“A new Pew poll also finds the same percentage favoring allowing airport personnel to do extra checks on passengers who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent.”
They can suck on my wii…
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 10:44 am and is filed under Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I don’t think those 57% would mind living in a open jail.
That would save the government a lot of money.
I can see that as a little bit of ignorance and also a fairly good thing to do. Many countries in Europe have national identity cards, much like a passport, but required for everyone. It’s the same thing as say, a driver’s license, but on a federal scale. Primary forms of identification can be a good thing depending on what kind of data you are required to submit to receive the ID. For those ignorant people who think it is to document ethnic origin, the can suck on Hawk’s Wii.
Circumstances requiring ID’s is, I think, a medium good indicator that social collapse isn’t too far away. Not that we need any more indicators than we already have of this.
This in addition to all the standard criticisms of keeping to much information about somebody somewhere.
An example of mostly rational reasoning for not wanting such a thing:
Your freedom of speech is actually protected by two things. First, are those glorious pieces of paper that declare (essentially) ‘We won’t lock you up for publicly disagreeing with us, we promise.’ Second, there’s the measure of anonymity one can gather in or before saying something.
National identification would probably make it many times easier to track people. What they do. Where they go. What they say. Maybe not this incarnation of it, but it won’t end there. If you trust the powers-that-be to be responsible with it, it’s really no problem. If you don’t, but don’t mind laying low and doing as you’re told, whatever that might be, also not really a problem. Otherwise…
That’s probably the reasoning some people might have for not wanting a national ID. For myself: it’s not that I don’t care about the subject, but I can live with it just as well as I’ve done without it.
Freedom is Slavery
War is Peace
Ignorance is Strength
BIG BROTHER”S WATCHING YOU.
Yeah the thing they don’t tell you is the number of people they asked!!! In the article they said almost 6-in-10 people want the cards… probably only asked 10 people! Not a real representation of the populace I believe.
They usually ask 1000 people or so for these things… but where’d they ask them? Rural Texas? Alabama? Were they all white? Betting they didn’t ask too many Muslims.
Fantastic, combat stereotypes with more stereotyping. You win.
totally. lol XD
I can guarantee you the sample size was larger than 10. In order for a poll like this to be worth anything statistically, it was probably quite a bit larger than 1000, and probably covered quite a bit of your geography.
In any case, I think it’s telling that more people are okay with something like profiling, which only directly affects or inconveniences a small portion of the populace, but immediately send up the resounding “No!” when it comes to something like blanket monitoring of everyone’s finances and/or communications, or requiring everyone to carry an ID card.
Never mind that the latter is actually fair. Human nature at work, “Discrimination is fine, so long as you don’t discriminate against me.”
Exactly. Sad isn’t it? Profiling is just stupid and a show of ignorance…
Whenever my Dad (your ordinarily white mid-westerner) takes business trips alone, he doesn’t have any trouble - just waits in line, and goes through the X-ray machine. However, whenever he travels with his business partner - who’s family is originally from Iran - they BOTH get immediately pulled out of line for “Random searches” or “Random shoe scans”. This happens far more often than “Randomly” would suggest, despite his partner’s US citizenship and perfect english….
If the US were to institute a “National ID Card”, hopefully it would function like a drivers license, as Stix suggested - that is - simply say “I’m from america”, nothing more or less. Should discrimination become an issue (a real possibility unfortunately), then it would be worse than our system now.
One disagreement I have with Stix, however, is that he used Europe as an example. In Europe, the countries are quite small - Texas is bigger than both France and the UK combined for example, and people travel frequently between them. That’s why bullet trains are common, the EU is around, and national ID cards are very useful and convenient. Comparatively, very few Americans will ever leave the USA apart from one or two vacations, so such a national ID system might not be as effective, desirable, and could be easily viewed/used to promote profiling…
I think Carlos here addresses the issue of profiling the best. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAyP-0hNp64
However, there are those people who don’t have driver’s licenses, or any other form of identification. While many people never leave the US, the national ID system would help in cases of interstate travel. And there are those few who decide never to get a driver’s license. That, and it could also serve as that second form of identification for times where you need multiple forms of ID. It can also be used by national agents when dealing with illegal immigrants. True, it could be forged, but if the agents were to call in an immediate check, the falsitiy would be dscovered immediately. Initiating a national ID system would be cumbersome, but in my opinion, entiely plausible.
