I don't want to plug into "any available computer".
Just because you can, doesn't mean you have to. I personally have always envisioned each employee having his "own" thin client, and only replacing it as necessary. (I used to support a Citrix Winframe installation, so the concept is quite familiar to me.) What I loved about the Sun concept though, was that I wouldn't have to drag my boss or cow-orker into my office to show them the "Cool work-related thing of the week." Instead, I can simply take the card with me to my boss's office. When I get there, I temporarily remove his card and plug mine in. That way we can discuss whatever the issue is, then I can put his card back in and he'll be exactly where he was before I left.
I imagine this would work particularly well in (non-software) engineering diciplines, where the ability to quickly move the model on your screen around the work area is worth its weight in gold.
As was mentioned in the article, laptops can be difficult to use for a full 8 hour day. The keyboard is all wrong, and the screen is always too low. Docking stations take care of that problem (expensive!), but that still doesn't solve a company-wide problem of laptop support. For example, laptops introduce a problem with keeping all files on a shared server (though folder caching can help somewhat), and laptops are prone to breakage which both increases costs and may result in lost data.
One of the more interesting ideas in recent years has been the Sun Ray Station. Tying into the previous article, the idea is that each employee is given a secure SmartCard that contains both his secret login key as well as information on how to make the Ray Station connect with the server. The advantage this has over traditional thin clients is that the user is allowed to roam to any available computer and simply "plug in". As soon as the card is inserted, your desktop is brought up EXACTLY where you left it!
This technology gets even more exciting when you realize that it can be used from remote locations. i.e. If I have a Ray Station at home (quite fesible given their cost), I can simply insert my card into my home station. The station looks at the info on the card, finds the remote server, and logs me in. Zero configuration, instant satisfaction.
Of course, the idea of Ray Stations doesn't help if you need to work from a coffee shop, hotel, or on the plane. (Many planes are adding wireless data points.) For those situations, Tadpole has developed a laptop-like product known as the Comet. It's a complete portable unit, with a large screen, wifi, and exceedingly long battery life. (Up to 8 hours!) Simply plug your card into the laptop when you're near a Wifi point, and BAM, you've got access to your desktop!
Sadly, the Sun Ray Station concept still leaves you high and dry in many different situations. (e.g. On the bus or train.) But the concept is there, and further research and development by Sun combined with more and more Wifi points popping up may very well lead to the perfect solution that both centralizes your data yet gives employees the mobility they need.
a) require you to use numbers only for your ATM PIN
Have a "numbers only" card.
b) require you to use no special symbols (I wince in pain every time I see this one)
Have a "letters and numbers only" card.
c) REQUIRE you to have at least one number, or one upper + one lower case, or one symbol (not every string in the table above has a number, or a symbol, etc)
Pick a good keyword.:-) Actually, this is a minor problem since he seems to have a good distribution of letters, numbers, and special characters. It would be hard to pick a password that wouldn't meet even the most stringent requirements.
Re:Better than post-it notes
on
Too Many Passwords
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· Score: 4, Informative
Just GPG one file full of passwords, and remember your GPG key.
That's more or less what he did. Look again. The table isn't a list of passwords, rather, it's a standard substitution cipher. For each of the letters, he simply looks up the value to produce the password. The scheme is reversable as well, so you can retrieve the keyword from the password.
Re:Better than post-it notes
on
Too Many Passwords
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· Score: 3, Informative
It took me a moment, but I figured out the system. The letters before the dash are the key, the letters to the right are the parts that are used in the password. So for "bank" you have:
b-?p a-E9 n-4$ k-vw
He actually did make it a bit easier to read, but he forgot to use the ecode tags. Try this version:
Re:I know how it feels...
on
Too Many Passwords
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· Score: 3, Insightful
No kidding. Someone should invent a special "web token" of sorts that would keep you logged in. You know, it would be transmitted everytime you access the site. It wouldn't have to be very big, maybe a maximum of 4KB.
You know, I better go patent this idea before someone else thinks of it!:-P
1. Create a torrent search engine with Google Ads (already done) 2. Charge large companies for customized/secure trackers 3. Charge gaming companies for customized BT Clients (e.g. Blizzard)
Put you're mind at ease. It's not your money that the government is spending on rescue efforts, it's the public's money as a whole spent on common defense. If you've got a problem with common defense, then you are free to leave the United States and cease paying taxes. In the meantime, however, there are other taxpayers dying out there. They can be assisted by the better logistical support our military machine can offer, and the public will ensure that they ARE assisted by that better logistical support, no matter how heartless you may be.
