Okay I have viewed your video links, and damn well don't know exactly what to make of it at the moment I am dumbfounded but will tell you this myself and many others have bled themselves to maintain the sovereignty and freedom of this nation. And anyone who takes that lightly is damn well in for a rude awakening and no swoop of anyone's pen can or will change that. Nor will it dissolve this country into some unknown entity. There are just too many of us who have paid too high a price to see that happen
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BULLS**T!

I'm not forced to believe anything. I bought my motorcycle because that's what I and I alone wanted. No one forced me to buy an Audi, I bought it because that's the car I liked the looks of, that's the car that I wanted. No one forced me to want to live in a nice house either. No one forced me to work hard, so I can put food on the table. No one forced me to WANT to work hard, for that high paying job, so I can afford to modify my bike and afford other luxuries to make my life a little nicer. No one forced me to want to want to wear comfortable clothing that fits properly. And no one forced me to get a high-speed internet connection, I wanted that so when I chewed someone's *** out (like I'm currently doing), I can do it faster without being kicked off.

So, if you want to go around in life, blaming others because you aren't happy because you chose to think that EVERYTHING out there is made to conspire against you, then go ahead......but just remember that THIS COUNTRY allows you to do that. The very thing you believe is a conspiracy against you is what makes it possible for you think of it as a conspiracy. TOO many of you conspiracy theorists misunderstand the point of freedom. There are laws out there prohibiting you from doing things like murder, rape, theft, etc. If you want total, absolute "freedom", then go ahead, but don't make my country into a anarchist, wasteland for you and your "free, do whatever, whenever you want" society.

 

My thoughts:

The big thing I see with society in my short lifetime is lack of accountability. People are so quick to blame the government, George Bush or almost literally anybody, anything, any organization for their own problems and think that they aren't to blame in any way, shape or form. It really gets my blood boiling. Everybody claims to be the victim of someone else's ill-intentions. IMO, anybody who doesn't take accountability for their own actions is a coward and more a child than a man/woman. These people who want to blame someone for fat in foods, hot coffee, missing pants and everybody else under the sun except for their drunken, high son who killed himself in a car accidentare people who should purge themselves from the gene pool if human beings as a species is to survive our own stupidity.

If someone's forced to believe that they need all of these material things and wealth in order to be happy, it's only the weak-minded people who feel the need to "keep up with the Jones'", or who believe every advertisement and commercial that they see or hear.

I used to think that way. I used to think that working long hard hours and bringing home extra money so that I could buy and have the things I wanted would make my wife, son and I happy. It didn't. All it does is make you want more and make you more miserable because you still want that next best thing and don't focus on what you have already.

Family and good friends are some of the most important things in my life. I've actually sat and reminisced about my past and noticed that some of the happiest times of my life were when I barely had enough to "survive". I hadn't a care in the world. I didn't care about what I couldn't have becuase there was no way I could afford it at that time anyway, so why stress about it? People couldn't take money from me (advertisements, etc) because I didn't have any to take. It was liberating.

Society brings about the temptations and wants that we as individuals tend to percieve as needs. Businesses are the ones who say that we need this and that to survive, be hip, trendy and cool. I just keep thinking that we as a species have survived for thousands of years without IPods, cars, computers, WiFi, PlayStations, etc... I can survive the next year, decade or the remainder of my life without them. I have other things that I consider high priority. If I stumble on a good deal and it's something that interests me and I can afford it, sure, I'll get one. I'm not going to stress out that I don't have what Joe Schmoe or Jack Schitt has.

 

How true. But there is a difference between a fair and open society and one where the outcomes are planned and guided. we all want security and the thought that our best interests are the first priority of our government, but if we look at the power (on a small scale)that lobbyists have, it shouldn't be hard to imagine what kind of power secret organizations have. And let us not think that a few 10th degree masons know what is really happening on the grand scale. At their level, they are good people, helping the community, raising money and being what we want in friends and neighbors. But when you get into the high 30s, things change. They are just a piece in the puzzle. The one thing that should have struck a cord in all of us during that video was the pictures flashing by of entertainment like sports. These are there to fill our minds with nonsense so we can't/won't bother with thinking of things like 'why are 12mpg SUVs legal when we know that a certain percentage of oil revenues go to terrorists?' or ' why don't I have to wear a helmet on motorcycle, but I have to pay/wear for air bags and seat belts in a car?' or 'Why does the gov'tforce us have floride in the water, butPepsi is cheaper than bottled water?' or 'why is Smoking legal, but we don't have national healthcare'.

We are slaves to our wants and desires. We have been trained at an early age to be consumers. This desire and need to consume makes us want to be financially successful in a carreer. I am guilty of it, so are most people with 'stuff', but am I happier than my grandfather was before all this stuff was invented? All I know is that when I was a kid, the cartoons were on Saturday morning for 4 hours, there wasn't that much time for marketing and brainwashing and teaching the kids that they need every f**king toy. China was still in the sone age and Japan was still making cheap junk and toys didn't need batteries..

