[dhomoney]

While not totally related to just the second amendment, this does have an effect. Both my wife and I have notice, especially since 9/11 the slow, but ever increasing speed with which we are losing our country. It seems to me that we are giving our country away bit by bit and allowing more and more infringment of our rights in the name of political correctness and special interest groups.

Two good examples of this are the situation on our border and the Patriot Act. Our federal government has some specific duties to perform per the Constitution and securing our country is one of them, yet everyday the government allows tens of thousands to illegally cross our border with impunity. Once they are here the government does not seem to try and find them and start deportation.

Here in the DC area we have had two illegal alien right rallies full of illegals and not a single INS agent to be found and no arrests made. This to me is appalling and unacceptable. In San Francisco they have given illegals the right to vote locally and this is a growing trend, plus once they have drivers licences they will have legal identification that will allow them to vote. Are there any advantages anymore to United States citizenship? What rights do I have that illegals do not have at this time?

The second instance is the Patriot Act. I have done a lot of reading on this bill and in the Judge Andrew Napolitano's camp on this a being a blatent violation of the fourth, first, and sixth amendments. Right now the FBI can write its own warrents without judicial oversight as required by the forth amendment. They then can conduct the search and if you know about you are bound by law not to disclose this even to your lawyer. Your lawyer can be search with respect to your files and he can not inform you. The same goes for your doctor, banker, or boss. One of the reasons we fought the Revolutionary War was what the British called the Writs of Assistance which allowed the British soldiers to write their own warrrents to search your house. This is not only a violation of the forth, but of the first and sixth amendments.

It is scary to me that of the 100 senators that voted for it only 2 admit to having even read the legislation. More and more our elected officials vote based upon the given name of the bill. It also seems to me in the name of security we are giving up more and more of our freedoms and our liberty. With the insecurity of our borders and ports it is really a false sense of security, with an very little in the way of true security.

I just wanted to throw this out there to get all of your view points on this. Maybe I am wrong, but I do not see it that way, though I am open to being convinced otherwise.

It just scares

 

[FortyFive]

Rant Mode;
I believe a high percentage of Americans feel the way you do, but Americans are pretty much weak meely mouth people who submit readly to what comes down from upon high. They are up to their eyebrows in debt and must work forever just to keep from drowning. Americans send their money to the government who in turn provides government contracts and military aid to support foriegn governments. Political groups at home are organized to insure this gets done. Huge sums of money from foundations controlled by lawyers are provided to groups who are dedicated to fight Christians and our founding fathers vision as to how our country is free under our Constitution.
I don't believe Americans got a chance in hell to demonstrate against the government on issues either at the state or federal level for fear of being shut down or arrested. It works if your an illegal though! It also works if you got the right agenda. Yes I was a little long but I am trying to say many agree with you but turning the beast around is going to be tough.
Rant Mode Over;
:smile:

 

[Fjolnirsson]

Forty Five, you hit the nail on the head. Sometimes it just seems hopeless. I count myself fortunate in that I have gotten myself to a point where my debt is relatively small. My wife and I worked hard, sometimes 3 jobs at a time, and we were able to purchase our home for cash. Times are very hard for us right now, but once our business takes off(which is beginning to happen), we will be able to pay off our creditors(which are old bills, not credit) and we will be totally debt free.
Most Americans will never have this. The only way to win our country back is for Americans to wake up and work hard toward restoring our republic. It can be done, but I am not so sure it will happen. I keep trying, though.

 

[FortyFive]

Fjolnirsson-you made me feel really good with your response. I am very happy for you and others like you trying to avoid the mess some of us may be in, best to you and your wife. If we could look out over a valley after a warm rain and see all the beautiful flowers growing it would represent the Americans struggle to regain their traditions and heritage. We feel alone in the effort to survive and it may get us down at times but then something good happens and its worthwhile.

 

[Fjolnirsson]

FortyFive, check your email.

