I pray to God that I'm wrong about this.. But I am to the point where I am VERY afraid sometime between now and November Comrade Obama and his ilk will orchestrate some incident that will cause martial law to be declared, the elections "postponed".. Of course, since the only media other than "Pravda", that doesn't carry the "party-line" being the Internet, It will have to be shut down or severely curtailed.. If this happens, America as we've known it is dead...
I recall people saying the same about Bush, that he would orchestrate something to cancel elections. But I bet that just like them you have no basis in reality of making that statement.
Sure a few systems might crash, but we won't have nuclear weapons launching and power plants exploding
What, you didn't see Live Free or Die Hard? Nuclear weapons need not apply, just knock out power throughout the East Coast.
it's about control. Both sides of the political aisle see the Internet as an uncontrolled medium for freedom of speech, and on both sides there are those that see it as something that must be controlled.
Maybe a few do for short-term outages, but do you understand what is required to keep a generator running for more than a couple of hours?
BS! It was years ago but I used to work in construction and we frequently had generators running all day, and pumps running 24x7. Here's a Honda that "Operates 10 hours @ 50 load (6.6 gal.)". Of course that's a more expensive model so here's a cheap one, EB3000cKAG. It "Operates 9.3 hours @ 50% load (2.7 gal.)"
No they're not. Even when not used those frequencies still are there, all that's been lost is the tyme use of those frequencies.
and power companies have moved to the public networks.
So? Power company gets call from customer about the loss of power so it sends a repair truck out to find out why. The repairman sees tree fell on the power-line, radios it in, then repairs the line. Or say the person needs help, so he or she uses the radio saying another truck is needed then waits. That's how it used to be done and there's nothing to stop it from being done again.
Basically, the way to solve a power outage is to send people out looking for the problem, then swarming around the problem to fix it. It's a rather simple process when cell phones are up... but what do they do when there's not only no power, but no cell phone network too?
It seems to me that the best solution (one that gets the objective outcome you want [terrorists cannot destroy power plants or substations] with the least collateral damage) is to instead pass legislation to prevent the internet being used to control any kind of public utility, or any device attached to the public utility that plays an active role in the use of that public utility. (EG, It is illegal to produce such a remote-controlled automation system. Nothing wrong with it "REPORTING" its current status and power consumption, but once it stops being a report and allows you to shut it down or change the current power mode remotely, it becomes in violation.)
That will not work. What is needed is a smart grid, and that needs remote control. If Excel Energy sees more demand for electricity than what is being generated as with Smart Grid City, then Excel could tell ACs in non occupied homes to turn off reducing demand. Or say I'm in my office and log into my home energy monitor at work and I see the electricity my AC is using is costing me more than what I'm willing to pay then I can raise the thermostat turning the AC off. Then when I finish work I can log back in and lower the temperature again.
Simply by turning the power off in enough houses in an area, an attacker could actually cause physical damage to the power plant.
That's why we can't just dismiss the problem as "unhook the power plants from the internet." In a world that's increasingly hooked to the internet, we can't afford to overlook how the internet-connected components can possibly have an effect on the non-connected components.
Maybe be, but a saboteur can cause as much damage to your system without using the net. Anyone can blow up substations, down poles, or cut cables or fibers. Trees falling on powerlines cause blackouts, now imagine someone causing 10 trees in a 1 mile stretch of powerlines to fall onto those lines. As an example look at the Northeast Blackout of 2003, or the one in 1965.
Hell politics can do the same. California's energy crisis in 2000 and 2001 was caused partially by politics, and not just Enron. CA passed what was called "deregulations" of the energy market but it wasn't deregulations at all, it was reregulations. Some regulations were removed but others added. For instance ownership of power generation was separated from ownership of power distribution, the same company could not generate and distribute power. Then the distributors were barred from raising their prices for energy but not the generators. What traders did was buy electricity from generators in CA then sold that to buyers outside of CA willing to pay more. Because CA distributors could not raise their rates they could not buy electricity and make a profit, so they stopped buying. The Effects of partial deregulation section of the wiki article goes into it more.
That's why we can't just dismiss the problem as "unhook the power plants from the internet." In a world that's increasingly hooked to the internet, we can't afford to overlook how the internet-connected components can possibly have an effect on the non-connected components.