I respect your opinion BMG, it is the opinion of millions of smart people. But I think if you really though about how the world should be, you would maybe start wondering about things a little.

 

Exactly freebie and fish. it starts with each of us making decisions about and for ourselves which when you think about it, is probably the scariest and most difficult thing you could ever do.

As for buying things, like cars, what point is there to having an audi, mustang, ferrari, etc (please don't think i am trying to single anyone out here)? It is most certainly not to get from a to b. it is this "neccesity" to somehow and someway find something to fill up the emptiness that someone has created inside you. the same idea for houses, clothes, food, all those "needs" that if you did not have fulfilled you would somehow be wanting what you needed.

It is just they way society is setup, for us to struggle and never attain what we really need.

Do I think the government is out to get us? I believe whole heartedly that everyone is good (me, you, politicians, terrorists, murderers,etc) and that everyone can change. the problem is so much power is in the hands of so few that people are changed without them even knowing it. which comes back around to thinking and being for ourselves.

I have so many thoughts on this i cannot even make sense of half of them. I am soon to be out of school, and i have begun to think more and more about my life and what it all means.

 

This is awesome. It's cool to see the opinions of people out there. Figured I'd get in the mix a bit.

As someone previously stated, I believe the people who are making the decisions behind who's phone gets tapped are generally decent people, who desire to do good.It isn't some person right off of the streets. At some point this person had to demonstrate and maintain an acceptable moral standard and sense of duty. Yeah, we hear about people going sour, or doing shady things in positions of public duty which tend to shake the confidence of the population. But for the most part, these people hold an honorable standard. My point? I believe that these people still operate on a "probable cause" basis. Do I know for sure, hell no...that's my guess...but I have a hunch that they're not sitting there getting off on my phone sex with my girlfriend, or laughing at someone arguing with someone.

I don't understand why some people think that the Government is maliciously out to get them? I have my theories which I chose to keep to myself.

I also feel that the general population has a way of blowing things out of proportion. For instance, the year 2000 and the Y2K bug anxiety, some people felt that the world would end,etc...you remember the anxiety surrounding that year. Looking back on it now, how much of that do you think was just pure hype, or paranoia? (No I'm not trying to be lofty, I did have anxiety due to Y2K etc) I'm not trying to stray from the topic, I'm trying to demonstrate that a lot of us succomb to panic or paranoia given a situation where there is an unknown. If someone says they're tapping phones for National Security,for some, themind automatically starts wondering and drawing conclusions based on an imagined truth. Do we know the facts behind the procedures for phone tapping? Does the reporter or News channel? Should we know the facts? If everyone knows the facts, would the operation remain effective?

So I guess I'll save you from my friggen blabbering. But, I have a final point: If I don't have the civil right to drive a vehicle on public roads, or the civil right to be accepted to serve in some duty (police, military, fire, etc)...do I have the civil right to use the phone without fear of being overheard or tapped due to a probable cause? Some will say "privacy". Am I afforded the same privacy on a CB radio, HAM radio? Rhetorical or not....just blabbing more or less.

 

Let me clarify. I don't think the government is maliciously out to get me. I do think the people who are in charge in the government value increasing their personal power over protecting my personal freedoms, and many of them are not above stomping on those freedoms in the process. I see no reason to place un-bounded trust in governmental benevalence, especially when no government since the dawn of man has earned it.
I'm not overly worried about what the taps are used for immediately. I'm worried about the ability being abused in the future by people who are less scrupulous (or who think they can get away with more). This is the same reason we have a constitution that lays out rules for our federal government. Ideally, our leaders would not want to break these rules, but their existance is still important to safeguard against future abuses.


The answer is yes. The phone (even a cell phone) is considered a mode of communication in which the parties involved have a reasonable presumtion of confidentiality, just as they would in written, sealed correspondance. This is why warrantless wiretaps have repeatedly been ruled as unconstitutional under the 4th amendment.

CB and HAM radios are different. You are broadcasting without this reasonable presumption, therefore there is no 4th amendment protection.

 

I sure as hell don't want a chip in my body that lets ANYONE know where I am 24/7.
That video is true though. The people of the world will be so scared for their safety that they will turn to the govt and DEMAND protection. The answer: "Oh here, we just finished designing these new Vchips. They will keep us all safe." I think in the Bible this is known as the mark of the beast.
As for me... looks like I need to start upping my gun collection.

 

THE GOVERNMENT MUST BE USING IT ILLEGALLY AND TAKING AWAY YOUR CIVIL LIBERTIES!!!

FYI, Foxnews only reported that they can listen to your cell phone when you're not on it. They never said anything about the government breaking people civil liberties!!!! Itssimply another tool they can use to track/monitor bad people, just like phone tapping.

 

I think some of you are missing the point here. It's not "freedom" if someone can listen to your phone conversations at any time. Even if you're not currently having the conversation, it's not right.
Remember communist Russia and the KGB? People were literally tortured and killed because they simply said stuff that was anti-govt. Patriot Act ring a bell? Don't be so naive as to think this can't happen in the USA.