 

[RSSZ]

I totally agree with you guys in your above posts. How did we let our polititians(both Dem and Rep) take away so many of our rights that our forefathers fought and died for?? What should we do? (I got my flame suit on) Bring all our reserves and Nat'l Guard troops home from a war that we cannot win(right or wrong) and put them on our boarders. Anybody ever been to Guantanomo Bay,Cuba. The (our) base is surrounded with a double,20ft high fence. This fence is topped with several coils of razor wire. In some places the fence is electricified. The whole perimeter has movment sensors installed in the ground. In between the two fences is a mine field. The mines are controled in several different ways. Nobody,and I mean nobody,gets through the perimiter. Every now and then we used to here a loud explosian of a mine being dotonated. The Marines would go out the next AM and pick up what was left. Then they would replace the mine. THAT----is what I say we should do with our boarders. Haven't we all been to a airport lately. What does TSA really do?? The next step is a total strip search. After you have been scrutenized by TSA tell me ----Have the terriorists won?---- I believe that they have. This is just one respectful opinion--I'm sure that there are others.-----

 

[Bumper]

RSSZ, that's exactly what we should do to our borders. Or really what we should have done years ago. The only thing I would do differently is that I would not send our military out to "pick up what was left". Leave the mess there to serve as a reminder of what will happen if they cross.

 

[Prospector]

Ditto....Ditto Ditoo....man the borders....mine the borders. Round up all the illegals and kick em out. Make the entire southern border a big military training range for every type ordnance in our inventory....Practice, Practice, Practice! Will our Govt do it...heck no...can we change it...maybe, but the vote is only weapon in our arsenal and unfortunately, the only candidates seem to be of the like-minded ilk we already have in office....quite frankly, it's a mess and we're being governed by "career politicians"....our founding Fathers did not intend this type of "representation". They were farmers, merchants, soldiers, and educators that volunteered time out of their normal endeavors to "serve"....but only for a limited time....then go back to being the farmer, merchant...etc.

Euc will appreciate this one....the Texas Legislature just voted themselves a hefty increase in retirement pensions and reduced that of Teachers...all in one fell swoop! Now what kind of morons do we have governing us! Nothing but a bunch of self-serving....(fill in the blank) !! :grumpy:

 

[dhomoney]

Yeah I do so love that vote ourselves a raise deal. That is why from a legislative point of view New Hampshire has it best. They are constitutionally bound to a $10 a year payment. They really are citizen legislators.

The other problem is political correctness. PC has done more damage to this country then most people believe. They find it funny, but it is hurting us. When you mix that with career politicians you get even more problems.

Another thing that is fairly recent is the -American trend. Everyone seems to be an African-American, Mexican-American, Irish-American, Italian-American, and various other hyphens. I am an American and nothing else. I do not give a crap where my ancesters were from, I'm from the US. I am pround of being American and greatful the of the sacrifice my ancesters made to this country to defend it. Whatever happened to the pride that came with being an American citizen? Now we all have to be hyphenated Americans. Heaven forbid you could commit the biggest crime of all and dare I say it, OFFEND someone.

I believe we Americans have become weak in our riches and success and if history shows us one thing, when a country or empire becomes more liberal and "fat, dumb, and happy" it is ripe for a downfall. The Greeks slowed this down when they took all the "free thinking" senators to an island and killed them all. That said it does not boad well for us as a nation. I pray to God that the people of this country get off their fat asses and take notice that the country they have neglected his slowly going down the drain.

The scariest part of all of this is that the people are ones letting it happen. People get the governments they deserve. The price of freedom is eternal vigilence, and it is hard for the citizenry to be vigilent when they are to busy watching Fear Factor and Nanny 911.

 

[grnzbra]

Fjolnirsson

I checked out your BLOG and noticed you have Grossman's piece on sheepdogs. It's a very nice analogy and makes everyone feel good. However, what he neglects mentioning is that the sheepdog works for the farmer, not for the sheep. He isn't there to protect the sheep, but rather to protect the farmer's investment in the sheep. He may come to care for the sheep on an emotional level and doing his job and protecting the farmer's investment in the sheep, coincidentally, protects the sheep. But that's just a side benefit.

