andrewgd wrote:
I understood your arguement until this point. If it is my understanding, there have been quite a few 'militias' that have been forcibly removed because they opposed our government and the rules it applied to the militia members. It didn't matter how many guns they had, if the US government wants you out, they'll bring as much force against you as necessary.
You mention our freedom is being taken away. What do you think of the Patriot Act, and the possibility that it will be extended indefinitely? Even the librarians of this country oppose the act. When the librarians are against it, you know something is wrong with it.
And here we can agree. I do not agree with the Patriot Act at all! All of its privacy reducing issues really rub me wrong. Am I worried that Bush is out to get me because I am a gun toting right winger, who believes that the war on drugs is stupid? No, but I am worried about where it can go in the wrong hands. I personally believe that Tom Ridge (who was the govenor of PA, where I live) is out to protect this nation. And I also trust that attorney general is out to find and stop terrorist. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions! I am worried about those that come latter and how they will use these laws. And I'm with you on this one. This law need struck down. We could spin off here into a whole discussion on the Commerce Act and how the Constitution has been whittled away since its passage. And then move into the copyright extentions that are reducing american drive and inventiveness. Then from there we could jump off on to tort reform.
But heres the facts in 200 years we've gone from a couple of log and adobe huts to the hyperpower of the world where we can freely discuss these issues. Have we made mistakes? Yup! Will we make more? Certainly! But its our freedom that has allowed it all.
On a sidenote: With the whole disucssion of rights and where the come from I'd like to add a little aside about the whole "under God" issue with the Pledge.
I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
And now to Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
So what i'm sayin here is that rights desend from a higher power. Whether you believe in God, Allah, Yaway or Budda it doesn't matter what its saying is that there is a certain higher authority and we all know the basics of what is right and what is wrong. The "under God" is a scape clause, you are pledging your allegence but but within limits. And when that allegence is tested against the higher authority it is the higher authority that wins.
I hope at least some of that made sence. The cold meds are really kickin in now.