If I can island or disconnect my grid-tied solar PV system but still supply power to my house, and I could if I had one, you should be able to island or disconnect from problem places too. Of course there's more involved, all I need is an intertie inverter that disconnects from the grid but have another inverter connected between the solar panels and the house, but it can be done.
Qwest started unconventionally too. Philip Anschutz owned the Southern Pacific Railroad and he started Qwest by laying fiber along the railroad tracks. Williams Companies, Inc, had a similar start, it's an energy company that owned natural gas pipelines. As it decommissioned pipelines it ran fibers through them.
It then infects a critical system and you lose CPU cycles while it thrashes around trying to get out and time to cleanup the damage. Worst case is targeted espionage where there is a virus waiting to jump the air gap.
All of that can happen without any involvement of the internet. If there's a problem with a critical system there's a bigger problem than the net. Adding links to the net only adds more weak spots.
If the alternative is a 3 hour flight to the nearest qualified surgeon you might be prepared to reconsider.
Hell that sounds like some people's daily commute. While I like the idea of tele-surgery a 3 hour wait is acceptable. What is not acceptable is a wait of days for an important surgery when minutes count.
The EU defines devices that can record 30 minutes or more of continuous video as "camcorders", and subjects them to special taxation. This is the reason for the 29:59 limit on SD.
Stupid laws like this, actually almost all laws, should be stricken from the law books. Here's a good guide on this: Should there be a Law?
I notice your link says that an EU law is why 29 minute, 59 seconds is the limit of the the Panasonic Lumix GH1 for recording there. However it says the rest of the world does not have that limit, so it should not apply elsewhere, like here in the US.
29 seconds? It's more along the lines of 12 minutes, iirc.
That's what I thought I read in early reviews, but a review on photo.net says it can record 12 minutes in HD or 29 minutes, 59 seconds in SD. Being able to record 12 minutes, you should be able to break up scenes into small enough segments to record all of it, so maybe with the right accessories maybe it can be a decent movie camera.
bieber is absolutely right. What makes the Canon 5D Mark II amazing is the large sensor (even larger than 35mm motion picture film), enabling good control of depth of field.
The Mark II only captures 29 seconds of video though. Because of the sensor size, 35mm full-frame, I've thought about getting one. That or a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, but that's more than twice the price of the 5D Mark II.
Not sure why you've written that long post about Israel and the Arabs as a response to this article that talks about India!
I answered as I did because I was asked "Does that apply to the 9/11 terrorists too, or does your statement apply only to anti-India terrorists?" I even included it, and only it, in my post. If you can't understand that, then I don't know what else to say.
Intentional targeting of innocent civilians is inherently at odds with freedom.
Ah, so you agree that those Israelis who took part in bombings and massacres in Palestine, such as Deir Yassin and the Qibya massacre were and are terrorists. Ariel Sharon led the Army unit in the attack against the village where 69 villagers were killed and most houses were blown up. He along with other Israeli leaders was a terrorist.
Fact is is many Zionists, not all Jews are Zionists but there are Christian Zionists as well, want a cleaned Israel for Jews, no non-Jew Arabs. Arabs are accused of wanting to push all Jews into the sea but that's what these Zionists want to do to Muslim Arabs.
Does that apply to the 9/11 terrorists too, or does your statement apply only to anti-India terrorists?
I didn't have those in India on my mind when I said that "One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter." Actually at the tyme I was thinking of Israeli Independence fighters, or terrorists. Irgun, the predecessor to today's Likud political party was even classified as a terrorist group by the new Israeli government after independence. Lehi, commonly called the Stern Gang, split off from Irgun, was another. Not only were these groups fighting the British with such acts as the King David Hotel bombing, but they were also in communications with NAZIs before and during WWII. In 1948 Irgun and Lehi attacked the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin where 107 were massacred. Deir Yassin is still remembered. And guess who was an Irgun leader... Menachem Begin. Ariel Sharon led Israeli troops in the Qibya massacre. Here are more crimes of Ariel Sharon. And here's a list of more massacres in Palestine.