Meanwhile, the farmer must maintain the sheepdog, which costs money. Let's assume that if the farmer has 10 sheepdogs, the investment in the sheep will be absolutely and totally safe; ain't no wolf getting at those sheep. However, 10 sheepdogs are a negative cash flow while sheep are a renewable resource. The farmer may consider laying off (or if he's just starting out his sheep farm, may never consider hiring) 3 sheepdogs. So instead of 10 sheepdogs, he only has 7, who can protect the flock most of the time. Perhaps he'll only lose 1% of his flock in any year. But new births can make up for that).

But 7 sheepdogs are still a drain, so getting rid of 2 more will save even more money. Somewhere in here, the farmer will do a cost/benefit analysis and determine the opitmum number of sheepdogs vs sheep losses to wolves.

The farmer is happy, and the 5 laid off sheepdogs can possibly take up another career, and the remaining 5 sheepdogs do the best they can and feel very satisfied when the catch a wolf that has been killing sheep.

Meanwhile, most of the sheep feel thankful that the sheepdog is there "protecting" them by catching the wolves that kill the sheep. But some of them begin grow teeth and realize that they would stand a better chance of survival if they used those teeth to defend themselves. (Grossman mentions this in his Bulletproof Mind when he talks about why we are so much safer in the air today than before 9/11)

The farmer, however, realized that if all the sheep grew teeth, they would no longer be sheep, would no longer need his "protection". The sheepdogs also realized that with teeth, the sheep would no longer need their "protection". The farmer, looking at bankruptcy if his sheep went off on their own, and the sheepdogs looking at having to join their bretheren who became used car salesmen both took whatever steps were necessary to to keep the sheep in their state of sheepness. Killing them would be counter productive so they had to convince them that they were, by nature, helpless and stupid and that their only hope for salvation was the benevolance of the farmer and the bravery of the sheepdogs.

So the farmer tells the sheep how he is protecting them by maintaining a sheepdog force, even though he knows perfectly well that he isn't interrested in protecting them but rather in protecting his investment in them. And the sheepdogs willingly go along with this because they belong to an exclusive club of sheepdogs that have certain perks like having teeth. (The farmer has ordered that all sheep must have their teeth pulled "for their own safety"). And together they work to convince the sheep that they are protected when the only thing that is being protected (subject to the cost/benefit analysis) is the farmer's investment.

And some places (usually referred to as People's Republics) the sheep have enthusiastically bought into this. And in some other place, they have not.

 

[Fjolnirsson]

grnzbra,
Hey, thanks for checking out the blog. Grossman's piece isn't perfect, and I have some issues with some of his ideas, as well. However, I have always viewed the "sheepdogs" as including armed citizens other than police. If you limit the term "sheepdogs" to police, your post above fits in perfectly, and I must admit, is a very apt description of things.

As far as those folks concerned about illegal immigration, I'm adding to my signature a link to the grassroots political party I'm involved in. One of our primary planks is immigration control.Some of you might be interested. I've tried to avoid plugging the party, but it seems as though it's relavent to the discussion here.

I'm all for legal immigrants, they make our country stronger, if policy is set up correctly and followed. But I take great offense to my tax money being used to fund benefits for someone who's very existence here is a crime.

 

[Bumper]

Another thing that is fairly recent is the -American trend. Everyone seems to be an African-American, Mexican-American, Irish-American, Italian-American, and various other hyphens. I am an American and nothing else.

I must admit, I am a Disgruntled-American.... :wink:

 

[Prospector]

....Another thing that is fairly recent is the -American trend. Everyone seems to be an African-American, Mexican-American, Irish-American, Italian-American, and various other hyphens. I am an American and nothing else. ......

Been sayin the same thing...totally agree with ya....this country was built on the "blending" of immigrants....becoming "American". As long as we keep these hyphenated descriptors, we'll continue to foster prejudice and bigoty. I do believe this is another "Democrat" tactic to keep the masses "categorized" so they can play (suck up) to the "groups of voters" with promises promises promises....in a sense, it's a form of "slavery" and the Dems want to control them/us.