Protect Your Rights!
cn | 28 June, 2006 21:39
There's some excellent info at flexyourrights.org regarding how to uphold your rights as a US citizen during encounters with police in a number of circumstances, including getting pulled over in your car. It's well worth a read and is very clear on the many tactics police use to coerce people into situations that they need not be in. The site is here.
Another great bit of info is at the ACLU site where you can download a number pamphlets that describe your rights when pulled over. Find 'em here.
Thanks to boingboing.net for the point.
Posted in Ethics, Politics . Comment: (0). Trackbacks:(0). Permalink
The UN - Right Idea, Misguided Approach
cn | 26 June, 2006 14:52
Today BBC News online had a story about a UN conference on small weapons where the participants claimed to be aiming to 'tackle the global spread of small arms.' A noble aim, yet perhaps an impotent approach. From the story:
The UN secretary-general has spoken of the "mass destruction" caused by small weapons, at a conference looking at ways to restrict their use.
Kofi Annan said the proliferation of light weapons such as machine guns had spawned a "culture of violence".
He was speaking at a UN conference in New York which is considering ways to tackle the global spread of small arms.
Anti-gun campaigners presented him with a petition calling for tighter controls on the trade in such weapons.
It's all well and good to want to restrict the use and availability of weapons in general, but when one considers the billions of dollars spent in failing attempts to suppress 'illegal' distribution of weapons compared to the pittance spent on figuring out why it is so important for so many people to have guns and kill people and shifting the beliefs of world civilization in general to a less violent place, one must wonder what the real intent is of those attending such conferences, seminars, etc. If people want guns and guns still exist, they will find a way to get guns...or knives or bombs or clubs or sticks or arrows or whatever they can get their hands on to do the deeds they wish to do. If the people don't change, the problem doesn't change.
The article closes with a peach of a quote from the U.S. ambassador:
"We don't see any need for treaties or agreements coming out of this," he said.
Great...so why then did the conference take place? And how much did we spend in NYC to put on this conference? And how will we know that anything actually happened there? Food for thought, I suppose...
Posted in Ethics, Politics . Comment: (0). Trackbacks:(0). Permalink
The American Police State
cn | 23 June, 2006 20:39
From AlterNet.org we have the Top 10 Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State!!! It's a good list and head over to the site for the even better longer descriptions.
1. The Internet Clampdown
2. "The Long War"
3. The USA PATRIOT Act
4. Prison Camps
5. Touchscreen Voting Machines
6. Signing Statements
7. Warrantless Wiretapping
8. Free Speech Zones
9. High-ranking Whistleblowersx
10. The CIA Shakeup
Posted in Ecology . Comment: (0). Trackbacks:(0). Permalink
A Conversation
cn | 22 June, 2006 22:03
I recently spent some time with a couple of friends of mine who I haven't seen for about two years. Both of these friends are very intelligent, well-educated, and what I would term 'good people', for lack of a more precise word at the moment.
We ended up in a discussion about freedom and taxes, for some reason and in the course of the conversation I recognized that they had a fundamental belief that though freedom and liberty are important, they are at best an aesthetic value of convenience. The issue - conflict, really - that grew out of the conversation was whether a flat tax or consumption tax would be a better taxation system than the current debacle...Yet the content of the discussion is really irrelevant because their ideas about this topic was representative of their broader ideas.
In essence, no matter what angle or argument I pursued, they could not even conceptualize the idea that increased income does not make one more responsible for another's welfare.
Though I would very much enjoy expanding upon this, I shall not at the moment. However, I believe this to be a fundamental issue throughout America which is very much opposes the basic premises put forth by those who wrote out the documents that shaped the country - the current idea seeming to be that if one succeeds, strives to be better or more accomplished, they are then must be more restricted by the State and carry a heavier burden than those who ride their in their wake...
Posted in Philosophy, Politics . Comment: (0). Trackbacks:(0). Permalink