In 1956 David Ben-Gurion said of Arab Palestinians "Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country... There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? They may perhaps forget in one or two generations' time, but for the moment there is no chance. So it is simple: we have to stay strong and maintain a powerful army."
Or maybe it's just protectionism and they want to make things hard for RIM in an effort to develop some home grown alternative.
The problem with this rests with the WTO. If India allows domestic businesses to provide a service it has to allow foreign businesses to provide that service too. We've discussed stuff like this on/. before, how Antigua and Barbados I believe sued the US in the WTO because the US outlawed online casino gambling but some states run their own online gambling. These countries complained that that was against WTO rules.
True but many Indians use Blackberries and they'd be pissed if they could not use them anymore. Others, who have and conduct international business, will find their foreign contacts less willing to do business.
Who are you to impose you particular view of how the world should work on others?
Ah but they can impose their views on you, me, and everyone else? Because that is what it happen if RIM caves in. I don't think RIM will be able to keep my communications secret while allowing someone's communications in India to be monitored and read. I don't have any smartphone but if I had a Blackberry I'd switch to an Android, install encryption software and use webmail. I may even use anonymous proxies or TOR to access the email.
It's not just your taxes, it's mine too, and I'm ok with this. You got your interstate highway system, I got my Ebola cure, just like I always wanted.
You got the interstate highway system too. And I didn't say I didn't want a cure for Ebola. I dare you to point out where I did. No, what I said was I hoped it would not be a corporate give away. Further, what I'd like to see is for the government to open source this treatment. Treatment not cure. That is allow any company who wanted to to manufacture and sell the drug. If not that then have companies who do make and sell it pay a royalty, say 5%. That money can then be put back in the system to fund more research.
I'd say this falls under the 'general welfare' part of the Constitution
Your definition of "general welfare" is different than the USA's Founding Fathers. As Thomas Jefferson, the person who wrote the "Declaration of Independence", said: "[T]he laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They [Congress] are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union. In like manner, they are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose." James Madison referred to the enumerated powers of the federal government and said all other powers not mentioned are denied to the government. In a 1792 letter to Henry Lee who asked if the general welfare clause was a grant of power Jame Madison said "If not only the means but the objects are unlimited, the parchment [the Constitution] should be thrown into the fire at once." Meanwhile the 1828 edition of Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language defines "welfare" as follows:
WELFARE, n. [well and fare, a good going; G. wohlfahrt; D. welvaard; Sw. valfart; Dan. velfærd.]
1. Exemption from misfortune, sickness, calamity or evil; the enjoyment of health and the common blessings of life; prosperity; happiness; applied to persons.
2. Exemption from any unusual evil or calamity; the enjoyment of peace and prosperity, or the ordinary blessings of society and civil government; applies to states.
You're falling into the camp of "governmnet should never spend money to make life better for anyone unless there is profit involved."
Again I dare you to find where I said anything like that. Fact is is I want the government to stay within the limits put on it by the Constitution. However if you want to give the government more power then there is a process to do so, it's called proposing an amendment to the constitution.
Are you honestly telling me that if some group decided that the wiretapping laws Bush made were "going too far" and the decided to start an armed uprising against the president the military would have trouble finding people willing to go and shoot every last one of them dead?
Obviously not. Nobody did that when Bush did order wiretapping. However there was the Waco seige, the Oklahoma City bombing supposedly in response to Waco, and Ruby Ridge. Those were just in the '90s. In the '80s a number of militias sprang up. The Weather Underground began in 1969. Or look at the Senate race in Nevada. The republican candidate is appealing to militia types. Or look at the Tea Party movement. The Jewish ADL or Anti-Defamation League has this on the militia movement in the US. Let's see what the "Telegraph" in the UK says: "
The truth behind America's 'civilian militias' Armed and extremely... patriotic. Why a growing number of Americans are preparing for a war against their government." Along a similar vein Foxnews, the conservative news outlet, has the article Militia Accused of Plotting War on U.S. Gov't.
Just look how quickly rumors are spread, then are corrected on the net, even if they don't die. Look at wikileaks, and all those reports from Afghanistan being released. Today it's foolish to believe the US government can get away with military action against it's own citizens. Hell people still denounce McCarthyism. And while you may not know or recall it yourself there still are people who recall J Edgar Hoover and COINTELPRO. Of course Bush did pretty good at rolling back the checks that were put in place to stop stuff like that again. But just as then people will rise up again to denounce and protest it.
