Week of shootings leads to Full-Blown Police State

[kludge]

fascism/communism, the further you go from center the more tyranny you get--either Left or Right. Thats why the two party pendulum system = fail. We need a party for the 80% of Americans that aren't socialists in either form.

I have to make a comment here... a continuum with socialism on both ends of the continuum is not a continuum at all. The middle ground is still socialism.

Let's reframe our thinking and replace our paradigm with something that will allow something other than the lesser of two evils:

Place communism and fascism at one end of the spectrum where the government controls the ecomony and the resources, either by hook or by crook, and economic/political freedom and free markets at the other end.

Now we can have a meaningful discussion.

 

[88GT]

What is it you're referring to?

The incessant misrepresentation of reality to make a point. A legitimate point, to be sure, but one that could easily be supported in better ways.

fascism/communism, the further you go from center the more tyranny you get--either Left or Right. Thats why the two party pendulum system = fail. We need a party for the 80% of Americans that aren't socialists in either form.

Not sure what that has to do with my post.

But since you brought it up, it ain't really "Right if it's "Left," is it?

 

[rambone]

The incessant misrepresentation of reality to make a point. A legitimate point, to be sure, but one that could easily be supported in better ways.

Is this about the OP? What did I misrepresent?

Do you think that frisking everyone in public is anything other than a sign of a Police State? There is nothing that would make me ever support suspending the constitution. All the gangbangers in the country won't make me excuse this mayor's actions.

 

[PatriotPride]

I believe we have that in the Libertarian Party. Hasn't got us very far at all. I no longer believe the answer is a third party solution.

I'm a Constitutionalist, and as such, I can see only one viable answer to the problem.

 

[88GT]

Is this about the OP? What did I misrepresent?

Do you think that frisking everyone in public is anything other than a sign of a Police State? There is nothing that would make me ever support suspending the constitution. All the gangbangers in the country won't make me excuse this mayor's actions.

Because it's always all-or-nothing with you. If it's not 100% in line with the Constitution, you treat it like it's Stalin himself come back from the grave to enslave us all to the greatest form of tyranny man can devise. Not everything that looks like tyranny is tyranny. Sometimes it's just pure ignorance.

You see a LEO with a long gun and think gulag guard. You see a politician with gavel and think tyrannical laws.

There's a hysteria to your argument that detracts from you message. Not to mention the same tired line about every last elected representative being just as bad as the guy on his left or right. Frankly, I'm tired of the implication that because I pepper my political philosophy with a large dose of reality and recognize that the "perfect world" scenario you use as a standard is a practical impossibility I'm somehow just as bad as those who really do want to enslave us.

 

[UncleMike]

Because it's always all-or-nothing with you. If it's not 100% in line with the Constitution, you treat it like it's Stalin himself come back from the grave to enslave us all to the greatest form of tyranny man can devise. Not everything that looks like tyranny is tyranny. Sometimes it's just pure ignorance.

You see a LEO with a long gun and think gulag guard. You see a politician with gavel and think tyrannical laws.

There's a hysteria to your argument that detracts from you message. Not to mention the same tired line about every last elected representative being just as bad as the guy on his left or right. Frankly, I'm tired of the implication that because I pepper my political philosophy with a large dose of reality and recognize that the "perfect world" scenario you use as a standard is a practical impossibility I'm somehow just as bad as those who really do want to enslave us.

??????????????????
HOLY !!!
Now I find myself agreeing with you!!!

 

[Benny]

Because it's always all-or-nothing with you. If it's not 100% in line with the Constitution, you treat it like it's Stalin himself come back from the grave to enslave us all to the greatest form of tyranny man can devise. Not everything that looks like tyranny is tyranny. Sometimes it's just pure ignorance.

You see a LEO with a long gun and think gulag guard. You see a politician with gavel and think tyrannical laws.

