On 12/22/2010 11:11 AM, Darren New wrote:
> The first amendment is really one of the very few that are
> well-protected here. It's stuff like assault, habeus corpus, the
> government accusing your money of a crime and then taking it because it
> can't take the stand in its own defense, locking up people for no
> reason, deporting brown people who were born here because they don't
> speak english, etc etc etc.
>
Unless.. You happen to be living in some place where the people running 
the local state, or town, government are serious about their religion, 
and then it is **only** taken seriously if their own supposed rights are 
abused, not taken seriously when determining whether or not the state 
should promote it (like say, giving millions to a supposed "tourist 
attraction", based on it being "Biblical", or opening with a very 
specific sects prayers, and getting damned offended if someone suggests 
a less narrow version, or FSM forbid, actually open without one), and, 
might even be completely ignored, if your position is that they 
shouldn't be allowed to shove it in your face, because you can't be free 
to practice, if everyone else is free to force their own on you.

Oh, yeah, and, its usually, if only indirectly, in some cases, 
religions, some place, behind most of the other stuff you list (in one 
form or another), including attempted to change, remove, distort, or 
ignore other parts of the constitution. The only minor exception to that 
rule might be some political movements, like the libertarians, which 
don't bother shoehorning religion into everything, but flat out reject 
the idea that their circumstances and opportunities have a damn thing to 
do with their current social status, or wealth, as one poster recently 
stated it, "Pissing on my, and their own ancestors, who where just as 
smart, may have actually **had to** worked harder, but didn't have 
anything close to the resources, opportunities, or luck of being born 
with *any* money at all, in some cases, that all these, 'the free market 
is king, and everyone can succeed, if they just work hard like me!', 
bozos all had."

Frankly, imho, its just another damn religion, and maybe even a far 
stupider one than all those other lame ones that include charity, and 
helping people, someplace in them, even if *that* is usually only to 
ingratiate yourself to the churches, or hoping that you do live forever 
after you die, and being scared to death that it will be just as shitty, 
or worse, than life was, if you don't. It still misses the whole point, 
and even, in the case of groups like the Salvation Army, "Heh, we have 
this great sales pitch to give today, so I don't care of you are cold, 
starving and need to use the bathroom, you have to listen before we will 
even give you a glass of water!", actually completely ass backwards from 
their own supposedly belief systems. Somehow, this new "the market will 
solve it all" religion has opted to reject even basic human society, in 
favor of blaming everyone for everything that happens to them. Struck by 
lightning? Its your fault. House burned down? Your fault. Got born poor, 
in a bad neighborhood? Your fault! Oh, and btw, we should repeal a whole 
bunch of laws, and maybe even muck with the constitution, so I don't 
have to pay taxes, sell working/safe products, or, worse, actually pay 
for someone else's *anything*.

The law and constitution may be holding this country together, but... 
there are a whole hell of a lot of rich, powerful, kooks running around, 
all of which have their own insane ideas about just which parts of those 
laws, and the constitution, they would like to repeal, replace, or be 
granted the right to outright ignore, on a state by state basis. If long 
standing legal tradition didn't support telling them to go fuck 
themselves, Europe's problems would look like a bloody paradise. (And, 
from things I have read, and heard about, that may already be true, if 
you are the wrong color, religion, or tax bracket, in some counties, in 
a few of the states. Not that this is a new thing, just.. not reported 
about until one of the slugs crawls out to run for office, from one of 
them.)

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

<A HREF='http://www.daz3d.com/index.php?refid=16130551'>Get 3D Models, 
3D Content, and 3D Software at DAZ3D!</A>

Post a reply to this message