Pilot crashed plane into IRS building in Austin, TX

RemoWilliams said:
It would be a vicious cycle. Lets say people who are pissed do do something and make a change, take over, revolt, what ever. Who to say they won't fall into the greed of the might dollar and do the same thing as before. Don't know, but for some reason the funny line from Planet of the Apes, "The only good human is a dead human!" Money will make people do the craziest things.
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see: french revolution
 
SomeGuy3 said:
The US is still the most free country around,
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At best, that's wishful thinking. Realistically, it's completely untrue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/22/united-states-ranked-36th_n_136788.html
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~kris/FreedomIndex.html
http://www.stateofworldliberty.org/report/rankings.html

Don't get me wrong, the US if full of great people, but in terms of personal freedom, it's not even close to the top of the list.
You can thank "tough on crime" policies & for-profit prisons. In fact, more people are incarcerated per capita in the US than any other country in the world. That's hardly free.
 
The only one I looked much at was the MIT ranking... but it's sufficient to say that if MIT says you're wrong, you're pretty fucking wrong and there's nothing you can do about it apart from fixing your viewpoint or completely changing the fundamental laws of existence.

Jeff
 
13th place is pretty far back when we're talking about freedom.


Edit: The MIT data was also from 1985. Things have certainly got worse in the last 25 years. Once again: "for profit prisons" were just starting out in 1985. Now, putting people in jail in the US is a multi-billion dollar industry. Taser weapons are deployed on belligerent & uncooperative people... They're being used as punishment as opposed to being used for officer safety. Tasers were brand new technology in 1985.
Hell, most of my extended American family doesn't visit anymore due to the "North American Travel Initiative." ...which requires a passport or other 'more secure' type of identification for cross-border travel. That never used to be a requirement. A birth certificate would do.


Side-note: When this law came into effect, the Canadian Federal gov't got it's ass in gear: My wife & I received our passports in NINE days. I still can't believe a government operation was that efficient. By way of comparison, the U.S. wait time is "6-8 weeks." ...and the US is the country that passed the law! It's kind of stupid, really, when you consider Canada is the states' largest trading partner.
 
And please, do not take my commentary as anti-American. I have a great respect for the American people, and the country's accomplishments over the last century.

I only take issue with ignorant statements like "America is the most free nation on earth." ...That may have been true in the 1950's, but for the love of all that is good, wake the fuck up.
 
Glenn Fricker said:
And please, do not take my commentary as anti-American. I have a great respect for the American people, and the country's accomplishments over the last century.

I only take issue with ignorant statements like "America is the most free nation on earth." ...That may have been true in the 1950's, but for the love of all that is good, wake the fuck up.
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Glenn, it will take a lonnnnng time for people to wake up here, because of so much indoctrination and brainwashing that starts out from early childhood. My wife grew up in a communist dictatorship. She has lots of stories to tell. Then let her tell you how surprisingly and shockingly similar things are here. I mean...the "pledge of allegiance"....wtf is that...really? I pledge allegiance to my wife, kid, and family...only. It took a lot of time, traveling, and listening to other viewpoints before I finally started to open my eyes. Pride in your country is one thing...but blind nationalism due to brainwashing...that's something else entirely.

And before any one tries to call me anti or unamerican...my family has been in this land since 1679 and fought for its independence. So don't even go there.
 
Glenn Fricker said:
Side-note: When this law came into effect, the Canadian Federal gov't got it's ass in gear: My wife & I received our passports in NINE days. I still can't believe a government operation was that efficient. By way of comparison, the U.S. wait time is "6-8 weeks." ...and the US is the country that passed the law! It's kind of stupid, really, when you consider Canada is the states' largest trading partner.
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The wait time they give is 4-6 weeks, but it never takes that long; when I applied for my passport back in 2008, I got it in seven days.

It's worth noting that the state of California alone has a higher population than Canada as a country, and the entire USA has a population about 10x that. Sure, we may have more processing centers for passports, but it's still all handled by one office per state. After that law was passed, requiring passports for traveling to Canada and Mexico by means other than aircraft, the wait time could have been the full 4-6 weeks, but that's because there was a total rush on the system from far more people than Canada was dealing with, by sheer population size and the fact that it affected people traveling both north and south.
 
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