I don’t like that second statistic, the one saying that they want to dig through Hawk’s luggage. I think I’m more likely to bring a bokmb onto an airplane then Hawk is, but you don’t see people discriminating against the Scottish do you? No, it’s all gotta be “AH, MUSLIM!” or something like that. I shall now post my favorite quote of all time, “THis countries going to Hell in a handbasket, I blame the media blamers.”
Since when were us Scots likely to bring bombs onto planes -grin.-
Anyway, I think this sort of thing is a load of garbage. People are way to afraid of Muslims, or even people who happen to be of middle eastern origins.
For example, two such people got on my bus once, carrying a bag, and wearing normal clothes. They were talking, in local accents, quite happily about sports, yet almost everyone stared fixedly at the bag. Obviously, they later got off the bus without incident.
Just posting the URL with information about how this survey was lead.
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=1109
That sucks, really it does…stupid morons…
Oh and to add on to that! Yes they can suck on your Wii! They should…stupid surveys…
That’s some big time crap. That’s all I have to say on the matter.
Did you know that during the Aparteid in South Africa the Black population were required to cary Federal ID?
Proof that ignorance is bliss. That 57% would probably answer any concerns with either of these ideas with “Well, if your not doing anything wrong why should you mind?”
I wonder how many of the polled people appeared to be of middle eastern decent?
yeah… only 57% of the people THEY polled. what demographics did they use? just to say adults is very vague. and over the phone? most people will say just about anything to get off the phone and back to dinner.
Me being a Muslim myself, I would have to say that this kind of crap really irks me. I am not middle eastern, I’m bosnian thereby I appear “white” yet when people find out I’m muslim let me tell you the stares I get and the dumb questions I get asked.
As for the people in this poll I agree 100% with Hawk, Suck on my Wiimote.
yeah, and lets not forget that the feds commonly profile people who AREN’T Middle Eastern but LOOK LIKE IT (apparently)…that’s the other major problem profiling, aside from, you know, PROFILING.
Fuckers can all suck on my wii.
I don’t see the difference between a national identity card and a driver’s license/social security card. I don’t think that making us get a national card is good or bad, just a little repetitive and a waste of tax dollars. (I know that there are other reasons for giving out national id cards, like keeping tabs on citizens, but you’d be a fool to think that the government can’t do that already. Just most of the time, they don’t have the inclination to do so. And that won’t change with a new id program.)
Doing background checks on all people of middle eastern decent is wrong and stupid, right up there with pulling over a car just because the driver is Mexican or black.
–kiyote
Identity cards? Sounds familiar to me…star of david anyone? Anyways, I sure hope my neighbours to the south don’t instate such nonsense. If they do, there’s lots of room at my place for the applegeeks crew!
It’ll most likely blow over in a few years. During WWII, anyone who looked either German or Japanese was looked upon with malice, and now it’s all fine.
“anyone who looked either German or Japanese was looked upon with malice”
I think the words you’re looking for are ‘Interned in Concentration Camps’.
Unfortunately that’s not far off from what’s happening now… people who look middle-eastern being held without charge and interrogated… The German/Japanese were fighting a land war. Terrorism is way different because there’s no way to “win” a war on Terror… using carpet bombing and scare tactics aren’t exactly the most diplomatic approaches.
er… dunno if i got it right but you say germans and japanese were interned in concentration camps?!?
Not so much concentration camps but they were locked in camps in most of US.
Concentration Camps by a different name. Interesting historical fact: the first Concentration Camps were used by the British in South Africa during the Boer War.