Personally, I don't think "blogs" per say will go away, but the "blogging phenomena" certainly will go in much the same way as the "Personal Home Pages" of the late 90's. The *idea* of tools that allow you to quickly publish articles is sound enough, and is something I and many others have used quite a bit in lieu of proper publishing tools. This is a good thing because it speeds the time and reduces the overhead between writing an article and making it available on the 'net. The "blogging phenomena" OTOH, is people who use the tools to talk about their cat or the guy who flipped them off in traffic today. My feeling is that these blogs provide no long-term value and will likely experience decline as more professionally done blogs take over.
You're worried about your money going into a rescue effort? So your opinion is that the people who remained in New Orleans should have been left to die because they made a foolish decision? You, sir, are not only a fool, you're a heartless fool.
You are an amazing fool, Mr. Dada21. But you are a fool who lives in a free country who willingly tolerates your foolishness. We don't throw you in jail for disagreeing, we don't threaten your family, and we don't declare everyone like you to be an enemy of the state. Rather, we suffer you gladly and recognise that your claim to freedom is just as strong as our own. Should anyone try to take away your freedom to speak, or the freedom of anyone else, then you can be sure that others will rise up to protect you whether they agree with you or not.
Did you or did you not just criticize your own government without fear of reprisal. Did you or did you not just advocate against the state without "state interests" coming into play, thus resulting in your arrest. Do you or do you not have the right to take constitutional violations before the Supreme Court. Is the Supreme Court's decisions on Constitutional matters binding? (i.e. Not even the President can overrule.) Do you or do you not have the freedom to own weapons and organize militia? In the case of toltarian rule by the government, do you have the freedom to be sufficiently armed to do battle with your own government?
You don't even know the freedoms you have, much less the ones that the Chinese people lack.
But you have to wonder if there will ever come a time when the blue states and red states (note: I hate this made up seperation with a passion) decide to have a civil war.
That happened once before.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
The union was tested once, there will be no test again. For all our bickering, mud slinging, and baseless accusations (see the post above yours for an example) the "blue" and "red" states as you call them, are committed to our government as it is today. To throw it away when we've come so close to getting it right would be foolish in the extreme. I seriously doubt that anyone feels strongly enough that any mistakes our government has made are worth brothers taking up arms against each other again.
Article 35. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.
Article 36. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state. Religious bodies and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign domination.
Article 37. The freedom of person of citizens of the People's Republic of China is inviolable. No citizen may be arrested except with the approval or by decision of a people's procuratorate or by decision of a people's court, and arrests must be made by a public security organ. Unlawful deprivation or restriction of citizens' freedom of person by detention or other means is prohibited; and unlawful search of the person of citizens is prohibited. Article 38. The personal dignity of citizens of the People's Republic of China is inviolable. Insult, libel, false charge or frame-up directed against citizens by any means is prohibited.
Article 39. The home of citizens of the People's Republic of China is inviolable. Unlawful search of, or intrusion into, a citizen's home is prohibited.
Article 40. The freedom and privacy of correspondence of citizens of the People's Republic of China are protected by law. No organization or individual may, on any ground, infringe upon the freedom and privacy of citizens' correspondence except in cases where, to meet the needs of state security or of investigation into criminal offences, public security or procuratorial organs are permitted to censor correspondence in accordance with procedures prescribed by law.
Article 41. Citizens of the People's Republic of China have the right to criticize and make suggestions to any state organ or functionary. Citizens have the right to make to relevant state organs complaints and charges against, or exposures of, violation of the law or dereliction of duty by any state organ or functionary; but fabrication or distortion of facts with the intention of libel or frame-up is prohibited. In case of complaints, charges or exposures made by citizens, the state organ concerned must deal with them in a responsible manner after ascertaining the facts. No one may suppress such complaints, charges and exposures, or retaliate against the citizens making them. Citizens who have suffered losses through infringement of their civil rights by any state organ or functionary have the right to compensation in accordance with the law.
Sounds nice, doesn't it? Try this one article on for size, though:
Article 51. The exercise by citizens of the People's Republic of China of their freedoms and rights may not infringe upon the interests of the state, of society and of the collective, or upon the lawful freedoms and rights of other citizens.
Note the emphasis, taken from the original document. Nice to have a constitution that doesn't matter to the state, isn't it?
Let me ask you this: When a disaster happens in a foreign country (e.g. The tidal wave that swept across India and other countries in the area) who is on the scene in short order? If you answered, "The US Military", you answered correctly. We actually diverted entire carrier groups to the tidal wave disaster, and spent their resources on providing relieve, food, shelter, and other resources for survival and rebuilding. Our Military was THERE, helping those people as soon as the event happened.
What happened when Katrina hit our own coast? We relied on the far more strained and limited resources of our local aid groups to provide nearly all relieve effort. This created a variety of logistical problems as the local aid groups simply don't have equipment that can get them in and out of difficult areas, or perform air drops of needed supplies.
As I said before, Bush (just like any other President before him) actually wants to help. Our military can provide relief to other countries in short order, so why can't it relive our own? Bush already admitted that it was his responsibility to respond to the Katrina situation, and he has taken full responsibility for the slow response. Now as Commander in Chief, he wants to mobiize the resources at his command to make sure that the relief efforts are not delayed again. I personally see no problem with the concept, only the logistical problems it creates. (Native soil is technically the responsibility of the First Fleet, aka the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard was already mobilized, but lacks the resources of the Navy proper. Moving the other fleets creates a problem in the chain of command, and leaves our other interests unguarded.)
If I'm not mistaken, most of the filtering happens at the Great Firewall and external service provider level. If you're ready to declare independence, there's nothing stopping you from setting up web servers that provide a zip file (encrypted w/free password if necessary) containing the document. You're about to be a target anyway, so you had better be ready to fight.
As in the US: "Right X shall not be abridged" And yes, I know that the government tries to push the line - but here in the US, we the people can push back because the wording is clear, we are in the right.
It's not just the wording, though. If it was just words on paper, they would have been abridged a LONG time ago. What value are words with no backing?
The true value of the words in our Constitution stems from the second amendment and the desire for freedom in the hearts of Americans. If our government should take the path of abolishing our Constitutional rights, then you can be sure that there would be a Constitutionally granted uprising, no matter what the state says.
Some might argue that the government would have the full support of the military, which is far more powerful than regular citizens. Are you certain of that? Our military is composed of men and women who love our freedoms enough to die for them. It has even been organized to ensure that no corruption of the military could reach throughout the entire institution. So should civil war break out, you can be sure that the US People will be well armed, well trained, and ready to fight.
While the lines of freedom have been pushed many times, no US leader in his right mind would attempt to institute a toltarian rule. Not only would he be unlikely to make it past the structures of law that are in place, but it is likely that he would find a bullet in his head in very short order should he push it.
Democrats, Republicans, Libratarians, Greens, and other parties may have their differences, but they all have one thing in common: As difficult as it may be to accept sometimes, they want to improve the United States, not destroy it.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one united people to dissolve the political bands of government which have strangled the rights of the people, 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 dissolution of their government.
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 the Chinese People; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present People's Republic of China [PRC] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the Chinese People. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
The PRC Government has restricted the freedom of speech granted by its own Constitution.
The PRC Government has jailed, tortured, and killed people who believe in organized religion, despite the freedom of religion granted by its own Constitution.
The PRC Government has ordered the death of peaceful protestors despite its own Constitution granting the right to criticize the government in open forum.
The PRC Government has ordered the jailing or execution of individuals whenever the situation suits them, and not according to the due process afforded by the PRC Constitution.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our government. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their leaders and legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the human rights granted by the Constitution. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our desire to disolve the government, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United Chinese People, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this Country, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Chi
Article 36. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state. Religious bodies and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign domination.
But it's okay that they throw these people in jail because...
Article 51. The exercise by citizens of the People's Republic of China of their freedoms and rights may not infringe upon the interests of the state, of society and of the collective, or upon the lawful freedoms and rights of other citizens.
(Emphasis in the original.) So in one article, the "People's" Republic of China says that their entire constitution is subject to the whim of the state. Is that really freedom and personal rights?
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I don't want to plug into "any available computer".
Just because you can, doesn't mean you have to. I personally have always envisioned each employee having his "own" thin client, and only replacing it as necessary. (I used to support a Citrix Winframe installation, so the concept is quite familiar to me.) What I loved about the Sun concept though, was that I wouldn't have to drag my boss or cow-orker into my office to show them the "Cool work-related thing of the week." Instead, I can simply take the card with me to my boss's office. When I get there, I temporarily remove his card and plug mine in. That way we can discuss whatever the issue is, then I can put his card back in and he'll be exactly where he was before I left.
I imagine this would work particularly well in (non-software) engineering diciplines, where the ability to quickly move the model on your screen around the work area is worth its weight in gold.
OR, you could just use a cookie. (Reread the grandparent, and understand.)
