now. Not that I will be at my computer all that time, of course.I am aware that a lot of our citizens are moving into college and getting set up for classes and such, so activity will probably be down a bit like it was the past week. I do expect to see everyone by the end of this week though.There are a few items on the agenda. For one, several people have expressed interest in creating a more formal constitution, so be thinking of ideas on that one. We will start that around next week. Also on the agenda is figuring out what the ministries are up to. I do not care how silly you people think these reports are... I want to know what the ministries are doing. On a more sad note, the funeral of the late Kaiseress, which I posponed due to my abscence, will be held on Wednesday this week. I will be giving a speech, and there will be time for others to say a few words as well. Be prepared.Oh... one more thing. WarVoid seems to have left in a huff while I was gone, and suspiciously, Mar Sara has little "rebel uprising" icons on the MCS map, which is also run by WarVoid. If anyone could tell me what is going on there and if/how Mar Sara is rebelling against us, I would appreciate it.Anyway, that is the agenda. Mainly I just wanted to let you people know that I am back full time now. Carry on! Harvey of Meskan"This is my day in the sun, and I plan to get a tan."

Wherefore? Which? How come? Whither? Whom? Whence? Though they go mad they shall be sane,Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;Though lovers be lost love shall not;And death shall have no dominion.

I was just talking about fixing a few Minor things and showing them to you.. not a rewrite.. I'm still opposed to a rewrite.... And we have a formal constitution.. E. Metzler (UEC)Duke of Brookshire"Never use a BOO/\/\ist as a diplomat" -- GSClicky Clicky..., Tiss for your own good ya know.

Who has the ability to edit the constitution, anyway? I was just thinking about that in Gov class today (heh, i know, i know). If the Kaiser has the ability to rewrite the constitution on his own, than nothing is unconstitutional because the kaiser can ultimately write stuff he doesn't like or want w/o asking anybody...which would mean that there is ultimately no point in having a constitution. Scary thought... -Gryphon Avocatio- Anarch and Duke of all Yardistan - Minister of Imigration and Naturalisation, Shireroth - Shirerothian Elder - "Minsiter of Dance, Pants and Funny Walks" - SAVE THE KIWI!! God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen. Send her victorious, happy and glorious, long to reign over us; God save the Queen. Thy choicest gifts in store On her be pleased to pour, Long may she reign.May she defend our laws, And ever give us cause To sing with heart and voice God save the Queen.

What the PRH?! I've been saying that for going on a year now and everytime I do I end up on my ass with Erik barking at me and turning out threats of exile and the like.

Yeah...I thought about it...and...as long as the Kaiser has free will to change the constitution, the Constitution itself is moot. -Gryphon Avocatio- Anarch and Duke of all Yardistan - Minister of Imigration and Naturalisation, Shireroth - Shirerothian Elder - "Minsiter of Dance, Pants and Funny Walks" - SAVE THE KIWI!! God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen. Send her victorious, happy and glorious, long to reign over us; God save the Queen. Thy choicest gifts in store On her be pleased to pour, Long may she reign.May she defend our laws, And ever give us cause To sing with heart and voice God save the Queen.

I'm with you. However, I'm a year older and a year wiser now and I realize that Shireroth is never going to have a democratic government or well balanced power-sharing between the various gov't branches. The Kaiser will always be more powerful than any other citizen. Still, I do think that the 3/4 of the Landsraad should be able to overturn an imperial decree. That would make the Kaiser "better" than any citizen, but not "better" than all citizens....if that makes sense.

I've never been for democracy. I think that what should be done is that the Kaiser should not be able to change the constitution without expressed permission from the landsraad and that the landsraad should have some ability to change the constitution by themselves. -Gryphon Avocatio- Anarch and Duke of all Yardistan - Minister of Imigration and Naturalisation, Shireroth - Shirerothian Elder - "Minsiter of Dance, Pants and Funny Walks" - SAVE THE KIWI!! God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen. Send her victorious, happy and glorious, long to reign over us; God save the Queen. Thy choicest gifts in store On her be pleased to pour, Long may she reign.May she defend our laws, And ever give us cause To sing with heart and voice God save the Queen.

