Slashdot Mirror
Going to Yosemite? Get Your Passport Ready!
rev_media writes to tell us that CNN has a few updates to the Real ID act currently facing legislators. The Real ID acts mandates all states to begin issuing federal IDs to all citizens by 2008. Costs could be as much at $14 billion, but only 40 million are currently allocated. Several states have passed legislation expressly forbidding participation in the program, while others seem to be all for it. The IDs will be required for access to all federal areas including flights, state parks and federal buildings. People in states refusing to comply will need to show passports even for domestic flights.
The U.S.A. is a collapsing empire. bye bye! :) I look forward to hearing about E.U. nations recognizing each state as an independent country.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
The only reason I am posting this is because it is absolutely relevant to the discussion.
Libertas in infinitum
Heil Bush!
My apologies, I am not trying to "spam the thread".
But I am replying to posts with a relevant response to the topic.
Libertas in infinitum
Thanks for your support.
It is interesting how people like to silence dissent, isn't it?
Libertas in infinitum
IN CONGRESS, August 18th, 2007
The unanimous Declaration of the 50 united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. -- Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present President of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in time
Hey KID! Yeah you, get the fuck off my lawn!
The poor fuck themselves over more than the system does in this day and age. Poverty these days is due to piss poor decissions (education dropout, criminal behavior, pregnancy, debt) and a it's not my fault and the world owes me something attitude.
The only way the system fucks over the poor is by putting up with this childish behavior and continuouusly giving them handouts.
The poor don't pay taxes in the US
Yes they do.
You're right, the Federal Income Tax is structured in such a way that "the poor" might actually get money rather than pay.
But they still have to pay sales tax, fuel tax, vehicle excise tax, 9-1-1 tax, etc. etc.
The overall tax burden in the United States is generally regressive; those with lower incomes pay proportionately more in taxes than those with higher incomes. And it's getting more lopsided as time goes on. Just a few years ago (back around the time the oil revenue was going to pay for the war, haha) we did away with the inheritance tax.
I'm surprised you aren't aware of these basic facts.
libertarian: noun,
Person who believes that the only morally justifiable things for the government to meddle in are those things which mainly help the rich keep the poor from taking their stuff, such as police powers and a military. At the same time, the government must not, under any circumstances, do anything that would help all members of society equally or society as a whole.
There are many gray areas. Such as roads, whereas despite the fact that cars are sometimes affordable by the lower classes, most of their maintenance costs comes from large trucks owned by the rich, so that has reluctantly been deemed acceptable. The courts were allowed, after a penalty was called, at the last minute when it was pointed out that, while anyone could use them, only the rich could afford lawyers to win in them.
Things like free or cheap health care that would help everyone? Don't be stupid, that's an absurd socialist idea.
Oddly enough, many people asserting they're libertarians do not appear to understand where the boundaries lines have actually come from, and thus can be trivially tripped up when discussing whether or not something is a libertarian idea, like invading Afghanistan. They do not know the correct question to ask of any government policy: Is it something that mostly benefits the rich, and, if so, how do we state it as some sort of moral principle to fool everyone?
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?