We Are The Government

I see all these posts about the government is out of control, the government is taking over, the government etc...

Thing is, we have EXACTLY what we voted for and it's been building since FDR.

WE are the government. The problem is, too few of us take our responsibilities seriously.

Voting is a pain, so we don't vote - or, we let it be done early, so we can make sure we get our naps in. As a result, we end up with a government that is amenable to the activists, not the People.

Jury duty is so inconvenient that we take great pains to get out of it. So, we end up with ignorant jurors who lacked the imagination to get out of serving. Also, too few realize that when they are on a jury, it is not only the defendant who's on trial; the LAW is, too.

When asked what the Constitutional Convention gave to the nation, Ben Franklin is said to have replied, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

Well, maybe we can't. Maybe no one can. As Rome did, the US keeps its citizens in line with Bread and Circuses. Rome fell, we are probably falling. We could stop the fall, but that takes effort and - well, there's American Idol to watch or something neat is on YouTube.

In school, kids are taught that the Constitution is malleable, a "living" document, changing at the whim of society. I know; I was a teacher. They are not taught that it is the LAW.

But, even if they were, so what?

We have too many laws and far too many of what we have address piddling issues. As a result, we go ahead and justify breaking those little laws. By doing so, we train ourselves that the law is something to be broken and we find it far easier to ignore the bigger laws - like the Constitution.

Does anyone think that the laws we have in place today would have passed even a cursory review by the Founding Fathers? I don't think so. I think they would be offended and distressed by what we have done to their gift to us. Although, they had a far different attitude back then. People were, in general, nobler, I believe. The Founding Fathers had no idea what dregs their prodigy would be.

Democracy lasts until the People discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasuries. Then the slide to failure becomes almost unstoppable.

Bread and Circuses. The bane of societies.

Duh - It's Private Property

There is no "right" to free speech in online forums. They are not public venues; the are private. Privately paid for and privately maintained.

'Public' online spaces don't carry speech, rights

Jul 6, 2:17 PM (ET)
By ANICK JESDANUN

NEW YORK (AP) - Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer
generally won't eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or
provocative.

Say it on the Internet, and you'll find that free speech and other
constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed.

For example, in this forum, I can delete, modify or allow anything I please and no one has any recourse - except to not participate. I can not be forced to allow content I do not want.

Others believe companies shouldn't police content at all, and if they do,
they should at least make clearer the rules and the mechanisms for appeal.

"Vagueness does not inspire the confidence of people and leaves room for
gaming the system by outside groups," said Lauren Weinstein, a veteran computer
scientist and Internet activist.

When the rules are clear and the grievance procedures are clear, then people
know what they are working with and they at least have a starting point in
urging changes in those rules."

Companies can police their webspace to any extent they wish and their rules can be as painfully bureaucratic or insipidly vague as they like. They can be, if so desired, totally non-existent. They pay for the space, they can do with it as they please.

The cause of freedom is not served by forcing one group to bow to the rules of another.

Kentucky Lawmaker Would Criminalize Founding Fathers...

...if his bill were around in the 1700s.

State Rep. Tim Crouch of Kentucky wants to criminalize anonymous web-posting.

Yes, this bozo is a Republican, sad to say, though he seems to make a better Nannyist. Gotta save us from online bullies, donchya know?

Had his legislation been around in the late 1700s, it would have sought to criminalize Hamilton, Madison and Jay since they used the psuedonym Publius to write the Federalist Papers.

Alexander Hamilton also had Pacificus, Cattalus, Horatius and Philo Camillus. Newspaper publisher Benjamin Franklin had Silence Dogood, Alice Addertongue, Fanny Mournful, Obadiah Plainman and Busy Body. John Adams had about 25 or so false names that he wrote under, including Populus, An American, A Son of Liberty and the unusual "Vindex the Avenger".

This man would make criminals of the Founding Fathers. If made law, his legislation would be an oppression of liberty, a condemnation of freedom, a government shackle upon the right to free speech.

We do not need such as these in our party. Let him go to more like-minded grounds - the democrats.

No One Is Listening To Us!!

Waaaaahhhh!!

So, we gotta stamp out feet and demand that the government control what everyone hears! Who cares about that First Amendment! Since no one wants to listen to us, we'll have to force them to and make sure that they don't hear what they actualy want!

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REPORT: The Right Wing Domination Of Talk Radio And How To End It

The Center for American Progress and Free Press today released the first-of-its-kind statistical analysis of the political make-up of talk radio in the United States. It confirms that talk radio, one of the most widely used media formats in America, is dominated almost exclusively by conservatives.
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See, this unbiased report explains it all;

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The new report — entitled "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio" — raises serious questions about whether the companies licensed to broadcast over the public radio airwaves are serving the listening needs of all Americans.
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Never mind that this is a thinkprogress report, heck, they have no bias at all!

As an aside, does anyone else find it odd that the Center for American Progress and Free Press is demanding to restrict the free press? Even sadly laughable?