*begins to get concerned*The Constitution of Shireroth is not like the constitution of other nations. It is not the say all document that tell us how to run. It is a reference. With some backing. The Kaiser can edit the constitiont, so can the Landsraad.. To require the Kaiser to have to get permision from the LAndsraad.. Might as well as say the Kaiser can't make a decree without the Landsraad.The KAiser is ultimate. The constition.. Like I've said before, is a reflection of how the nation is run. E. Metzler (UEC)Duke of Brookshire"Never use a BOO/\/\ist as a diplomat" -- GSClicky Clicky..., Tiss for your own good ya know.

ok.. more...All those govenrment branches.. Don't NEED to be there... THey are off shoots, to assist the Kaiser. The Kaiser IS the supreme ruler of the land. Not just a citzizen.. not just the... "best" citizen.. he IS the govenrment. He is the begining and the end of the government. This isn't america.. we don't HAVE 3 branches.. we have 1.. with off shoots to help the 1. The LAndsraad is basicly a gift to the citizens. To give some power to not just the Kaiser.It has been one of those unwritten rules that the Kaiser edits the constitution. I never wanted it written in case it needed to be edited when a Kaiser was like.. DEAD!.. or something...This nation was founded with 1 power. It has changed much.. be even after all this time.. it is still.. A Monarchy (once a simple dictatorship)... The Kaiser is supreme.. I don't care who's Kaiser, their will is technically supreme.. (unless they start to weaken the nation, in which case bloody coups are allowed... as long as you win...)In my oppinion, to weaken the Kaiser's power is an act of treason. For to weaken the Kaiser, is to weaken the nation. (do I need to do my whole speal.. again about this nation?) E. Metzler (UEC)Duke of Brookshire"Never use a BOO/\/\ist as a diplomat" -- GSClicky Clicky..., Tiss for your own good ya know.

Devil's advocate:Yet all of our laws have assumed a good Kaiser, or at worst an incompetent Kaiser. So far, due to exceptional good luck, this has been the case. Constitutional restrictions, where they exist, though, exist because of the chance that the country could, at some point, get a Caligula-style really awful crazy in office. In fact, Caligula was allowed to happen precisely because the Roman Empire worked on a system eerily similar to ours - a Senate that supposedly had power and which people paid a lot of attention to, but also an Emperor who could, in the end, do whatever he wanted. When there were good emperors, they listened to the Senate except in crises, and all went well. When there were bad emperors...it was not pretty.Shireroth has one advantage to ancient Rome, which is that the Kaiser chooses a successor based on personal selection rather than bloodline or who can convince the imperial bodyguards to murder everyone ahead of him in line (Stone! Why do you have that evil gleam in your eye?). But, sooner or later, we're going to run into a really bad Kaiser. Some say Mog was a bad Kaiser, and we lived through him. Well, he wasn't a great Kaiser, but he had character, in that when he became too unpopular, he left without causing any trouble. If there is a Kaiser who is politically incompetent, generally unpopular, and unwilling to bow to any pressure to step down, we are pretty much screwed. And don't say it can't happen. Aure's appointment proved that it is possible to get a pretty complete unknown on the throne, and although this wasn't a problem with Aure, it certainly could have ended up as one if she had been someone other than who she was.An extremely brief amount of research that might well be wrong suggests that the Kaiser has the power to unilaterally do stuff like disband the nation, dispossess nobles of their lands, destroy entire duchies and baronies, merge with other countries, annex us to other countries, expel personal enemies from Shireroth, delete important historical information, curb free speech and exercise of religion, and even, (o horror of horrors!) change the background. The only recourse against such possibilities would be revolt, which would be difficult and painful if the Kaiser had EZOp, as indeed it is within their rights to demand.This is not a suggestion that we go to full-fledged constitutional monarchy where Kaiserial decrees have to be passed by a Landsraad majority or anything. But some changes that would be beneficial while not limiting any honest Kaiser in the least would be things like:1. Making the Kaiser subordinate to the Constitution, and the Constitution amendable only by the Kaiser + the Landsraad2. Allowing the EZOp of the board the right to refuse to transfer it to a Kaiser.3. Making the Kaiser unable to dissolve the Landsraad4. Making the Kaiser unable to divest nobles of titles without some consent of someone.5. Making the Kaiser unable to disband or merge the nation (we can call this the Austi Scot Amendment) without some consent or other

