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Post by Richard on Apr 12, 2005 18:16:01 GMT -5
I don't know about you, but I am becoming increasingly bothered by what I consider a malignant form of political correctness, "hate crimes" and "hate speech". It would seem to me, to have such would require Orwellian-type "thought police". It used to be that punishment, for a crime, would be based on the type and severity of the crime. Whatever thoughts might accompany a crime should not matter. A few years ago, a group of white men dragged a black man behind a pickup truck in Texas. This terrible crime was, or course, labeled as a "hate crime". Somewhat after, however, a group of Dakota indians (I don't use the term "native american"..I was born in Calif, so I also am a "native american") dragged a white man behind a truck in a similar fashion. This was not labeled a "hate crime". Most all "hate crimes", on the books, are committed by white males, so the whole concept in discriminatory. I understand, now in Canada and possibly the US, undercover police will sometimes enter restaurants and other public places to listen for ethnic jokes and possible ethnic racist slurs..and subject those who utter such to arrest. If you say you wish to "crackdown" on illegal aliens entering our southern border, or if you say you don't like the idea of gay scout leaders, are you making a political statement or does it border on "hate speech"? Do you want a government agency or "hate speech" cop to determine such? I think back to the Randy Weaver incident. The whole thing started when a govt. worker entrapped Randy into buying an illegal shotgun. Granted, Randy did not help things by refusing to appear in court on the ensuing minor firearm possession charge. It seems to me, however, the whole incident was predicated on the basis that Randy was a self-proclaimed "white seperatist". I wonder if Randy said he moved up to that cabin, on Ruby Ridge, to get "back to nature" or to get some "fresh air" if the whole siege would have occured, ending in the death of his wife and infant child. I think it is very dangerous to let a law enforcement agency or court try to determine what exactly is "hate".
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Post by midcan5 on Apr 12, 2005 19:14:36 GMT -5
Richard, maybe we are moving into the era of all fake. There is book by a philosopher called Bullshit in the stores now and there is the phoniness of the current administration (see below). How do I know you are serious.
It's Not Your Father's America Any More by Hubert G. Locke
This country is becoming more unrecognizable with each passing day. The government, we've learned recently, now packages the news. It provides television stations with hundreds of video news releases made up to resemble actual news reports that give us predigested, Orwellian information designed to convince the public that everything in the nation is being well-managed.
Alongside this propaganda circus comes the added revelation that the presidential hops George W. Bush is taking around the country to peddle his case for dismantling Social Security are not conversations with local citizens -- as they are billed -- but carefully arranged events before prescreened audiences who hear presentations from panelists who've been, by the recent admission of one of them, repeatedly rehearsed on what to say.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security issues a doomsday scenario that details the anticipated consequences of a dozen possible terrorist attacks -- complete with body counts and economic damage estimates. The department insists it is not trying to scare the public, although how a report that one would hope would receive the most limited and controlled circulation gets "leaked" to the public is anybody's guess. It just happens, also, to fit well -- and not surprisingly -- with the antics of an administration that has turned promoting and exploiting public fear into an art form that Joseph Goebbels would envy.
The only thing worse than the government these days -- if such is possible -- are those portions of the populace to whom this government owes its allegiance. These are people for whom the country got off on the wrong track a half-century ago when hippies and flower children became symbols of a new, permissive culture and "race relations" -- a euphemism in an era when "colored people" knew their place -- exploded in a civil rights struggle that upset a settled and long-accepted way of life.
Fifty years ago, this aggrieved sector of the nation's populace switched its political allegiance from the Democratic to the Republican Party. This new voting bloc brought with it a set of sentiments and values on matters of personal belief or private opinion that both political parties have long believed ought to remain in the personal, private realm. Mainstream Republicans tried for several decades to ignore these private-agenda matters. But championed by fire-eating evangelists, what are personal and private matters for many of us are now being turned into issues for public regulation and enforcement.
What were -- a generation ago -- matters at the margin of public discussion and debate are now contentions that are being forced to the center of Republican politics and, because it is the party in power, onto the front burner of American public policy.
In the past several weeks, for example, some science museums, mainly in the South, have announced they will no longer show films that discuss evolution, the geology of the Earth or the Big Bang theory for fear of offending people who think such topics contradict the Bible. Topping this enlightening development is the spectacle of the U.S. Congress leaping into the midst of a tragedy confronting a family in Florida faced with deciding whether to end the tube feeding of a 41-year-old woman whom doctors describe as existing in a vegetative state for the past 15 years. Several of the biggest crooks in Congress who face multiple wrongdoing inquiries have managed to deflect attention from their misdeeds by turning this tragedy into a "cause du jour" for the religious right.
We could probably endure all of this if it were only another of the outbursts of cultural passion that Americans periodically undergo in an attempt to assert why we think we're God's gift to the civilized world. The problem is that the people currently in political power in the United States and the people who support them really think we are -- and that's why this country is becoming more unrecognizable with each passing day.
Hubert G. Locke, Seattle, is a retired professor and former dean of the Daniel J. Evans Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington.
March 25, 2005 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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Post by MO on Apr 12, 2005 22:48:45 GMT -5
The America haters love the "thought police" crimes and pc b.s. These are the same people that want to determine life or death issues by a person's perceived value in the eyes of other humans. They want to seize the guns. Then they call us Nazis.
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Post by groucho on Apr 13, 2005 7:48:58 GMT -5
The America haters love the "thought police" crimes and pc b.s. These are the same people that want to determine life or death issues by a person's perceived value in the eyes of other humans. They want to seize the guns. Then they call us Nazis. After THEY remove the feeding tubes, that is........
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A Non Ymous
Beagle
Life is too short to spend it as someone's slave!
Posts: 9
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Post by A Non Ymous on Apr 16, 2005 8:28:20 GMT -5
People are under the illusion that the US Constitution is the controlling document that governs our nation. People believe this because courts cite the Constitution in some of their rulings, and, politicians/media point to the Constitution as if it were still active.
Nothing could be further from the truth! The US (and all State) Constitution was suspended on March 9, 1933 when FDR (spit on ground) declared a State of National Emergency. The US Constitution allows for it's suspension "...in times of War and National Emergency". When the nation is functioning under "Emergency Powers" the Executive Branch is in full command of the government. This is why you see military banners, disguised as American flags, hanging in all government buildings. Every president since FDR (spit on ground) has declared a State of National Emergency".
To further entrench their power the politicians made a small change in the 1917 "Trading With The Enemy Act" that made each and every American an "Enemy of The State". Consequently, since 1933, we have been in a state of war where We the People are the enemy. When you appear in any US or State court you are put on notice by the gold fringed flag that you are in Admiralty Jurisdiction, in other words you are appearing before a military tribunal and you have NO rights under the US, or your State Constitutions.
If you've ever wondered how they pass legislation that is clearly unconstitutional, now you know!
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Post by yaamerica on May 23, 2005 9:15:23 GMT -5
Don't you get it Richard? Don't you understand? To keep the purity of America, we need those Orwellian-type thought police! We must purify our nation of fags and mexicans! We must
OH SHIT THE POLICE
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