Hell- we didn't need any rights anyway, right?

[bballad]

Tedob1: At least you get it. security at the cost of freedom is never worth the cost.

[PM8228]

"Those who give up freedom for temperary safety deserve neither freedom nor safety" - Ben Franklin.

[St1cky]

Remember that most of the right stealing stuff made is from people who fear terrorists the most, and also people who don't really have to worry about being involunatirly monitored. By this i mean congressmen and the president.

[RoadClosed]

Well, lets see- here in the United States they aren't allowed to show nudity but graphic violence is OK. Seems askew?

Lol that is the exact argument EU citizens who want to see a gun on TV used when I was in England. Don't know if it's still true but back in the early 90s BBC was very tame with violence.

I don't think anyone here can argue that a posibility could exist where someone could try and take control of the country. Our founding fathers new this as well. They built checks and balances we all know by heart. I could label myself a patriot but push come to shove, I would rather be in a cafe on the coast of Belgium or hanging out in the canals in Amsterdam or a Pub in Scotland - hanging down on the royal mile. The problem is, I would have to make 4 times as much to live the same style I have here. I think that opportunity to have what I have, and live the way I do should be protected. I am sorry to say that I cannot look at this country and this government and say with even a little certainty that they are all fascist Nazi's out for world domination and slavery. Can't grasp it.

I am more concerned about the constant message of fear a destruction the media in this country serves to a zombie population. In fact I consider it mostly full of lies and deceit, the real mind control apperatise is not the government. Now don't get me wrong, I am not absolving any entity from corruption. Man is fallable, I have worked in all forms of institutuons and seen it's effect on everyone. Corruption is always lurking there, but a grande scheme with world dominating effect? I think for myself and judge due course. I cannot set by as an american, home owner, business owner, land owner, apple pie eating, dog loving, cliche spouting, red blooded American and let an organization kill our people, threaten my life, scare our population and breed hate and destruction on any soil I have an electoral right in.

Can't grasp it. When I start seeing people in mass being arrested without due cause who aren't associated with terrorist organizations or terroist harbouring governments, or building bombs or emailing Al Quida.... If they hall the local 7-11 guy away with no cause, if tanks start rolling down my streets on parade and people I know in the military stop caring about their homes and babies and turn into "Imperial Storm Troopers" then... and even before that happens... I will pull out my trusty winchester. Dramatic but true for me.

[tonybradley]

Here is a story off the AP news wire from the SunHerald.com site that says the Justice Department says the FBI was out of line to prematurely "demand" notes and information from reporters without a proper subpoena....

The department said the correct procedure is to seek material from reporters only after other investigative steps have been exhausted, and that subpoenas are to be used only as a last resort.

FBI Didn't Follow Proper Procedures

[RoadClosed]

Good, at least some checks and balances still work.

[maxim_86ualb2]

as I read this thread :from the start to the end:
I saw diffent opinions & Ideas... but u ppl must know...... the lives of thousands is nothing.... it is worthless for a goverment..... in WWII Stalin sent 20mil of his "people" to their icy graves... my grandpa was lucky that we wer from West ukrain... he was only in the army for 2 years..... in the eastern from....and the forien help had arived... still they lived on Grass...& water...

U think ur life was hard.... read this... some of my grandpas storyes...

during recruting.... every 1 that can carry a rifle ...... in taken in the truck..... every group of 4solgers /1rifle /40rounds::all 2gether::/each 1L of pure alchole per month :for the cold and war ankziety and as a fist aid Kit/ Clothing..wt they found in/food: if ur lucky a peace of bread and some soup..most just went hunting and looked for beries...or pilleging/

in the 1st month of the was the Soviet union was not prepared for war..they wer helping germany by suppling them with OIL & food....... the day before... whele ther was no army... they sent foot solgers with a Molotove cocktail..to fight a tank : the 1st officer who had this Idea was sergand. Molot.:hence the name.. meaning molotov's cocktail....

after 3 month the US aid came ... every peroson for a Machine gun.. MY grnpa : old parashev... also they got food & winter closing.....

-----------------------------------------------------------------
ther is also this ..... I am in lebanon... my country was partly occupied by Israel...
as I heard & seen it was a hard life..... emagine a 20 year war.....
how many died,, how many are still in prisons.... how many... are lost.. in the sands of time



and if u still think u are living a hard life...... think again u r living in luxury... if u werent U wouldnt have time to read this dam u would not learned how to read.... u would have been strugaling to survive...

I hope this was a little informing about the hard ships of others....

[tonybradley]

the 1st officer who had this Idea was sergand. Molot.:hence the name.. meaning molotov's cocktail..

Not to be picky, but the history on the molotov cocktail seems to be offbase.

According to this URL http://www.sproe.com/M/m-molotov.htm, it says:

First believed to have been used during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), the Molotov cocktail is a simple weapon consisting of a glass container filled with a flammable liquid. Stuffed into the neck of the container is an oil-soaked rag which is lit on fire just prior to the container being thrown at its target. Numerous variations on this weapon were made, including the addition of thickening agents designed to help the flammable liquid stick to its target. Although often thought of as a weapon used by rebels, insurgents and other untrained forces, the Molotov cocktail was also employed by professionally-trained soldiers in World War II, and was known to the British Army as the "bottle bomb."

The Molotov cocktail was named after Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949. Although the weapon itself was invented in the Spanish Civil War, it did not receive its name until a few years later during the Winter War between Finnland and Russia from 1939 to 1940. Molotov was hated by the Finns, and they thus named the makeshift weapon after him.

And according to this URL http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_cocktail, it says:

The name "Molotov cocktail" is derived from Vyacheslav Molotov, who was the Foreign Minister and Secretary of War of the Soviet Union during World War II. The soldiers of the Finnish army successfully used Molotov cocktails against Red Army tanks in the two conflicts (Winter War and Continuation War) between Finland and the Soviet Union and coined the term. Molotov cocktails were even mass-produced by the Finnish military, bundled with matches to light them. Petrol bombs have already been used in the Spanish Civil War, sometimes propelled by a sling.

In both cases (and many others I can find online), the concept seems to have been originated during the Spanish Civil War, and the weapon was used successfully by the Fins against the aggressor Soviet Red Army tanks. The name was given sort of "tongue-in-cheek" to poke fun at the Soviet Secretary of War.

Aside from that though- your point is well taken. I am sure that a majority of Americans fail to understand how great their lives really are when the biggest thing they have to complain about is whether or not the Cubs go to the World Series or if Bush is a bigger ******* than Clinton.

[bballad]

maxim_86ualb2: you are missing the poin, most of us americans relise how good we have it...thats the point we get very irate when we see someone triying to take those rights. As long as we have our rights (speach, freedom of press, right to bear arms, right to assemble, right to trial by peirs, right to speedy trial, no illigal search and sezure all being the most important IMHO) What we witnessed in the USSR or currently happening all over the third world will never happen here. Is what bush doing worse then what Stalin did...no...but it starts us down that same path, I for one would like to stay as far away from that path as possabile.

[nate_k9]

I agree with you bballad, but I do agree with Bush, I'm a Staunch Republican and I don't question his motives. But the privacy rights is absurd, but more power to Bush in whatever he does, we dont know what his motives are. He knows more about this terroism than any of us do, and I'm sure he has his reasons, and they have nothing to do with Stalin..