Yes. They weren’t necessarily treated as badly as the prisoners in Hitler’s concentration camps, and they certinly weren’t subject to wholesale slaughter, but they were rounded up and taken from their homes and placed in large prison camps under armed guard. “Concentrated”, if you will, so that it was easier for the authorities/government to keep an eye on that particular segment of the immigrant population.
To what generation would people be required to have national ID cards? The amount of people that had to get them would be drastically different for immigrants, first, second, and possibly even third or fourth generation Americans. If I am correct in my numbers, third generation Americans would have had their ancestors immigrate between WW1 and the 1920s. I do not believe it is a particularly good idea but it would be good to know how far back people will dig up dirt.
Also, us people in the American South do not particularly appreciate being stereotyped either. Why yes, I have grown up in Louisiana and Alabama. Somehow I have managed to overcome these deficits to become a fairly functional, literate person capable of independent person capable of thoughts beyond “kill the black people” and “Nascar is proof that God (or deity/deities/lack of religious belief and or affiliation) loves us.”
-read the above for a good example of shoving ones foot deep into one’s own mouth.
I am ashamed, sometimes, to be from a country run by a majority comprised of rednecks.
Rednecks are everywhere.
If the definition of redneck is a racist religious fundamentalist that loves pickup-trucks and guns but treats women like dirt, I’d say that there are Rednecks all over the world, First, Third and Non-Aligned.
anyone else here think we need our own “V”?
this is rapidly turning into a variation of the movie. btw hawk you might want to hurry up with your plans for world domination just in case this goes throught. which bring me to my question…need any help??
V is coming. He will not be called V, and you may not recognize him as such at first, but rest assured, he is coming. And I’d like to hear about these plans for world domination.
were the fuck is he/she then??!!
ask hawk only he knows.
“H”
For Hawk
I guess the next step along this step is stopping “Middle Easterners” from owning shops. And then sending them to “holiday camps” in which they partake in “character building” manual labor. OK, so maybe not quite so close to the Nazis, but you see my point.
I’m a Catholic seminarian. We have some Chaldean Catholics (ancient rite of the Church from Iraq) who are studying here (some simply because Iraq is too dangerous) who will be _thrilled_ about that. (Sarcasm)
It is simply not a good way to identify terrorists even if our concern is rightfully Muslim extremists.
Agreed. I just can’t comprehend how anyone can think of scrapping someone’s human rights sheerly on the basis of skin color or religion. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…Freedom of religion my ass!
Next time you thnk we’ve got fredom of religion, try praying ina public school.
You can pray in public school at anytime you like- look at finals week for example. The difference is that the schools cannot lead the prayer.
Always somebody wants to bring that up.
Banning prayer in a public school is the best thing the government can do to protect freedom of religion, because it is showing that the government (as extended in the schooling system) does not favour one religion over another.
Something called the Separation of Church and State, which you might recall is one of the lynchpins of the American Republic you’re so fond of.
Personally speaking, I believe everyone in the world should be fighting for Freedom From Religion, and freedom from the tribal prejudices that masquerade as Religion. Theocracy and Democracy are mutually exclusive, and adherence to Dogma can only lead to stagnation and decline and the failure to adapt to a changing world.
Here Endeth the Sermon.
*sigh* humanity will never learn will they…. it’s due time to leave this sorry excuse for a civilized planet and return home…
All hail the New American 1000 year Empire…. though I doubt it will last longer than perhaps 10-15 more years before a total economic collapse occure…
Hawk they can suck your Wii because of which part? The National ID cards or the Profiling?
both?
I can agree on the fact that the profiling issue ticks alot of people off, it ticks me off and i’m hardly ever the target of of profiling.
But I can’t see the wrong in National ID cards. WHat’s wrong with it when everyone has one?
Where does it resemble the star of david?
Ofcourse it might end up that ethnic looking people are the only ones ever having to show them, but that a profiling issue and has nothing to do with the ID cards.
dude. that’s like…tooootally not cool.
