I was in the north as well, just at a private school. It annoyed the hell out of me, and was one of the many reasons I left said school.

It is also one of the reasons why I constantly fight for freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

 

Hey, Burt, Me and ALEC BALDWIN have HUGE plans in the works.

Thanks for Reading!!! :wink: :wink:


I actually opposed the Patriot Act from the get-go until people told me to "SHUT UP!!! And, take this flag and stick it on your car!" :waves flag meekly:


I, though, have NO intention of moving to Canada. Its cold there.

 

I'm sorry to say that US isn't even in the top 20 most democratic contries in the world. Too much military & financial power = less democracy.

On another note, leave Gio alone. He's still young and full of foolish idealistic plans and revolutionary ideas. That is perfectly normal for his age. Soon he'll learn that nothing EVER changes and his rebelion is just a step in growing up and accepting the world for what it is and not what we wish it to be.

 

The right to ridicule people, as you say, isn't a "small thing." It's an enormous thing. It's the cornerstone of the First Amendment. And that, my friend, is why the law won't do shit. No American court would allow it. And yeah, 1984 kicks ass.

On the other hand, it's the most democratic Superpower that's been around since Athens, and it's more powerful than Athens ever was.

And what's more impressive is when you considder that the United States doesn't have any real rivals. If, say, Imperial Britain or Nazi Germany or Rome or whatever didn't have any other Superpowers in their way, they certainly wouldn't hesitate to expand, killing all barbarians in their way. The United States is being remarkably unimperialistic, dispite what some might say. Still, you're right in that having a lot of power make's someone paranoid and hungry for even more power. That's just how it goes. Hopefully, China and Russia will be able to challenge us.

I'm just doing my part to ensure that this phase of his doesn't last into adulthood, and we aren't stricken with another Micheal Moore.

Going to get revenge on those damn Canucks for blowing up the Baldwin house with those square planes of theirs?

 

President Bush is an idiot. I believe he is the missing link between man and ape. I really wish he had choked on that pretzel. Anyway who is going to sit around and look for people being annoying on the internet.

 

Burt:

I know that one person cannot make a change, but that is NOT going to stop me from trying, because defeat only occurs when you give in.

The fact is though, someone needs to fight for this stuff; and while I might not agree with Michael Moore's methods I do agree with a lot of the things he fights for.

 

I believe George Galloway summed it up in Celebrity Big Brother earlier today.

"As long as you are fighting for your own principles and believes then a battle is worth fighting."

 

As much as I just want to stay out of this conversation im still going to add my two cents…im with burt. While I agree this may be considered an infringement on the first amendment im more inclined to believe that this law was passed by a bunch of people who didn’t know what they were passing, or they were passing it for different reasons then we are seeing like to stop unwanted spam mail (is there such a thing as wanted spam mail?) Do you think people deserve the right to click a button and then send some piece of junk mail pornography to millions of people around the world? I think the law was more geared towards that kind of “anonymous and annoying” Internet messages. I personally hate politics and arguing about them, I’ll always vote but I believe that spending hours over arguing who should be president and what their views on where they want to lead the country is absolutely ridiculous. People can hide their true personalities very easily.

 

*sighs bitchslaps bush and rolls up a newspaper grabs him on the neck and puts his face in it * Bad Bush! thwack! dont thwack! sign Thwack! thing Thwack! dick cheney Thwack! hasnt read!!!! thwack!

 

Tobang, if the law was designed to target spammers it would need to be passed either internaationally and ratified in Nigeria or passed in Nigeria.

Thats where all the spam originates, the spam industry accounts for something like 10% of their GNP (I'm not kidding.)

Passing it in the United States is just an attempt to infringe on our civil liberties and set a precedent to take more of them away.

 

There is also the fact we have several laws that deal with spam as it is and the FTC has been sucesful at finding and closing down spam centers in the us. This is just a general trend with bush and co of seeing what they can take. Also the small things do make a difference. In law precedent can override ownership.

Personally I have no desire to see a new Alien and Seditions Act, or Committe of Un-American Activities. To add more to the concern what about the news of the subpeonas to search engines? http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060119-060352 and http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060120-105609

 

I'm more concerned about this thing with google. Did you guys hear about this? THey subpoenaed google to get a record of what EVERYBODY who has used their site searched for.

I think their trying to justify the whole "unwarranted wire tap" thing, so their acting like they did nothing wrong. NEvertheless, this leaves a VERY sour taste in my mouth. (I'm hardcore libertarian. That's Libertarian, NOT librarian. Someone once genuinely screwed the two up. )

 

Yeah I know...

The worst part is that all of the other search engines caved in.

 

Folks are making too much panic over the stupid Google thing anyway

I can see why the gov. wants the info, but I think it's a bit widereaching. I file this under stupid gov. actions, combined with internet retard conspiracy theorists making it out to me more then it probably is.

Not to mention, if a kid wants porn, it's easy to get to the point of laughable. Stupid filtering software, or requiring easy to get porn ID keys isn't going to stop anything. How about the folks behind these stupid child protection bills do the easiest solution?

WATCH YOUR DAMNED KIDS AND STOP LETTING THEM SPENT ALL NIGHT ON THE PC LOOKING AT "EDUCATION" MATERIAL WHILE YOU IGNORE THEM!

*cough*

Seriously, some of the folks who complain about the younger generation should be shot. Most of them pay zero attention to their own kids, b/c they'd rather worry about someone elses. I won't get started on the various school shootings where the shooters were kids that did all but hand their parents notes with a "To Kill" list written on them, but jesus...

 

They aren't asking for individual records yet... But if they get away with this cleanly then those are the next thing that they will ask for.

 

I'm not sure how this works, but couldn't companies that are harrased simply move their seat from America to some other US-friendly-but-not-taking-shit country? I mean, Bush don't have jurisdiction over the whole world... yet.

 

add another bullet to the growing list of Bush's possible and definite infringements on our liberties.

bleh. The Constitution is worthless when the people whom the Constitution grants power to - incidentally, the people we 'elect' - decide to subvert it.



he's turned on the 62+ million people who voted for him.......
i'm surprised that his approval ratings are even as high as they are, and not like...5% (unheard of, but he deserves it) or something like that.




on the subject of protecting minors from watching pornography, i wonder what would happen if they just made it legal....

after all, kids are more curious when they hear that they aren't allowed to see something....

also, if you look at the Prohibition, alcohol consumption was a lot more than the times when alcohol was legal......

so it's a possibility that people would, in fact, watch porn LESS if it were legal.

 

Giovanni: Listen, the government requesting information from companies isn't exactly anything new, and while it's cool that Google's giving them the finger, it's not a really big deal either way. Google's just being requested a list of common search terms. I don't see quite how this would be an invasion of privacy.

Thanks, by the way, for not using the phrase "slippery slope." I know you were thinking it, though, so you're on probation.

Ip: Yes, but it's not exactly something you can do overnight. Thousands of people work for Google, and a lot of them don't want to leave California any time soon. I don't blame them, either -- California kicks ass. And then there's also laws which restrict the freedom of movement of people who're at odds with the government. Not to mention laws to keep American companies American, and laws that make it so that it takes about a decade to change your nationality.

Violent: What do you mean by "our liberties"? What do you mean by "the Constitution is worthless"? Seriously, what the hell do you mean? Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that corporate data cannot be requested as by the Judiciary. And for the rest of your post: Ugh. Please put a gun in your mouth, you idiot.