@"BIAD"
It gets worse, from my perspective - now I'm too old and give out, worn out over the foolishness that people have allowed, that I can't even bring myself to grieve the loss of freedom we've undergone in the past 25 years or so. It's a bit breathtaking, the speed with which the takeover has occurred.
In 1965, the rate at which police solved murders was 90% here in the US. Now it's hovering around 60%, mostly because it appears the police have better things to do, safer things, like hassling the citizenry - and in the process, enriching themselves via forfeiture laws. The Constitution says that government or it's agents may not deprive a person of their property without due process, but that is universally ignored now, and people are routinely deprived of their property on mere allegations, or some times less. I've seen that happen with my own eyes twice now. Police descending on the innocent like a swarm of locusts, picking and choosing what they want and seizing it under "forfeiture". I heard with my own ears the cops divvying up an innocent man's property before they even took it out of his house and filled out the forfeiture paperwork, and discussing whether or not they should just take MINE, too - which never happened, as the idea met with some resistance. Some of the stuff they took from the guy had absolutely no connection with any potential crime - a laser printer the police department wanted, a DVD collection that God knows who wanted, none of the items described in particular detail on a warrant as the Constitution demands.
None of the seized stuff is EVER returned, regardless of how the court case comes out or how innocent the victim is. It's been "forfeited".
In the 60's and 70's, it was a standard plot device to have people stopped at road blocks with the canned request of "your papers, please" from the nice guy in the black uniform - that was how the viewer knew that man was evil, because of course only in repressive regimes like Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union could things like that ever happen... now it is a fact of life and a matter of course here in the good ol' USA. Instead of actually getting out and, you know, working, policing, catching the bad guys, they set up random road blocks in the hope of catching someone in a drag net operation, a fishing expedition. Robo-cops mounted to poles at intersections now issue tickets so that police don't have to disturb themselves and actually chase a miscreant down (the road blocks might suffer if one of those dozens of cops actually had to leave to catch a violator)... and as for the right guaranteed by the Constitution to face one's accuser in court, good luck getting that camera to appear, even with a subpoena.
I've spent the past couple of days searching for black powder revolvers on the internet because guns are once again under fire for no good reason, and black powder weapons are, at the moment, less highly regulated - not to mention the fact that one "rolls his own" bullets for them, and I strongly suspect that ammo is slated to come under fire again real soon.
My son and I were discussing a conversation he had earlier this week with a co-workers who wanted to know why people needed "weapons of war" - the latest catch phrase since "assault weapon" has failed so dismally due to abuse and mis-definition - and I asked him if those people didn't even have a hammer in their house. Once upon a time, wars were fought with clubs, therefore a hammer is a "weapon of war". After all, a hammer is nothing but a short club with a weighted, concentrated, and hardened end, perfect for crushing holes in skulls. Bows, arrows, swords, knives - even your wife's favorite kitchen knife - ALL are "weapons of war".
The anti-gun hysteria is so thick over here you could cut it with a... well, let's not say a "weapon of war".
The president makes decrees with a stroke of the pen now that carry the force of law, bypassing Congress entirely in the process. Who even needs a Congress when the president has usurped their position and now makes law? Even petty bureaucrats now regularly make "regulations" that carry the force of law, all without any congressional or judicial oversight. Petty tyrants in their own little petty kingdoms.
I fought for the people of this country. My dad fought for the people of this country (but he was a real soldier, in a real army, unlike myself), at least 3 of my great and great great granddads fought for the people of their countries during the Civil War (one north, two south) and at least 5 of my great-great-so many greats-back granddads fought for the people of this country in the Revolution.
All of that fighting was a wasted effort. We ALL lost. The people we fought for now routinely undergo forfeiture, home invasions by black-clad thugs, road blocks manned by yet more black-clad thugs who even demand to see "your papers, please", "laws" made by the stroke of petty dictatorial pens, rights routinely violated by a system stacked against the people that it is allegedly in place to "serve", and which routinely ignores it's own rules as embodied in the US Constitution, only paying lip-service to it or trying to find a loophole in it when the regime needs one for advantage - the advantage NEVER goes to the People any more.
This must be what it's like to live in ISIS-stan. Just do exactly what the nice black-clad thug tells you to do, and no one gets hurt. All of my ancestors are no doubt spinning like tops in their graves, and one day I will be, too. I guess it's exercise, so there's that.
Post Script: I bet this post is enough to get ME put on their damned list, and I'm now too old and worn out to even give a rat's ass about THAT. Note to regime enforcers - just stay the hell away from me, and we'll all be fine. I'm too old and decrepit to present much of a danger, but keep in mind that I'm old and already nearer the grave than you are, anyhow, and I'VE got nothing left to lose. You've already taken everything of value, everything I fought for when I was able. Can you say YOU'VE got nothing left to loose too? If not, then just play it safe and stay the hell away.