As was mentioned in the article, laptops can be difficult to use for a full 8 hour day. The keyboard is all wrong, and the screen is always too low. Docking stations take care of that problem (expensive!), but that still doesn't solve a company-wide problem of laptop support. For example, laptops introduce a problem with keeping all files on a shared server (though folder caching can help somewhat), and laptops are prone to breakage which both increases costs and may result in lost data.
One of the more interesting ideas in recent years has been the Sun Ray Station. Tying into the previous article, the idea is that each employee is given a secure SmartCard that contains both his secret login key as well as information on how to make the Ray Station connect with the server. The advantage this has over traditional thin clients is that the user is allowed to roam to any available computer and simply "plug in". As soon as the card is inserted, your desktop is brought up EXACTLY where you left it!
This technology gets even more exciting when you realize that it can be used from remote locations. i.e. If I have a Ray Station at home (quite fesible given their cost), I can simply insert my card into my home station. The station looks at the info on the card, finds the remote server, and logs me in. Zero configuration, instant satisfaction.
Of course, the idea of Ray Stations doesn't help if you need to work from a coffee shop, hotel, or on the plane. (Many planes are adding wireless data points.) For those situations, Tadpole has developed a laptop-like product known as the Comet. It's a complete portable unit, with a large screen, wifi, and exceedingly long battery life. (Up to 8 hours!) Simply plug your card into the laptop when you're near a Wifi point, and BAM, you've got access to your desktop!
Sadly, the Sun Ray Station concept still leaves you high and dry in many different situations. (e.g. On the bus or train.) But the concept is there, and further research and development by Sun combined with more and more Wifi points popping up may very well lead to the perfect solution that both centralizes your data yet gives employees the mobility they need.
Certainly not insurmountable problems:
:-) Actually, this is a minor problem since he seems to have a good distribution of letters, numbers, and special characters. It would be hard to pick a password that wouldn't meet even the most stringent requirements.
a) require you to use numbers only for your ATM PIN
Have a "numbers only" card.
b) require you to use no special symbols (I wince in pain every time I see this one)
Have a "letters and numbers only" card.
c) REQUIRE you to have at least one number, or one upper + one lower case, or one symbol (not every string in the table above has a number, or a symbol, etc)
Pick a good keyword.
Just GPG one file full of passwords, and remember your GPG key.
That's more or less what he did. Look again. The table isn't a list of passwords, rather, it's a standard substitution cipher. For each of the letters, he simply looks up the value to produce the password. The scheme is reversable as well, so you can retrieve the keyword from the password.
Here's an article on substitution ciphers.
b-?p
a-E9
n-4$
k-vw
He actually did make it a bit easier to read, but he forgot to use the ecode tags. Try this version:
No kidding. Someone should invent a special "web token" of sorts that would keep you logged in. You know, it would be transmitted everytime you access the site. It wouldn't have to be very big, maybe a maximum of 4KB.
:-P
You know, I better go patent this idea before someone else thinks of it!
Possible BitTorrent models:
1. Create a torrent search engine with Google Ads (already done)
2. Charge large companies for customized/secure trackers
3. Charge gaming companies for customized BT Clients (e.g. Blizzard)
Put you're mind at ease. It's not your money that the government is spending on rescue efforts, it's the public's money as a whole spent on common defense. If you've got a problem with common defense, then you are free to leave the United States and cease paying taxes. In the meantime, however, there are other taxpayers dying out there. They can be assisted by the better logistical support our military machine can offer, and the public will ensure that they ARE assisted by that better logistical support, no matter how heartless you may be.
Personally, I don't think "blogs" per say will go away, but the "blogging phenomena" certainly will go in much the same way as the "Personal Home Pages" of the late 90's. The *idea* of tools that allow you to quickly publish articles is sound enough, and is something I and many others have used quite a bit in lieu of proper publishing tools. This is a good thing because it speeds the time and reduces the overhead between writing an article and making it available on the 'net. The "blogging phenomena" OTOH, is people who use the tools to talk about their cat or the guy who flipped them off in traffic today. My feeling is that these blogs provide no long-term value and will likely experience decline as more professionally done blogs take over.
You're worried about your money going into a rescue effort? So your opinion is that the people who remained in New Orleans should have been left to die because they made a foolish decision? You, sir, are not only a fool, you're a heartless fool.
You are an amazing fool, Mr. Dada21. But you are a fool who lives in a free country who willingly tolerates your foolishness. We don't throw you in jail for disagreeing, we don't threaten your family, and we don't declare everyone like you to be an enemy of the state. Rather, we suffer you gladly and recognise that your claim to freedom is just as strong as our own. Should anyone try to take away your freedom to speak, or the freedom of anyone else, then you can be sure that others will rise up to protect you whether they agree with you or not.