‘Cause, you know, nobody from the U.S. EVER committed a terrorist act on our soil…
Two days after my eighth birthday, half an hour from where I lived. EVERYONE I knew knew someone who died in the OKC bombing, except me. My life is weird like that. *sigh*
You know, if the ID cards do come out, any sufficiently determined terrorists will just find some sympathetic citizens. After the U.S. has wasted yet more money on a pointless piece of paper, of course.
Any body that wan’t to get a job in America any more needs a Social Security Card and Picture ID already. If you want to buy anything with something other than cash, then chances are you need your picture ID. The only difference or advantage their might be in a National ID card is that it theoretically would be in one database. Then again, that is probably already the case with the existing state issued ID. Thus my question would be: What exactlly would internal security gane from the cash outlay that doesn’t already exist? It all seems a pointless expense. It would just be another homeland security boondoggle.
I agree with the idea of national IDs. It just makes sense. However, extra security for anyone because of ethnicity or religion is bullshit. You may be of Muslim descent, but you’re an American. Plain and simple.
I don’t see what’s wrong with National Identity Cards. Probably because I’ve had one since birth, like anybody in my country. I don’t know USA well enough to say if it is good or bad for you. What are you afraid of?
Our Card is not saying anything about ethnicity or religion (since a citizen is a citizen, what would it be good for to say such a thing?).
“extra checks on passengers who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent.” sounds like a stupid idea, because it will make a lot of innocent people feeling bad for a not so obvious result. There is enough security today in airports, you can’t even take a plane with a rounded cissors.
Well, I may sound too simplistic and, besides I’m not an american citizen, I think that if U.S.A sottped messing arround and getting into wars they should not be concerned about, U.S.A could stop worrying about others attacking them.
Me again. I just wanted to punctualize that by what I said before, I mean that not being so worryed about being attacked, would mean no need for ID cards, no need for illegal wires, no need for illegal bank account checking, no need for . . .
As a pilot and an Applegeeks fan, you can get on my plane with no hassle, Hawk.
(At least when I’m flying with an airline, I doubt you want to putz around in a little Cessna everywhere =P)
1,502? Yep, that sounds like the majority of america. >.>
FTW? Really. I just don’t get the majority of people who want to tell you partial truths (AKA lies) to get the desired result. It sickens me.
Yeah, extra id cards would definitely be one of the worst wastes of tax money ever. EVAR. its not like they would rlly change much in our lives, but they wouldnt prevent terroroism either. Also, there’s enough “random” security profiling going on already, people would just be admitting to the fact that its ALREADY happening. Stupid ignorant ppl, they make me feel so smart.
National Identity Cards have never been that big a deal–in my country, everyone who’s over 16 has one. It’s just a card that says where you’re from. That shouldn’t be what people are making a hoo-ha about. It’s like making a hullabaloo about needing a passport to leave the country. They function as ID, proof of age, that’s all.
I read this after seeing the Boston “bomb” scare…after 9/11 I can understand why people are scared.
But that means the terrorists won a long time ago. If your average citizen can’t tell a bomb from an advert, then you end up wasting resources. Frees up the real terrorists and keeps the authorities busy. *hmmmm….*
I posted a link to the article on my Facebook page, hoping other people would see it who don’t necessarilly read the comic. It just makes me ashamed to live in this country to read about stuff like this… How much longer can this kind of blatant bias against a group of people keep getting passed of as “security”? For the record, I’d be in the “Strongly against” category.
Profiling = B.S., The End.
The ID cards in themselves don’t bother me. But the point is that we already have the same thing with drivers liscense and State IDs. It seems the only reason that they would want to do that is to support the profiling - see above.
The problem that I all ways have with these kinds of polls is that they never give you the question that was asked just the results. It is not that difficult to create a question that will give you a bias towards the out come that you want. For example ‘Would you favor a National ID card if it could be proven to shorten airport security waiting times?’ Something like that would easily get more yes answers. Without knowing the question asked it is impossible to know if there is built in bias to the poll.