Thank you Scott...that's the entire reason i don't like the way it's set up now...Erik, I'm not worried about you as Kaiser. I'm not worried about Harvey. I wasn't even very worried about Aurefiction.Scott has brought up the point that we have so far been blessed with good kaisers that do not abuse power. If we got such a kaiser, they could simply rewrite the constitution to their needs. I also don't like the idea that the kaiser could control the document that controls him (even though only loosely). So, that is why i'm campaiging for this change.And i'm not trying to fundamentally change the nation. I'm not trying to strip it of its history or bases. The Change i want to effect is not to rob a good Kaiser of his power, for surely if the Kaiser is good, the landsraad will give the kaiser permission to edit the constituiton. I am trying to keep the power to destroy the nation out of the hands of a bad kaiser. -Gryphon Avocatio- Anarch and Duke of all Yardistan - Minister of Imigration and Naturalisation, Shireroth - Shirerothian Elder - "Minsiter of Dance, Pants and Funny Walks" - SAVE THE KIWI!! God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen. Send her victorious, happy and glorious, long to reign over us; God save the Queen. Thy choicest gifts in store On her be pleased to pour, Long may she reign.May she defend our laws, And ever give us cause To sing with heart and voice God save the Queen.

That is what rebellion is for... E. Metzler (UEC)Duke of Brookshire"Never use a BOO/\/\ist as a diplomat" -- GSClicky Clicky..., Tiss for your own good ya know.

Rebellion only works:1) If the "good" side has the EZOp.2) If the entire country is against the Kaiser, rather than just, say, 80%.3) If the Kaiser hasn't already done something irreversible.4) If you've got rebellious sort of peopleIn short, a rebellion only works if you support it, pretty much, and if you leave micronations or are temporarily inactive or, Gahg forbid, are on the side of the evil Kaiser, everyone else is screwed. Edited by: Scott Siskind  at: 8/27/03 10:40 pm

I hate to bring up a depressing subject...but somehow...Aure's funeral didn't happen....so maybe we should hold it tomorrow?

And should the currently living Aurefiction (manifestation of the spirit of Kaiseress Aure?) be invited? Though they go mad they shall be sane,Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;Though lovers be lost love shall not;And death shall have no dominion.

I believe that she was planning on attending..she is the one that reminded me of the funeral in the first place.

Since I tend to be the one with EZop.... Do you have to worry about evil Kaiser's? (unless you think I'm evill in which case....)And we have Yardistani.. we have rebellious people.. E. Metzler (UEC)Duke of Brookshire"Never use a BOO/\/\ist as a diplomat" -- GSClicky Clicky..., Tiss for your own good ya know.

The funeral was canceled because I was feeling really sick.Does it matter to anyone if it actually happens or not? Harvey of Meskan"This is my day in the sun, and I plan to get a tan."

Funerals. Egad, we've never held one for our Uncle and beloved predecessor (sniff).We never found a body - or the plane, for that matter custom DC-3, if anybody finds it .... or a piece of it. .... or a piece of ...... of ..... his bbbbbbb........ I CAN"T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!!!! (sniff. sniff).I'm ok now. Can't keep talking in the royal "We"..... (gibber)Well, since I'm not Actually "royal" here (whew) .... ok-EZboard does not lend itself to democratic change. If the EZop is the "bad guy", he/she can do whatever. The only option becomes to start over on a new board (the many incarnations of the Cyberias come to mind) or put up with the "bad guy" until he gets bored.I know I'm the new guy, but the best hope is in the tradition that has served the nation. Parliaments are 12 for a dollar, but an appointed sequencial Monarchy is (nearly?) unique. I can only think of Rome under the Good Emperors. A Really Bad Kaiser would just scare everybody off. Unlike RL nations, emmigration is a click away.So, if the Kaiser can change the law by whim, what restrains him? The love of his people and the good of the nation!Hoch der Kaiser! His Imperial Majesty, Jacobus II, By the Grace of God & the Voices of the Peoples, Emperor in Absentia, of Rulczentia, of all the Cyberias, King of All the Ma'alanje, Count of Cognito&Lac Glacei/Jaris, Protector of Cocoanut Grove, Lord of all his lands beyond the Seas, Imperator Maximus Micromundi

Just wanted to use a vaguely related thread to mention that I'll be gone for the next while or two transferring to the East, getting a computer set up, etc. As Ari would say, expect me when you see me. So you'll be without a Minister of the Exterior for a few days. Gahg knows how you'll manage.

Bye Scott...The people are speaking...changes are in order... -Gryphon Avocatio- Anarch and Duke of all Yardistan - Minister of Imigration and Naturalisation, Shireroth - Shirerothian Elder - "Minsiter of Dance, Pants and Funny Walks" - SAVE THE KIWI!! God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen. Send her victorious, happy and glorious, long to reign over us; God save the Queen. Thy choicest gifts in store On her be pleased to pour, Long may she reign.May she defend our laws, And ever give us cause To sing with heart and voice God save the Queen.