USA - Police State here we come!
- Thread starter Darth_Dude
- Start date
In all honesty? About the only candidate who doesn't have their head jammed so far up their ass they can see daylight is Ron Paul.kebab4you said:
And Ron Paul is never going to win an American election. For better or worse, he's too honest and frequently alienates either/both parties. It's kinda sad, because I'd really like him to win once.
It's a great idea. All you need for it to work in real life is remove the human element from the equation...Samuel Henson said:
Oh, Wait...
As for this bill, meh, doesn't affect me personally, however I would suggest that if there wasn't an element of the population hell bent on the destruction of the Western way of life, then western governments would not feel the need to create legislature restricting rights in order to guarantee security.
Not to say that I agree with this kind of legislation, because I ultimately believe in a laissez-faire attitude to interfering with peoples lives (and with that, I believe in a transparent system of justice in which everyone is guaranteed a fair and speedy trial), but we can't just sit and bleat that our governments are oppressing peoples rights, when there are people going out of their way to kill us (and those like us), because we give people too many rights, and they'd much rather we lived by their rather strict version of religious law.
Which as an Atheist, I'm FAR more against than simply the idea of a government holding criminal suspects without trial.
TL;DR: Yeah, this legislation sucks, but I'd blame international terrorists for causing fear-based reactionary legislation, before blaming our democratically elected governments who are just trying to do what they think their voters want.
This.Sjakie said:
Favorited.
You're wrong.The Dutchess said:
Want proof? Read a history book. Any damned history book.
Humanity, as a whole, is a damned sight better off than we have been at any point in our miserable existence on this planet. And that multiplies hundreds of times for those of us living in the western world. You can bleat as much as you want about how you feel the economy is fucked and the news is depressing, but the fact is that you live in a world where you don't have to fight daily for your very survival.
Economic recessions are no new thing. We've had them throughout the course of history, and we've always bounced back. We'll bounce back out of this - and keep in mind that in this economic recession we are still getting new technology, science continues to advance, and the standard of living (despite what a lot of people thing), remains incredibly high.
I don't think anyone suggested that this would make America the same as China, but it's certainly a step in that direction.xvbones said:
So we should only start to worry when we're being arrested? You're in a car hurtling toward a cliff at 150mph, at what point should you begin to worry about things? Yeah sure, the situation doesn't resemble a car crash [yet], but if it DID it'd kind of be a bit late to do anything about it right?xvbones said:
Sjakie said:
George Carlin was a very, very funny man.
One of my favorites, even.
But only very, very ignorant ones take his words as gospel.
You can sit on your hands and roll your eyes and make all the jokes in the world you want... but if you want to effect any kind of change, if you want to uphold any semblance of civilization, then you have to accept the philosophy that there are such things as 'intangibles'.
You can't see or touch or taste or smell them. We've "made them all up", as Carlin would say.
But they have significance and meaning. They're there, and disregarding them isn't the same thing as disregarding religions' "morality" because these are things we have all agreed on and signed into practice and made a part of our lives.
And you can strip all the significance away, if you like. You can make it seem pointless to ever care about anything or anyone and to just go about your merry day being a predictable ass.
But that doesn't do any good for anyone.
You have rights assigned to you by law. Laws which are broken ever day, because people are inherently dicks... but laws all the same. And like predictable asses, dickish laws can be fought and overturned with enough support. Sometimes it's a revolution, sometimes it's just a lot of protests and rioting in the streets.
But the one thing that doesn't fix anything?
Laughing and calling everyone who actually does give a fuck stupid.
Even Carlin didn't call them stupid. Crazy? Sure... but what human isn't!? We're pretty much designed to be completely batshit mental!
But he most certainly never called them stupid.
Well that's depressing. I would hope that our politicians wouldn't vote something so blatantly unconstitutional, but there I go being optimistic again.Darth_Dude said:
Also, this may already have been said, butI didn't see it on the first page so here goes:
This thread probably should have been posted in the Religion and Politics thread. That's what it's there for, after all!
"Hurr durr we have gans so werr freeeee"
You know, all this time on the internet I have heard the american wet dream of taking their AR15s and fight jet CAS/bombers, tanks and APCs, artillery crews and take on the tyrants in the government.
They have been getting these assaults on their freedom but have done nothing so far.
All you 2nd Amendment lovers are a shame. You have it, and like I always said, never put it on actions instead of words.
You know, all this time on the internet I have heard the american wet dream of taking their AR15s and fight jet CAS/bombers, tanks and APCs, artillery crews and take on the tyrants in the government.
They have been getting these assaults on their freedom but have done nothing so far.
All you 2nd Amendment lovers are a shame. You have it, and like I always said, never put it on actions instead of words.
ElPatron said:
The reason you don't hear much more than that... is that any organization that professes to be a militant armed force against the government gets promptly dismantled. So it's probably best for them all to not go around advertising their information on forums.
Especially forums where, you know, they're not really the important news of the day?
Eh. Meh. Doesn't matter. I mostly agree with you anyways. It's time for folks to start putting their money where their mouths are.
No, I'd say the problem is in part a two party system which leaves those who want to do something about it no real option to actually vote for change. Republican, Democrat, it's all the same shit just in different piles, and they have the political system so locked down that no other party or independent candidate will ever have a chance.mxfox408 said:
And the other half of the problem are people so unbelievably naive that they actually suggest this can't be that bad or it wouldn't have passed so easily.Lionsfan said:
This bill is such an offensive assault on the rights of US citizens that if there were any justice in the world Americans would be taking to the streets in mass protest at the very least.
I know, and I probably broke some rules by doing that, but threads in the Religion and Politics section dont show up in the Forum thingy on the main page, and I wanted this thread to get more publicity, for obvious reasons.Zen Toombs said:Darth_Dude said:
This thread probably should have been posted in the Religion and Politics thread. That's what it's there for, after all!
All I can say to this is, I'm glad I don't live in America. Seems like all I ever hear about these days is the US government tightening its grip on the balls of its citizens.
He said that but now reports are showing that's he's backed off from that statement and is going to sign it into lawVaranfan9 said:
I'll chip in, if I can come too. If things get worse, I ain't sticking around...ThePostalDude said:
Except that Obama can and probably will (if he's sane) Veto this.
EDIT: And in the off chance he doesn't and this become law, then I can pretty much say we'll be having a Civil war by the end of either 2012 or Mid-2013. :/ Most likely because cops will try to use Protestors as 'terrorist' and detain them without any sort of trial.
Congrats Washington, hell of a country you've founded.
EDIT: And in the off chance he doesn't and this become law, then I can pretty much say we'll be having a Civil war by the end of either 2012 or Mid-2013. :/ Most likely because cops will try to use Protestors as 'terrorist' and detain them without any sort of trial.
Congrats Washington, hell of a country you've founded.
'Course, you can find it on the BBC, as well as domestic sites. I'm sure the al Jazeera source was for the lulz or whatever, but's not like they're the only ones reporting it or it's somehow less true.Darth_Dude said:
