I?m writing this to vent out my anger and to wake up all the Americans reading this. What the hell is going on in this decreasing free country. We need to stop the out of control government from taking our freedoms away. Example of some of our freedoms that are being threatened: the new supplement bans, the patriot act, the censored of shock jocks (for example Howard Stern) the FCC?s new authority to increase its fines. All this because the government thinks where losing our morals. Who the fuck do they think they our, the politions should not speak about Americas decreasing morals. They need to remember that the government is for the people by the people, yet it seems like the government is for big business by big business! Stand up and fight this strong armed government before its to late! On to a related topic a couple of days ago I was browsing the t-mag forum when I stumbled on to an interesting thread that dealt with Pat Tillman. I was surprised at some of your responses. They were ignorant/stupid instead of intelligent arguments. A columnist in a popular news paper called the daily college in MA authored a very similar article to the one that was on the forum. Instead of some critics voicing reasonable arguments they were threatening the authors very life even trying to silence him. The author has the right to voice his opinion as do all Americans ,yet we do not have the right to shut him up. Are the stupid/ignorant people rally the majority in this country? Its like this everywhere instead of the critics making reasonably arguments the dumb fucks blatant ignorant responses, or try to silence the authors. If we let our freedoms be increasingly taken away were will it stop, will the next freedom that is taken away be the freedom of the press which is already happening with the FCC?s huge fine increases, and the new delay and deletion technology that may be required in the future partly because of Janet Jackson?s breast (its just a breast people, get over it) Hey here?s an idea instead of making women in barest to expose them self?s in public lets encourage it. You may have thought the Janet Jackson thing was disturbing,but you did not die over it did you? You may think Howard Stern is an Ass hole, so don?t listen , refuse to watch his shows. I don?t think we want to see him censored just because he has different opinions then us. If we do, if this is the new America were building, then maybe we have plenty of reason to fear!
Welcome to socialism.
The brother of a friend of mine was at a NY Yankees game this week. He was sitting a few rows behind their dugout and wearing a T-shirt that said “Red Sox Suck.” During the game the security guards came up to him and told him that he either had to turn the shirt inside out or he had to leave the stadium. What the hell is this country coming to?
The Yankees are a private company. There is nothing wrong with them telling the guy to fix his shirt, just like there is nothing wrong with wanting to kick the cartoonist’s ass. As long as the government is not involveed, it’s all good to me.
Boss - First things first, fix your grammar and look into paragraphs. This will make your argument much easier to digest. Furthermore, it is quite ironic when you write like you did and then call others stupid.
First, regarding the FCC. I would bet that the FCC has always had the power to increase its fines. I doubt that Congress has put any restrictions on how they assess their fines. Besides, increased fines are not restrictions on liberty, they are merely heavier punishments for breaking the rules. Your argument would be like saying that increased minimum sentenses would be like taking away the freedom to commit crime.
Second, as for the “freedoms” you were concerned about such as shock jocks and supplements, these are not freedoms at all. First, there is no freedom to use whatever drugs you like. Just as the government can ban cocaine, they can ban other compounds. While I don’t agree with their decision, they are not invading on some type of special freedom. The same thing could be said about shock jocks. While we do have freedom of speech, this is not unlimited. The government is free to regulate certain types of speech, which includes some of the activity of these shock jocks. I also challenge you to articulate out which freedoms are being restricted by the Patriot Act. For as many critics of this Act I’ve heard, I’ve yet to find one who can list out the invasions on freedoms.
Be careful when you say that people do not have the right to shut other people up. For example, I can get you to contract away your rights to free speech and would have the right to enforce that against you. Your job has the right to restrict your speech. This website has the freedom to prevent me from using it. People have all sorts of powers to restrict the speech of others. What they do not have the right to do is to violate criminal law in an effort to shut someone up.
Your concerns over restrictions on freedom of speech are also very overblown. While you may believe that the freedom of speech is being restricted, a survey of history will demonstrate that the government has given much greater latitude to speech as time progresses. Many of the anti-war protesters would have been thrown in jail for what they said if they were marching during the first half of our century.
You also expressed concerns that governmenment is only for big business. This is not true. There are many laws which actually restrict big business (such as anti-trust laws, redistributive tax systems, contract regulations, etc.) and/or give special protections to consumers (strict liabilty regulations, health and safety regulations, regulations on relationships with unions, etc.). One of the very freedoms you were concerned about - restictions on supplements - could be arguably for consumers and anti-big business. If it weren’t for these laws, businesses may be able to give dangerous products to unsuspecting customers. We may not agree with their decision to ban these products, but that does not mean they are pro-big business.
You need to take a deep breath, get your facts straight, and address these arguments in a well thought out manner. You are confusing what the government can do with what it should do. I agree with your overall complaints, but your arguments are weak at best.
Oh good, another political thread. Haven’t seen one of these in a while.
Structuring your text into paragraphs would have been nicer on the eyes. :0)
I have to agree with Cory. Learn to spell.
I am concerned with the puritanic control of media, but then I step back and realize that most people in America are not as open-minded as I am (no flames, I said most). I’ll paraphrase TC’s latest AD; the tighter they squeeze, the more slips through the cracks.
Supplement bans scare me too, but once again, we are part of a sub-culture. Supps are very important to us. To the average fat ass american, supps are “health food”. Plus, if the successfully ban supplements, T-mag can turn into a hardcore gardening mag and teach us all how to grow tribex in our back yards. (or in our closets, so the helicopters can’t see the plants).
Big business. By the people for the people. I am going to use some french here (damn my father… he rubbed off on me). What the fuck do you mean by govt. being for big business and by big business. What is big business? People. If you have a problem with business, stop shopping at Wal-mart, don’t use any banks, and no more gasoline for you. Does that sound like a good idea?
The government is very nice to us in the fact that it limits big business. No monopolies, no excessive price gouging, even new “no-call lists”
Cory089 we’re not in school this is a forum so I did not spell check the above argument.
I?ve always been a pretty lousy speller. Get over it!
Look I have to spell check and write volumes of reports on a daily basis, I did not feel like correcting my errs. You missed the point of my post, which was to vent and get you to think about what is happening.
Lucid- what’s your point? That what Boss complained about is socialism?
You are woefully wrong.
I am not for censorship, however it is a sad day when a man is watching the Super Bowl with his two young children and then out of no where, with no warning Janet Jacksons boob is flopping around. That was simply wrong and because of that there is a backlash going on.
The same problem exists with the Howard Stern show. I know many of you think that his low brow humor is a riot (fart talk lost it’s appeal to me after 5th grade I think). However, you have to make sure that your radio is not on scan when you have your young children in the car. Otherwise, you will be forced into a situation where you have to explain certain words that are simply inappropriate for young children.
I have no problem with any sort of program as long as it is on at a proper time. And it is labeled as “adult entertainment.” There is a time and place for everything. I know that kids can still have access to it by virtue of bad parenting, however if that stuff is not shoved in their face each day at least good parents have a fighting chance of raising their children as they see fit, and not as Hollywood sees fit.
It’s not just Howard Stern either. The same can be said for much of what passes for entertainmet on television. Where are the family viewing choices? Most of it is garbage. Fortunately, we spend little time in front of the TV so that area does not effect us. However, for those who choose to watch I think they deserve a little more respect from the entertainment industry. The answer is not to turn off your TV, shut off your radio, Don’t watch the Super Bowl. And stick your head in the sand.
If it were just my wife and I, I couldn’t care less from a personal standpoint. However, raising kids in our society is difficult enough without all of the profanity on the airwaves.
There will be many who disagree with my post. However, unless you have children of your own try to empathize with my point. Those who have children not all) are far more inclined to agree with me.
Oh right. Its the boob that matters. Its okay to watch the US invade Iraq and get combat footage but holy shit if there is a boob on TV.
“Oh right. Its the boob that matters. Its okay to watch the US invade Iraq and get combat footage but holy shit if there is a boob on TV.”
I wonder where you stand politically (not).
Zeb has a choice whether to expose himself and children to war coverage. He did not have that choice with the superbowl half time…whatever it was–since it was not known ahead of time what would happen.
god forbid anybody has to explain anything to their kids!
also, speaking officially for all the other dumbfucks out there, i would still choke the shit out of that little punk who wrote that article about pat tillman, freedom of speech or not!
Socialism is a form of gov’t. It has nothing to do w/ what BOSS is posting about. He is not criticizing any form of gov’t , he is criticizing recent policy changes. He’s not criticizing democracy. Besides, most socialist countries, or those w/ strong socialist leanings, are democracies. Most of Western Europe for example.
If you’re implying that socialist countries take away more freedoms and civil rights, you are incredibly wrong.
I agree with BOSS. Dont worry everyone, not everyones a goose stepping comrade up here in the little USSR
Great reply JEB, I agree with you completely. Parents should be ably to censer there children. But in today’s world it is a very hard thing to do. I give praise to you for trying in a time when most parents ignore there kids (both parents are working no time for kids). By the way I’m not against democracy in fact I’m all for it, it beats all the other systems in use today. I just think the government is too strong. “Big governments make weak peoples” -Ben Franklin