Authored by: JIMO on Wednesday, May 03 2006 @ 06:25 PM

It's good to sometimes look back and remember that as bad as we might think things are right now w/r/t our freedoms, things used to be a lot worse.

Maybe it's just how you look at it--glass half full, or half empty--but isn't this a bit like saying, "Hey, they used to hang and disembowel people publicly, at least now they only fry them in electric chairs?"

Bottom line for me is they shouldn't have been doing it then, they shouldn't be doing it now.

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There's always gotta be a reason for something.

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Authored by: billsimmon on Wednesday, May 03 2006 @ 06:55 PM

"Hey, they used to hang and disembowel people publicly, at least now they only fry them in electric chairs?"

Yeah, but if you keep the discussion about consitutionally guaranteed rights (there's no sanctified right to not be executed for capital crimes in this country, though there ought to be), I think you'll find the trend is, in fact, a positive one in general. There are bumps in the road, but by and large, more people and groups of people are more free and have better-protected rights than they did in the past. Slaves were freed, women got the right to vote, people really can speak out against the government without going to jail now... I'm willing to bet that within 25 years, gay men and women will be able to get married everywhere in the country. It's an upwards bending curve.

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Authored by: DanZ on Wednesday, May 03 2006 @ 09:56 PM

Except anyone smart enough to master the concepts (i.e., voting, asserting and protecting rights, self-determination, etc.) is also smart enough to use birth control, meaning the mean IQ is descending as a downward curving curve due to all those morons too stupid to not know what's wrong with taking their marching orders from a Kraut, let alone a pollock or a wop. But you're right, billsimmon, "we" now outnumber the army. I'll meet you in City Hall Park tomorrow night. Bring 100,000 armed citizens and ... oh wait, that's against the constitution. Darn. ... well, you know what? If you're a good citizen, I'm sure the government won't do anything that's not in your best interests, whether it's disembowling or putting chloramines in your drinking water.

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Authored by: MarkS on Thursday, May 04 2006 @ 12:56 PM

Actually, I don't think that gay men will be marrying gay women. They generally prefer same sex partners. But, y'know, hopefully, people can pretty much marry whomever they want to in 25 years.

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