Slashdot Mirror
I pray to God that I'm wrong about this.. But I am to the point where I am VERY afraid sometime between now and November Comrade Obama and his ilk will orchestrate some incident that will cause martial law to be declared, the elections "postponed".. Of course, since the only media other than "Pravda", that doesn't carry the "party-line" being the Internet, It will have to be shut down or severely curtailed.. If this happens, America as we've known it is dead...
I recall people saying the same about Bush, that he would orchestrate something to cancel elections. But I bet that just like them you have no basis in reality of making that statement.
Falcon
Sure a few systems might crash, but we won't have nuclear weapons launching and power plants exploding
What, you didn't see Live Free or Die Hard? Nuclear weapons need not apply, just knock out power throughout the East Coast.
it's about control. Both sides of the political aisle see the Internet as an uncontrolled medium for freedom of speech, and on both sides there are those that see it as something that must be controlled.
Yeap, that's it.
Falcon
Maybe a few do for short-term outages, but do you understand what is required to keep a generator running for more than a couple of hours?
BS! It was years ago but I used to work in construction and we frequently had generators running all day, and pumps running 24x7. Here's a Honda that "Operates 10 hours @ 50 load (6.6 gal.)". Of course that's a more expensive model so here's a cheap one, EB3000cKAG. It "Operates 9.3 hours @ 50% load (2.7 gal.)"
Falcon
Unencrypted radio for private communications is pretty much dead.
Tell that to CB or ham radio operators.
Frequencies are a use-or-lose situation...
No they're not. Even when not used those frequencies still are there, all that's been lost is the tyme use of those frequencies.
and power companies have moved to the public networks.
So? Power company gets call from customer about the loss of power so it sends a repair truck out to find out why. The repairman sees tree fell on the power-line, radios it in, then repairs the line. Or say the person needs help, so he or she uses the radio saying another truck is needed then waits. That's how it used to be done and there's nothing to stop it from being done again.
Basically, the way to solve a power outage is to send people out looking for the problem, then swarming around the problem to fix it. It's a rather simple process when cell phones are up... but what do they do when there's not only no power, but no cell phone network too?
There used to be these things called CB radios, ham radios and walkie-talkies. They all can run off batteries.
Falcon
It seems to me that the best solution (one that gets the objective outcome you want [terrorists cannot destroy power plants or substations] with the least collateral damage) is to instead pass legislation to prevent the internet being used to control any kind of public utility, or any device attached to the public utility that plays an active role in the use of that public utility. (EG, It is illegal to produce such a remote-controlled automation system. Nothing wrong with it "REPORTING" its current status and power consumption, but once it stops being a report and allows you to shut it down or change the current power mode remotely, it becomes in violation.)
That will not work. What is needed is a smart grid, and that needs remote control. If Excel Energy sees more demand for electricity than what is being generated as with Smart Grid City, then Excel could tell ACs in non occupied homes to turn off reducing demand. Or say I'm in my office and log into my home energy monitor at work and I see the electricity my AC is using is costing me more than what I'm willing to pay then I can raise the thermostat turning the AC off. Then when I finish work I can log back in and lower the temperature again.
Falcon
Simply by turning the power off in enough houses in an area, an attacker could actually cause physical damage to the power plant.
That's why we can't just dismiss the problem as "unhook the power plants from the internet." In a world that's increasingly hooked to the internet, we can't afford to overlook how the internet-connected components can possibly have an effect on the non-connected components.
Maybe be, but a saboteur can cause as much damage to your system without using the net. Anyone can blow up substations, down poles, or cut cables or fibers. Trees falling on powerlines cause blackouts, now imagine someone causing 10 trees in a 1 mile stretch of powerlines to fall onto those lines. As an example look at the Northeast Blackout of 2003, or the one in 1965.
