SSB is Toast...

Dark times folks.

Another.

Ahh man I feel bad for all these guys. I don’t live in the US, but Canada’s policies are closely related. I find the squeeze on civil liberties very disturbing. I consider myself very conservative too.

Shame… awful shame.

I may be wrong, but does it not say there that Crnila is a Bosnian citizen living in THAILAND? How exactly can he be convicted of anything when he lives in a place where it is legal?

Excuse me for my lack of knowledge in this area.

If I recall correctly, the only people that are facing real prosecution there are Joshua Phillips (JTP815) and Ray Moss (SAMAR) since they’re not only citizens, but also residing in the States.

Reading these two indictments, do you get the feeling that encrypted email services such as Hushmail and Cyber-Rights ain’t so secure after all?

[quote]jwillow wrote:
Reading these two indictments, do you get the feeling that encrypted email services such as Hushmail and Cyber-Rights ain’t so secure after all?[/quote]

that is a very good point.

shit is gettin REAL HOT right now…lets all keep safe…hopefully if anyone has dealt with anyone that got busted…their names aren’t on any lists…

I haven’t at all read through that whole article so I could be completely wrong. I don’t take steroids, BUT from what all I have read, I don’t really see the problem with them in controlled use any more if not less than cigarettes or alcohol…but, since they ARE illegal still in USA, how can one feel sorry or say that it’s unfair they got caught if they are doing it in America?

As much as you all and myself might feel they SHOULD be okay, they’re still illegal at this point in time, and anyone who breaks a law takes a chance on getting caught. Of course this might have not even happened in America, which would be a part of the not having read it. Either way, I think my point is clear.

[quote]lifter85 wrote:
I haven’t at all read through that whole article so I could be completely wrong. I don’t take steroids, BUT from what all I have read, I don’t really see the problem with them in controlled use any more if not less than cigarettes or alcohol…but, since they ARE illegal still in USA, how can one feel sorry or say that it’s unfair they got caught if they are doing it in America? [/quote]

Well, I first off quite agree with you that they are VERY analogous to cigarettes and alcohol, except with long term beneficial effects. That is one of the very frustrating things to deal with–people feel like they’re being demonized unfairly and that there is no sound logical reason for them to be listed in the same scheduling category as hard narcotics.

They have beneficial effects, a number of medical uses, and a number which are currently being researched. hard drugs have none.

As to how someone can feel sorry for people being caught, I think that’s just as easy to answer–these drugs should not be on the schedule in the first place, in the 2nd place most people using them just want to be STRONG and HEALTHY, in the 3rd place is the blatent political and FBI/DEA grandstanding over something that quite frankly is absurd in the first place,

in the 4th place is the overwhelming thought by most concerned people that the damn agencies have got nothing better to do–child porn, narcotics, violent crime, what, do they just not exist anymore? It gives people a “wag the dog” kind of reaction. Grandstanding about a subject that shouldn’t be big in the first place, and supercession of this topic (steroids) as a ‘public health threat’ over hard narcotics, and violent crime, child porn, etc, etc.

“Oh look at this! We got thousands of people who just wanted to be healthy, muscular and strong! Yay for us!”–Doesn’t sound so good does it? Of course, when you run it through the ‘govn’t spin’ machine, it sounds a lot darker and scarier and takes people’s minds off of how the war on REAL drugs is failing miserably, and there’s just as much exploitation and real threats to children as ever.

I suppose in a grand sense we should all not feel bad for the people that get caught–after all, they did know it was illegal, and they did do it anyway. That’s fair. But what really gets me personally is the crass injustice of the whole picture.

The govn’t and media are demonizing and making laws against a small,mostly HEALTHY, relatively defenseless and lobby-less group over a DAMN GAME (baseball, football) and the Olympics and in the middle of a fat lazy OBESE country.

As a final point, consider this–logically, it’s equivalent (or worse) to making marijuana as bad as crack cocaine. Of course, they don’t do that–can you imagine the outrage? The fundamental and deciding difference is that 1) steroids muddy the “purity” of the games of baseball and football and the Olympics, and 2) steroid users have no political power, or organization whatsoever to defend themselves with.

So you can grandstand without any bad repercussions. /rant

[quote]
As much as you all and myself might feel they SHOULD be okay, they’re still illegal at this point in time, and anyone who breaks a law takes a chance on getting caught. Of course this might have not even happened in America, which would be a part of the not having read it. Either way, I think my point is clear. [/quote]

Well, you’re right about that. You take your chances and you stand or die by them. I understand your point. But you should also understand the other side of the argument. It not that we think it’s unfair that they broke the law and got caught–that’s the way things work and that’s fine. In order to have a working law enforcement system you have to be that way, no matter what. It’s the whole situation I wrote about above.

Yeah, i see your point on it all. the only thing i’ll say though, and i know we could just go round and round with this like a dog chasing his tail, but, what if i considered it stupid that certain speed limits at certain times were still to be obeyed?

I mean hell, if I’m driving down a high way with no one else in sight for miles, and decide to go 100 mph instead of 75 and get pulled over, is it dumb cuz there was nothing harmful going on? I realize all the health effects of it all, and that it’s absolutely retarded for them to be spending so much time on it (except for sports and olympics), but it’s still retarded for people to go about making them in a place where it’s illegal.

Why isnt anyone taking a stand? We have groups of people trying to legalize other drugs, so why not steroids? This is comparable to prohibition, all it takes is for a large group of people to make the government fear them opposed to them fearing the government.

I think it was NWA who said it best. Fuck the po-lice fuck the po-lice fuck em’. We all knew the legal perils of using illicit substances, whether they should be illegal or not. Our government did what all governments do best, screw people over and act like dumbasses.

Our agencies showed just how good they are by opening up vast intelligence nets, collecting insane amounts of information (I’m sure they got a fair share from these boards and will continue to do so), then picked up some key players. Now my question is why can’t/aren’t they concentrate on substances that are detrimental to society?

I think this whole situation would be laughable if it weren’t so pathetic. This is why I vote for SMALLER GOVERNMENT! Welcome to the thought police…

I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older, wiser, or more nostalgic of the days of (as AKBoxer brought up) small government. All I know is that, as early as 2 years ago, I considered myself more-than-moderately conservative.

I was overseas for OIF during the 2004 elections, so my views at that time were extremely bias. I couldn’t recall how many times I referred to liberals as “inconsistent, immoral opportunists” but I can recall the first time I started doubting those of my same political affiliation.

Nowadays, I realize that those same flip-flop wearing, hemp weaving, no-shampoo-using, nappy-goatee-wearing, Starbucks-loving hippies are one of the only things that keep this massive political machine that governs the country from plowing over the basic principles of small government, privacy, and servitude to its citizens.

In the words of a great man: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

I agree, next time we are hit by terrorists, we are going to be given very good reasons to give up more and more of our freedoms.