The states are getting more and more like Nazi Germany. I really hope that most of you guys can see what’s really going on and don’t buy into all of the propaganda, constanly hurled at you by the media. You should watch CBC, BBC or Aljezeera and get some real news. At least Gearge Shrub can’t run again. Nearly all of you guys are good people, I just wish you didn’t buy into all this war on terror, racist bullshit.
well im all for making the world safer, but if its at the significant cost of freedom, whats the point?
and i dont think racism is gonna help the world either.
I don’t think its a racist thing, I don’t know what its like in America but over here in England they are trying to implement the same system and England is very racially diverse. I have friends who are Turkish, Chinese, South African, Finnish, Welsh…I don’t even live in a particularly diverse area of England and I know plenty more people of different denominations and minority groups who I don’t meet on a regular basis.
The reason they want to implement it over here is to help prevent things like identity fraud and illegal immigration.
Its hard to explain but here its not a racial thing, its more a population thing, we’re something like 12 times more crowded then America, 4 times more then France and the figures go on and on. Bare in mind we pay tax 17.5% tax on everything to help people who are unemployed, sick etc and suddenly an influx of illegal immigrants can mess with the system, which is pretty much where we are right now.
Wales has been part of the UK, with not much in the way of independence or even difference, for one hell of a long time (Posted from south Wales)
At least the number in favor is declining from the 2001 poll.
Next they’ll want to put a microchip in your ass…
Bush will always have one foot in the bush… An other’s think Africa’s bad. Jus goes to show how stupid ppl r in 1st World countries to have voted 4 pricks like Bush & Blair. But if Zuma takes over SA (who also has a foot in bush-getting back to the roots! haha!) m off to the moon. I’d rather deal with aliens!
Hey, I didn’t vote for Bush. Of course theres the larger issue, because very few of our generation vote, Bush STILL GOT ELECTED.
I love how the numbers on that poll. All in favor of the ID cards and profiling, but not willing to let their calls and credit cards be monitored. “ID cards, and separate lines for those evil Muslims, but don’t compromise *OUR* freedoms and rights!”
Bush has nothing to do with this; it’s all up to the Senate at this point and it still sounds highly implausible. The Carter and Reagan Administrations and Congress both opposed some sort of National ID Card or universal identifier, and it was likewise rejected during the Clinton Administration.
As for the 57% of Americans who are in favor for it, that just seems awfully suspicious. The wording must have been biased in one way or another to pull that percentage off.
And what the hell would a National ID card do anyway? It’s not like security checks can be used to stop some maniac from chucking a Molotov cocktail in an airport lobby or something (I know that sounds ridiculous, but I’m just saying…).
I could go on an ideological rant right now since I’m a pretty solid libertarian, but I won’t because discussion about politics is not something to bring to the dinner table. And I’m eating a sandwich, so that counts.
The statistics just seem really fishy.
A valid point, but nowadays, nothing shocks me as far as the human thought process anymore. Just look at Fox news.
What’s up with some of you people and tax-dollars. You think you’re gonna get those cards in the mail or something? Eff no, you’ll have to drag your ass over to your local courthouse, give the nice people at the desk about 20 bucks and your mugshot, then wait 3 to 14 days and pick up your brand spanking new piece of plastic. In the end I don’t rule out the possibility that they EARN money on it. Ignoring the fact that the governement makes you pay for something they want you to have, which probably isn’t such a rare occurance (Think drivers licences), what’s the big deal?
ID cards are just like big nametags. It allows the police and whatnot to verify that you are who you claim to be, and it won’t be more of a bother to your everyday life than your freaking buspass or creditcard. It’s not like they’re gonna confront random people asking wether they’re carrying their id with them. You’ll still have to give them a reason to start asking you questions, like it’s always been.
The extra profiling is BS though, I admit. I mean, looking like a redneck doesn’t clear you of being a terrorist. Better yet, with all the profiling of the “different looking” people, any terrist is going to go to the extremes to look like they fit in with regards to skintone, accent and whatnot.
The real question is how much money should be spent to effectively save human lives. Which I think to be a pretty low efficiency percentage in regards to the profiling on airports and the like.
