 | Wiseguy (52)
09/13/2008 | Troubling? More of an annoyance than anything. I like our new Liberal
friend kidicarus333 post about those peaceful protesters, it must have
been those pesky business owners who decided to shatter their own
windows and leave a wake of destruction a mile long.
(2 voted this helpful, 2 funny and 0 agree) |
 | abichara (63)
09/12/2008 |  We seem to be going back to that ancient debate: liberty or
government control as a means of protection. I believe that we can strike
a medium point between these two views. I don't believe that it's
necessary to relinquish freedoms for safeties sake, and anyone who argues
otherwise is for increased state control, which is not a good thing, and as
history reveals consistently, leads to wide abuses of power. Certainly
the government has the obligation to protect its citizenry from harm, but you
have to draw the line somewhere too. Unfettered government power won't
resolve the problem of terrorism; in fact, it is more insidious than that very
threat itself, for it can destroy what this country is all about.
Kidicarus made an interesting point. We run around criticizing the
Chinese and the Russians for their human rights abuses, yet here in this
country, we treat protestors not much better. We corral them into
"protest zones", which are cages made of barbed wire, and when the
masses get overly excited, we gas them! Then you have the overly zealous
provisions of the Patriot Act which extend the government's tentacles
excessively into the lives of the people in ways which are unforeseen. Now of
course, we're not as bad as China or the Russians, whom both engage in wholesale repression of the political
opposition, but we're not heading in the right direction here either.
There are some things we need to take care of before they get worse. A
vigilant citizenry is the best protection against the encroachment of
government power.
Remember that Christ said to never criticize someone when you're guilty of the
same violations. Good advice for us.
(4 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 1 agree) |
 | kidicarus333 (8)
09/12/2008 | We criticize China so much for the way they limited the freedom of speech for the protesters at the Olympics, but are we any better? Did you see the political conventions? They gassed the protesters and had swat teams everywhere ready to stop them. That's not free speech, that's a police state.
(2 voted this helpful, 2 funny and 1 agree) |
 | jardiniera (11)
09/06/2008 | People are being forced to remove things like bras and nipple rings before going through security checkpoints these days because they set off metal detectors. Even if you look past the humiliation factor, isn't this going a little too far?
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 2 agree) |
 | irishgit (151)
08/15/2008 | It is common that in a climate of fear, the most dedicated adherants of liberty will happily surrender their freedoms to the figurative "man on a horse" who promises protection.
It is always a tricky path to walk between the need for security, and the lure of surrending liberty to get it.
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 1 agree) |
