David Paterson, the first black governor of New York state, was sworn in this morning and made a few interesting comments as he was being welcomed into office: "This transition today is an historic message to the world: That we live by the same values that we profess, and we are a government of laws, not individuals." Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't our government supposed to be "of the people, by the people, for the people"? There's something wrong with the way Paterson said what he said...and I'm still not quite sure why he said it. I mean, I know he was trying to provide a contrast between the actions and words of Eliot Spitzer, and to communicate that no one is above the law...but he went too far. On the one hand I see his call to a sort of community spirit idea. Which is fine. On the other hand I see a tendency to spew rhetoric without actually thinking about its meaning. Any rational citizen would assert that government is not composed of la