Just my 2 cents.
there are a couple of things:
what’s on the card?, seriously don’t get riled up over another kind of state i.d. type thing, i don’t think putting your religion on it would be too smart though. And i am super-unpoliticaly correct. (i say merry christmas and slap ppl who say “happy holidays”.
2. it would suck if it costed more money
3. muslims have seriously got to stop being offended so much! your not being picked on, in fact your probably being treated better than anyone else!
4. if it saves innocent human lives, i would definately go along with i
what’s mor important, a couple of minutes of paper work or a nuke/bomb/w-e in your hometown?
“3. muslims have seriously got to stop being offended so much! your not being picked on, in fact your probably being treated better than anyone else!”
you got to be fucking kidding me. you seriously have no idea what we’re going through.
We argued with you about what you said on the forums and now you’re just being insulting. We proved to you that you did not know the circumstances. Maybe you should get fucking educated on the topic before you open your trap. Seriously.
“3. muslims have seriously got to stop being offended so much! your not being picked on, in fact your probably being treated better than anyone else!”
Jesus, th3soulreaper, are you serious? That’s a really fucked up thing to say, especially since you’ve got no personal experience whatsoever with which to warrant such a statement.
I try to keep a policy of politeness and civility on this website - otherwise you’d better believe we’d have some choice words.
Oh, my God. th3soulreaper, I think you might need to crawl out from under the rock you’re living in. My Muslim friends are being FRISKED everytime they go through any airport Customs that isn’t in Singapore or an Asian country. If that is being “treated better than anyone else”, then I think we’d all rather be tortured. You’ve no right to say anything like that. I think you owe Hawk and all the Muslims out there an apology.
nationality cards?
There’s a difference in state identification: It’s called a friggin’ driver’s license/I.D card.
Is it anyone’s business what your religion/race is?
Besides Uncle Sam, the only people who should know I’m a proud-negro male and an agnostic are people I fuckin’ tell it to.
Muslims have got to stop being offended? Yeah, like my people should stop bitching about slavery and lacking any form of rights until the late 1960s, right? Or how Jews should stop talking about how horrible the Holocaust was? Or how the Israelis and the Palestinians should stop bitching about the state of Israel/Palestine, because it’s really Christian?
Do you HONESTLY believe that state-administered RACIAL/RELIGIOUS IDENTIFICATION CARDS, provided SAFETY?
As a New Yorker, in the wake of 9/11, when I saw Army soldiers walking around Grand Central Station (still do), I felt at ease…until I saw them packing M-16’s. That didn’t make me feel safe. That made me feel like shit was going down. I went to Continental Airlines Arena for a Jets game, saw NJ Police carrying MP-5’s and M-16s. My first thought? “Shit, there’s a bomb!”
Muslims are being treated better than anyone else? OK, so the racial profiling at airports, and the anti-Muslim sentiment in this country is a good thing? There IS NO GOOD, I just know that anybody with brown skin (which, by the way, most Muslims AREN’T…plenty of people who are Muslim or of Arabic descent are what you would assume to be white)
In closing, think before you post, especially if your views are as bigoted as that.
This is alot like how it was flying into London in the 80s. I had a hard time being Irish American back then. For a while anyone who was Irish or even remotely resembling the irish stereotype was watched and searched.
The other funny thing about these statistics is that they are almost all online now. They are so flawed today because only the people who go looking for the survey actually take it.
As the man said: There are lies, damn lies and statistics.
Funny you should say that.
It was partially because of American Financial Support that the IRA was able to function for so long, the IRA being a Paramilitary Organisation with Political Objectives that behaved in the manner of a Criminal Organisation.
It seems to be that people looking for an identity will often be more extreme in their actions than people born firmly in one.
Hence the British security forces (not to mention the citizens of Liverpool, Manchester and other cities bombed) were none too fond of Americans that identified themselves as Irish (come to think of it, neither were the Irish, Catholic or Protestant; they’re still not).
