How Much Is Enough, Mr. Gekko?
As I look at the actions of the current Administration, I’m reminded of the scene from the movie “Wall Street” when Charlie Sheen’s character asks corporate raider Gordon Gekko (played wonderfully evilly by Michael Douglas), “how much is enough”? Not enough that we are invloved in a war without end which has cost tens of thousands of lives and vast sums of American treasure, waged on false pretexts, and that it has been used as an excuse by more radical elements of our society to slowly (or not so) dismantle The Constitution. Not enough that the country’s National Debt has skyrocketed to over $8 trillion, while we continue to give tax cuts to the wealthiest individuals. Not enough that what was once considered public is being privatized soley for profit on the pretext of effeciency. Not enough that we now discover our privacy of communication has been compromised. What will it take to impeach these scoundrels? How much is enough?
Dandy said,
May 24, 2006 at 12:55 pm
impeachment is not enough…we need a Revolution of the social “order” and a rejuvenation of our founding principles…it is a complex mix that lulls the decent citizen to an evil sleep during evil times…the only way to overcome these circumstances is to begin to instill the values of free speech in our everyday world…people desparately need to talk to each other in civil discourse…we need to value the gifts of the Bill of Rights enough to break down the social fears that keep so many “in line”…if/when the People realize how used and abused they are by the barbaric elite that now rule and have no conscience for the enormous suffering of a planet, they will rise to find a new governance and throw off the chains of tyranny.(or maybe it’ll just be high gas prices…I’m in awe Humanity…)
Bambi said,
May 24, 2006 at 1:04 pm
Cool! Glad you found the suggestion of using WordPress helpful.
And let’s not forget the National ID “Real ID” … what a joke.
Robert Vamosi (Security Watch) at CNET did an article entitled:
Do we need a national ID card?
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-6529145-1.html
After reading his article, I posted the following comment there:
—snip—
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed ..
Posted by LilBambi – May 22, 2006 9:19 AM PDT
It is really easy to see how this type of thing can go very very wrong .. all one has to do is look to deductive reasoning in science fiction books and film.
Knowledge is Power
Absolute power corrupts absolutely
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. –Benjamin Franklin
These types of things are always made out to be efficient, helpful, protect children, protect citizens from criminals, whatever the current ‘theme’ is. “I know it’s not what we wanted but times have changed and we must change with it.” “It’s mostly good thing, will help citizens, will make one safe.”
Some things truly are so powerful, they can only be used for good or evil. There is no in between.
All one really has to do is consider one thing …
Think about what would happen if, instead of a generally benevolent leader, or at least one who does no real harm to citizen’s rights, freedoms and liberties (which we truly haven’t seen even in the US for a VERY long time – from either political party) … consider this: all it takes is ONE truly ambitious or power hungry person in charge of a country, who deceives the public into thinking they are on their side during elections, and then show their true colors and a disbelieving citizenry finds out their new fearless leader is a person who has no real concern for citizen’s rights, freedoms and liberties … in fact they have every intention of turning a democratic republic into something entirely different with that person in total control.
Many misguided laws can be used without even having to subvert them to make that so much easier as we’ve seen in history in the US and in the world at large.
As just one example, consider the fate of the countries who have disarmed their citizens (with registration as the first step by the way), and where they are now. The information is out there, if you really want to know.
Ask those in countries where they lost their personal freedoms during hostile takeovers by other countries or political leaders … about how the living horror slowly took root with a thousand tiny cuts to their freedoms, rights, liberties.
Now, just think how much easier it is for this to happen, if instead of people being responsible for their own lives, they depend on the government for everything from health care to the verification of their very identity through a national ID of any kind.
Sure, those of us who have been around for ‘more than one dance,’ and who were fortunate enough to have elders or relatives who saw this type of thing in action in the ‘old country’ and originally came to the US or other free countries because they valued freedom. I am not talking about the ones who always talk bad about everything and are eternally pessimistic. I am talking about elders who spoke from their hearts and shared the importance of freedom, liberty and what happens when things go terribly wrong….from experience.
Freedom, rights, liberties must be diligently maintained by its Citizens or they will be lost! These very important things can be killed so easily while people are busy doing other things…they feel so secure in their lives and think there is nothing to really fear.
Just take a look at the laws already in place and how they could all be used so much easier with a required national database. As just an example let’s take for instance the Patriot Act and the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) … now think of someone you know that is truly evil and what they could do with such power … open your mind … think about that!
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
—snip—
And I don’t necessarily think that the current regime is evil, but I do think they are blinded to the dangers they open the Citizenry up to….all in the name of Terrorism (Patriot Act) and protecting what was supposed to be a boon to innovation, copyrights and patents (DMCA and greedy corporations with no concern for anything but their bottom line). Put those two together with the national ID (Real ID) and the attempts at disarming the Citizenry (registration and likely eventual disarming the Citizenry) and well, you can see this is a formula that has worked in the past … then for good measure throw in the fact that the US owes more money to the ‘banks’ than could be paid back in several generations….and I am not really delving hard into the current laws, just picking the low hanging fruit.
Where is that crystal ball when you need it…. oh, nevermind, history works just as well as any crystal ball.
Bambi said,
May 24, 2006 at 1:16 pm
Something to look at for those who might be on the fence about the National ID:
A Chronology of Data Breaches
Reported Since the ChoicePoint Incident
http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm
Bambi said,
May 24, 2006 at 2:34 pm
And don’t forget the Veteran data theft:
http://www.bambismusings.com/?p=396
Lew2006 said,
May 24, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Principlepoop here.