There's a hysteria to your argument that detracts from you message. Not to mention the same tired line about every last elected representative being just as bad as the guy on his left or right. Frankly, I'm tired of the implication that because I pepper my political philosophy with a large dose of reality and recognize that the "perfect world" scenario you use as a standard is a practical impossibility I'm somehow just as bad as those who really do want to enslave us.

Golf clap!

 

[rambone]

Because it's always all-or-nothing with you. If it's not 100% in line with the Constitution, you treat it like it's Stalin himself come back from the grave to enslave us all to the greatest form of tyranny man can devise. Not everything that looks like tyranny is tyranny. Sometimes it's just pure ignorance.

If we let this story be ignored on page 9 of the local newspaper, the no one knows about it. No public backlash. No elected officials are held to account. No lessons are learned around the country.

I don't remember making an inference on whether the mayor did this out of ignorance or out of Stalinesque tyranny. Either way it should not be excused or ignored. No one else gets a pass for ignorance of the law. A stupid decision like that could have led to a nasty encounter on the streets, or a massive lawsuit on the already strained taxpayers.

...I'm somehow just as bad as those who really do want to enslave us.

Why are you taking this story personally? I know that you aren't Stalin.

 

[88GT]

If we let this story be ignored on page 9 of the local newspaper, the no one knows about it. No public backlash. No elected officials are held to account. No lessons are learned around the country.

I don't remember making an inference on whether the mayor did this out of ignorance or out of Stalinesque tyranny. Either way it should not be excused or ignored. No one else gets a pass for ignorance of the law. A stupid decision like that could have led to a nasty encounter on the streets, or a massive lawsuit on the already strained taxpayers.

You cannot separate this single post with the totality of all of your others. No one is suggesting it be excused or ignored. But the problem as I see it is that if we don't all jump out of seats crying "foul" at the top of lungs, you assume we don't care at all. There is a middle ground. Bad behavior is bad regardless of the reason, but let the punishment fit the crime. Let rational minds prevail, not knee-jerk reactionaries who seem to have no higher motive than grinding an axe. (Not that I think this is you. But you do have a tendency to come across that way.)

Why are you taking this story personally? I know that you aren't Stalin.

Good. My disguise is working.

 

[ryknoll3]

Actually, they can't anymore. That Bill was passed at the same time as last year's Parking Lot law, if I recall...

They can't limit gun sales or possession, but that has nothing to do with Darby. They were empowered to stop-and-frisk anyone they wanted. Maybe they couldn't take away firearms here, but they could harass and impose curfew and frisk and question you.

 

[Benny]

Good. My disguise is working.

I picture you having a much better 'stache than Stalin.

 

[88GT]

I picture you having a much better 'stache than Stalin.

Not so much since I started using this

 

[Awful Waffle]

 

[Bond 281]

Not everything that looks like tyranny is tyranny. Sometimes it's just pure ignorance.

Who says ignorance can't be tyranny? Or good intentions, for that matter. Those are usually the ways we lose our freedoms. If ANYTHING, ignorance and good intentions should be the things we're most rabid about. I don't think that there's some secret group of hand-wringing commies plotting to enslave the masses or anything. I think it's mainly a bunch of people who want to do good, protect people, and are emotionally convinced that curtailing freedom (though they don't think of it that way) is a perfectly justifiable way to do so. To be honest though, it doesn't really matter either way so long as we're being subjected to random searches and seizures, blatantly against the Constitution. Ignorant people are ruining the foundation of this country, and I don't see how excusing it as ignorance is somehow better than simply calling a spade a spade. Truth is, most things ARE all-or-nothing in the sense that they either restrict or expand our freedom, and are either allowed or not by the Constitution. I grant that there are varying degrees of tyranny, but just because it's a small step to it doesn't mean we should constantly say "Well, it's not really a big deal. No reason to fuss about it." Because if we keep doing so, eventually we'll have a tyranny, and our apathy will be our downfall.

[FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ~James Madison, speech, Virginia Convention, 1788

[/FONT][FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. ~Louis D. Brandeis[/FONT]

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. ~ Patrick Henry