-Jason Logan (Mother’s Maiden Name: McCarthy)
Sad truth of the matter is, the Unite States of America as we know it today is probably not going to exist all that much longer in relative terms (meaning it could be a couple of years, bureaucracies move slowly you know). It will either get better or it will get worse. Too much pressure for their not to be a change of some sort.
I was talking to my brother the other day and was shocked to learn he doesn’t intend to stick in the U.S. beyond college. His reasoning was “I don’t want to be a citizen of the country that starts World War III.”
The really scary part is when I talked to a few of my other college buddies, alot of them had plans to work abroad too. Sad, my state can’t keep young people fresh out of college in it because of the crappy job market here. What will happen when the U.S. can’t keep their educated young people here because of their political policies?
At least you’re not Australia.
Australia can’t keep their Educated Young People full stop.
The sad thing is it’s probably going to take the next Timothy McVeigh to convince these idiots that you don’t have be a Muslim with dark skin and a weird name to be a terrorist.
Caution is nice, but this overzealous paranoia is ridiculous.
Why, it didn’t convince them before, in fact the whole point of anyone being an extremist was clouded by the conspiracy theorist who took more umbrage at the word ‘Christian’ instead of noticing it only was part of the ‘Christian Identity’, which is a racist organization/movement.
In fact, most portray the bombing that McVeigh was part of, like some do 9/11, as if a faction of the US Government did it and not just a bunch of upjumped, wacked out, fundamentalistic assholes.
It’s easier for the human mind to handle a fairy tale, even a grim one, than it is to handle the reality that sometimes bad things happen in an uncanny fashion.
As someone who lived under a communist dictatorship for many years I find it horrifyingly amusing how some Americans are so willing to give up their rights. I guess it’s true that “You never know what you have until you lose it”
Exactly, I wonder if they’d even realize that it makes all the sacrifice of previous generations meaningless if they just trade it all in for a warm, fuzzy blankie.
“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”
Be it Benjamin Franklin, or as some historians think, Richard Jackson, the above quote is still, in my opinion, apropos.
I cannot speak for anyone else, but when I enlisted in the Marines, it was not to alter the fundamental freedoms that I wanted to defend, nor empower others to do so with a shrug of the shoulder.
It is asinine, at least, and treasonous, at most.
We shouldn’t ethnically profile anyone, ever, at all times, simply to make us feel safer.
There is a difference between an actual threat and looking for those who could fit the profile of the perpetrators, and just picking out ‘the darky’ to make some idiots feel safer.
It is ludicrous. It is ignorant. It is wrong.
Also, for the record, redneck usually refers to the sun darkened neck of a field worker, or farmer, or anyone who works a hard, sweating days work of body damaging manual labor - I.E. the blue collar man, or woman, who is the foundation of any country.
I come from rednecks, don’t lump us in with ignorant racists, it’s bad enough that since I’m living in Idaho right now people do it anyhow.
Stereotyping is wrong, no matter who it’s aimed at.
*Sighs*
First off, Lemme say that this rant isn’t really targetted at Hawk, but to everyone this rant applies to. You know who you are. Further more, flame me if you wish, but before you do understand that I ask you to do nothing more but use what’s between your ears in a constructive manner. What I provide here, along with incisive commentary, is nothing more than the inescapable truth.
That said, let me state the obvious by saying that a lot of you people annoy me.
Please allow me to elaborate. I see a lot of “OMFG!!! THIS COUNTRY IS TRYING TO WATCH EVERY MOVE I MAKE! THEY’RE TRYING TO PROFILE ME BECAUSE I’M MUSLEM!” (Sorry guys, I know it happens, but this, I hope, will not be such a case. More on that later.) I know this is a generalization, but if you look through a lot of the previous comments you’ll find it’s not an innacurate one. That said, for the love of whatever deity you worship, GROW UP.
Granted, this country has adopted certain policies that I would like to see shoved up the asses of those responsible for them. However, that doesn’t mean that I react badly to every change that is proposed in how we govern ourselves. Last time I checked, this is still a democratic country no matter what all of you may think. If you’re not happy about something, quit whining about