When is enough enough?
Oops, I will have to try and answer later, Britney almost dropped her baby again and I need to look for the video and comment in chats and other blogs about that.
Kurt said,
May 24, 2006 at 11:27 pm
In response to Dandy… Pink Floyd had a wonderful song called “Us And Them”. Don’t go there, lest one of us be one or the other one of us or them or the other
klokwkdog said,
May 25, 2006 at 7:47 am
They’ve got the picture of Principal Poop that used to hang…
They’ve got EVERYBODY’S picture!
ALL power corrupts, but we need electricity. (“Archer’s Goon” by D.W. Jones )
Wait a minute. They lied to us!
Whadda ya mean ‘them’? Name three.
Well…there’s you…and me…and the Pooper…. hey, whose movie IS this?
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Army, the FBI, and the NSA spied on US citizens and lied about it. They keep promising they have stopped and will never do it again. And they always do it again, and the ones who order it are never identified nor punished.
We have reached a “turning point” so many times now in this war that I’m now looking for “the light at the end of the tunnel”, ’cause we sure never saw that one during Vietnam. I think it’s under all those turning points we’ve reached — somewhere — along with that pony.
Let us all hear a yellow lion roar.
The United States is the last, best hope for the world. Abraham Lincoln, to Congress, Dec. 1862. In case you ever wondered where that phrase in Babylon 5 came from.
Our current leader:
ran his military career into the ground
ran his first business into the ground
ran his second business into the ground
ran his third business into the ground
Texas is still standing, but…
and now, he’s trying to run this country into the ground
It might be tolerable if the current administration was actively Malevolent, but it appears they are mostly just incompetent. They know they are incompetent, and they don’t care.
Who wants to be the last soldier to die for a Mistake? — John Kerry
We don’t know who we’re fighting, we don’t know why they are fighting, we don’t know how to win and we don’t know how to get out. It’s pretty clear that nothing we can do will make the situation better, yet we stick around out of fear things will get worse.
Is it too much Dear Friend?
Dandy said,
May 25, 2006 at 2:53 pm
let us bow our heads in awe and reverence to the Oily Grid (holy god), alllmitey…I disagree with Lil Bambi about them guns, though…ideas are what make people act and live bravely and wisely or otherwise…they are the real movers in freedom from tyrrany of all kinds…violence is the sad last resort in human circumstances…the threat of violence doesn’t much engender true Civilization nor is it good for children….
Bambi said,
May 27, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Great thoughts all!
Dandy, It’s not guns themselves that kill people. People can use knives, hammers, bows and arrows, cars, SUVs, bombs, etc. etc. too. We’ve all seen incidents of some of the most horrible things humans can do to one another, even with their bare hands. Sick or violent people will find a way regardless.
The problem lies in the disarming of law-abiding citizens, not in the guns themselves.
—snip—
As the federal government grabs citizens firearms and deploys a virtual standing army of national cops, America’s balance of power is shifting from freedom to tyranny.
—snip—
More from the article:
—snip—
What was the original intent of our founders with regard to firearms? Here’s a sampling of their unambiguous opinions:
* James Madison: “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. A well-regulated Militia, composed of the people trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country.”
* Samuel Adams: “And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.”
* Thomas Paine: “Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property … horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.”
* George Mason: “I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials.”
* George Washington: “Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the people’s liberty teeth. A free people ought to be armed. When firearms go, all goes. We need them every hour.”
* Thomas Jefferson: “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. … The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
* Alexander Hamilton: “The best we can hope for, concerning the people at large, is that they be properly armed.”
—snip—
More in the WorldNetDaily article:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=14319
Each citizen can make that decision for themselves, but they, or the government, do not have the right to make it for other citizens who know it is their Constitutional Right to bear arms.
I do not wish to suggest everyone necessarily buy a book as the reason to give the following link, but if you read the table listed below the ad for the book on the page, it kinda puts my concern into focus:
The Mother of All Stats
The Human Cost of “Gun Control” Ideas
http://www.jpfo.org/deathgc.htm
I do not advocate wanton gun use for violence against other people and in fact, I don’t even own a gun. I have done target shooting (with bottles across a sand pit or other non-inhabited areas), but that’s the extent of it.
It’s government inflicted disarming of citizens that worries me.
Hope that makes my concerns more clear on that particular issue.
Dandy said,
June 1, 2006 at 10:43 pm
…and it’s the governing elite with the most powerful military in the world (have you gotten a gander at the “guns” protecting Los Alamos?…I dunno, 100 rounds a second?) that have usurped the very basis of a free People…that is, in my humble opinion, Powerful Ideas…again, it’s ideas that set people and Nations into motion…and utlimately, that’s where “the church” feeds the beast of tyrrany…it’s “job”? to oppose and destroy any ideas that might free people to a Revolution against that global elite…it isn’t going to work…but it has had a brutal effect on innocents all over the world…my suggestion? send your guns to Venezuela, they could use them…here we might try being audacious enough to talk honestly with our neighbors about serious matters of the State…Free Speech…but somebody’s got to listen, eh? (ah! Canadian!) LOL Bambi… lol Chavez
Bambi said,
June 2, 2006 at 7:10 am
Boy, I hear ya Dandy!