It gets worse, from my perspective - now I'm too old and give out, worn out over the foolishness that people have allowed, that I can't even bring myself to grieve the loss of freedom we've undergone in the past 25 years or so. It's a bit breathtaking, the speed with which the takeover has occurred.
In 1965, the rate at which police solved murders was 90% here in the US. Now it's hovering around 60%, mostly because it appears the police have better things to do, safer things, like hassling the citizenry - and in the process, enriching themselves via forfeiture laws. The Constitution says that government or it's agents may not deprive a person of their property without due process, but that is universally ignored now, and people are routinely deprived of their property on mere allegations, or some times less. I've seen that happen with my own eyes twice now. Police descending on the innocent like a swarm of locusts, picking and choosing what they want and seizing it under "forfeiture". I heard with my own ears the cops divvying up an innocent man's property before they even took it out of his house and filled out the forfeiture paperwork, and discussing whether or not they should just take MINE, too - which never happened, as the idea met with some resistance. Some of the stuff they took from the guy had absolutely no connection with any potential crime - a laser printer the police department wanted, a DVD collection that God knows who wanted, none of the items described in particular detail on a warrant as the Constitution demands.
None of the seized stuff is EVER returned, regardless of how the court case comes out or how innocent the victim is. It's been "forfeited".
In the 60's and 70's, it was a standard plot device to have people stopped at road blocks with the canned request of "your papers, please" from the nice guy in the black uniform - that was how the viewer knew that man was evil, because of course only in repressive regimes like Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union could things like that ever happen... now it is a fact of life and a matter of course here in the good ol' USA. Instead of actually getting out and, you know, working, policing, catching the bad guys, they set up random road blocks in the hope of catching someone in a drag net operation, a fishing expedition. Robo-cops mounted to poles at intersections now issue tickets so that police don't have to disturb themselves and actually chase a miscreant down (the road blocks might suffer if one of those dozens of cops actually had to leave to catch a violator)... and as for the right guaranteed by the Constitution to face one's accuser in court, good luck getting that camera to appear, even with a subpoena.
I've spent the past couple of days searching for black powder revolvers on the internet because guns are once again under fire for no good reason, and black powder weapons are, at the moment, less highly regulated - not to mention the fact that one "rolls his own" bullets for them, and I strongly suspect that ammo is slated to come under fire again real soon.
My son and I were discussing a conversation he had earlier this week with a co-workers who wanted to know why people needed "weapons of war" - the latest catch phrase since "assault weapon" has failed so dismally due to abuse and mis-definition - and I asked him if those people didn't even have a hammer in their house. Once upon a time, wars were fought with clubs, therefore a hammer is a "weapon of war". After all, a hammer is nothing but a short club with a weighted, concentrated, and hardened end, perfect for crushing holes in skulls. Bows, arrows, swords, knives - even your wife's favorite kitchen knife - ALL are "weapons of war".
The anti-gun hysteria is so thick over here you could cut it with a... well, let's not say a "weapon of war".
The president makes decrees with a stroke of the pen now that carry the force of law, bypassing Congress entirely in the process. Who even needs a Congress when the president has usurped their position and now makes law? Even petty bureaucrats now regularly make "regulations" that carry the force of law, all without any congressional or judicial oversight. Petty tyrants in their own little petty kingdoms.
I fought for the people of this country. My dad fought for the people of this country (but he was a real soldier, in a real army, unlike myself), at least 3 of my great and great great granddads fought for the people of their countries during the Civil War (one north, two south) and at least 5 of my great-great-so many greats-back granddads fought for the people of this country in the Revolution.
All of that fighting was a wasted effort. We ALL lost. The people we fought for now routinely undergo forfeiture, home invasions by black-clad thugs, road blocks manned by yet more black-clad thugs who even demand to see "your papers, please", "laws" made by the stroke of petty dictatorial pens, rights routinely violated by a system stacked against the people that it is allegedly in place to "serve", and which routinely ignores it's own rules as embodied in the US Constitution, only paying lip-service to it or trying to find a loophole in it when the regime needs one for advantage - the advantage NEVER goes to the People any more.
This must be what it's like to live in ISIS-stan. Just do exactly what the nice black-clad thug tells you to do, and no one gets hurt. All of my ancestors are no doubt spinning like tops in their graves, and one day I will be, too. I guess it's exercise, so there's that.
Post Script: I bet this post is enough to get ME put on their damned list, and I'm now too old and worn out to even give a rat's ass about THAT. Note to regime enforcers - just stay the hell away from me, and we'll all be fine. I'm too old and decrepit to present much of a danger, but keep in mind that I'm old and already nearer the grave than you are, anyhow, and I'VE got nothing left to lose. You've already taken everything of value, everything I fought for when I was able. Can you say YOU'VE got nothing left to loose too? If not, then just play it safe and stay the hell away.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’