Think about that for awhile.
Did you or did you not just criticize your own government without fear of reprisal. Did you or did you not just advocate against the state without "state interests" coming into play, thus resulting in your arrest. Do you or do you not have the right to take constitutional violations before the Supreme Court. Is the Supreme Court's decisions on Constitutional matters binding? (i.e. Not even the President can overrule.) Do you or do you not have the freedom to own weapons and organize militia? In the case of toltarian rule by the government, do you have the freedom to be sufficiently armed to do battle with your own government?
You don't even know the freedoms you have, much less the ones that the Chinese people lack.
Sorry, I almost forgot. The UN is charging China with rights abuse. The government claims that things are getting better, but the testimonies say otherwise.
That happened once before.
The union was tested once, there will be no test again. For all our bickering, mud slinging, and baseless accusations (see the post above yours for an example) the "blue" and "red" states as you call them, are committed to our government as it is today. To throw it away when we've come so close to getting it right would be foolish in the extreme. I seriously doubt that anyone feels strongly enough that any mistakes our government has made are worth brothers taking up arms against each other again.
Some of the more salient articles:
Sounds nice, doesn't it? Try this one article on for size, though:
Note the emphasis, taken from the original document. Nice to have a constitution that doesn't matter to the state, isn't it?
I'm not so sure about that. http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/26/bush.milita ry/
Let me ask you this: When a disaster happens in a foreign country (e.g. The tidal wave that swept across India and other countries in the area) who is on the scene in short order? If you answered, "The US Military", you answered correctly. We actually diverted entire carrier groups to the tidal wave disaster, and spent their resources on providing relieve, food, shelter, and other resources for survival and rebuilding. Our Military was THERE, helping those people as soon as the event happened.
What happened when Katrina hit our own coast? We relied on the far more strained and limited resources of our local aid groups to provide nearly all relieve effort. This created a variety of logistical problems as the local aid groups simply don't have equipment that can get them in and out of difficult areas, or perform air drops of needed supplies.
As I said before, Bush (just like any other President before him) actually wants to help. Our military can provide relief to other countries in short order, so why can't it relive our own? Bush already admitted that it was his responsibility to respond to the Katrina situation, and he has taken full responsibility for the slow response. Now as Commander in Chief, he wants to mobiize the resources at his command to make sure that the relief efforts are not delayed again. I personally see no problem with the concept, only the logistical problems it creates. (Native soil is technically the responsibility of the First Fleet, aka the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard was already mobilized, but lacks the resources of the Navy proper. Moving the other fleets creates a problem in the chain of command, and leaves our other interests unguarded.)
If I'm not mistaken, most of the filtering happens at the Great Firewall and external service provider level. If you're ready to declare independence, there's nothing stopping you from setting up web servers that provide a zip file (encrypted w/free password if necessary) containing the document. You're about to be a target anyway, so you had better be ready to fight.
As in the US: "Right X shall not be abridged" And yes, I know that the government tries to push the line - but here in the US, we the people can push back because the wording is clear, we are in the right.
It's not just the wording, though. If it was just words on paper, they would have been abridged a LONG time ago. What value are words with no backing?
The true value of the words in our Constitution stems from the second amendment and the desire for freedom in the hearts of Americans. If our government should take the path of abolishing our Constitutional rights, then you can be sure that there would be a Constitutionally granted uprising, no matter what the state says.
Some might argue that the government would have the full support of the military, which is far more powerful than regular citizens. Are you certain of that? Our military is composed of men and women who love our freedoms enough to die for them. It has even been organized to ensure that no corruption of the military could reach throughout the entire institution. So should civil war break out, you can be sure that the US People will be well armed, well trained, and ready to fight.
While the lines of freedom have been pushed many times, no US leader in his right mind would attempt to institute a toltarian rule. Not only would he be unlikely to make it past the structures of law that are in place, but it is likely that he would find a bullet in his head in very short order should he push it.
Democrats, Republicans, Libratarians, Greens, and other parties may have their differences, but they all have one thing in common: As difficult as it may be to accept sometimes, they want to improve the United States, not destroy it.
Now take a look at their constitution:
But it's okay that they throw these people in jail because...
(Emphasis in the original.) So in one article, the "People's" Republic of China says that their entire constitution is subject to the whim of the state. Is that really freedom and personal rights?
No.
Wrong millenium there, chief. Ramesses ruled sometime around 1200-1300 B.C. whereas the pyramids were built sometime around 2500 B.C.
Err... #7, not 8. Doh!
That's joke #8: "You believe that there are only 8 planets."