Hell politics can do the same. California's energy crisis in 2000 and 2001 was caused partially by politics, and not just Enron. CA passed what was called "deregulations" of the energy market but it wasn't deregulations at all, it was reregulations. Some regulations were removed but others added. For instance ownership of power generation was separated from ownership of power distribution, the same company could not generate and distribute power. Then the distributors were barred from raising their prices for energy but not the generators. What traders did was buy electricity from generators in CA then sold that to buyers outside of CA willing to pay more. Because CA distributors could not raise their rates they could not buy electricity and make a profit, so they stopped buying. The Effects of partial deregulation section of the wiki article goes into it more.
That's why we can't just dismiss the problem as "unhook the power plants from the internet." In a world that's increasingly hooked to the internet, we can't afford to overlook how the internet-connected components can possibly have an effect on the non-connected components.
If I can island or disconnect my grid-tied solar PV system but still supply power to my house, and I could if I had one, you should be able to island or disconnect from problem places too. Of course there's more involved, all I need is an intertie inverter that disconnects from the grid but have another inverter connected between the solar panels and the house, but it can be done.
Falcon
Qwest started unconventionally too. Philip Anschutz owned the Southern Pacific Railroad and he started Qwest by laying fiber along the railroad tracks. Williams Companies, Inc, had a similar start, it's an energy company that owned natural gas pipelines. As it decommissioned pipelines it ran fibers through them.
Falcon
It then infects a critical system and you lose CPU cycles while it thrashes around trying to get out and time to cleanup the damage. Worst case is targeted espionage where there is a virus waiting to jump the air gap.
All of that can happen without any involvement of the internet. If there's a problem with a critical system there's a bigger problem than the net. Adding links to the net only adds more weak spots.
Falcon
If the alternative is a 3 hour flight to the nearest qualified surgeon you might be prepared to reconsider.
Hell that sounds like some people's daily commute. While I like the idea of tele-surgery a 3 hour wait is acceptable. What is not acceptable is a wait of days for an important surgery when minutes count.
Falcon
The EU defines devices that can record 30 minutes or more of continuous video as "camcorders", and subjects them to special taxation. This is the reason for the 29:59 limit on SD.
Stupid laws like this, actually almost all laws, should be stricken from the law books. Here's a good guide on this: Should there be a Law?
I notice your link says that an EU law is why 29 minute, 59 seconds is the limit of the the Panasonic Lumix GH1 for recording there. However it says the rest of the world does not have that limit, so it should not apply elsewhere, like here in the US.
Falcon
29 seconds? It's more along the lines of 12 minutes, iirc.
That's what I thought I read in early reviews, but a review on photo.net says it can record 12 minutes in HD or 29 minutes, 59 seconds in SD. Being able to record 12 minutes, you should be able to break up scenes into small enough segments to record all of it, so maybe with the right accessories maybe it can be a decent movie camera.
Falcon
Really, the only true advantage of a larger sensor is having potentially larger pixels.
It may not matter to you but resolution does matter to some people. Better signal-to-noise ratios is also important to some.
Falcon
bieber is absolutely right. What makes the Canon 5D Mark II amazing is the large sensor (even larger than 35mm motion picture film), enabling good control of depth of field.
The Mark II only captures 29 seconds of video though. Because of the sensor size, 35mm full-frame, I've thought about getting one. That or a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, but that's more than twice the price of the 5D Mark II.
Falcon
It's not like opening a Fab is cheap.
This is one, but not the only, reason why I oppose patents on hardware.
Falcon
Not sure why you've written that long post about Israel and the Arabs as a response to this article that talks about India!
I answered as I did because I was asked "Does that apply to the 9/11 terrorists too, or does your statement apply only to anti-India terrorists?" I even included it, and only it, in my post. If you can't understand that, then I don't know what else to say.
Falcon
Intentional targeting of innocent civilians is inherently at odds with freedom.
Ah, so you agree that those Israelis who took part in bombings and massacres in Palestine, such as Deir Yassin and the Qibya massacre were and are terrorists. Ariel Sharon led the Army unit in the attack against the village where 69 villagers were killed and most houses were blown up. He along with other Israeli leaders was a terrorist.
Fact is is many Zionists, not all Jews are Zionists but there are Christian Zionists as well, want a cleaned Israel for Jews, no non-Jew Arabs. Arabs are accused of wanting to push all Jews into the sea but that's what these Zionists want to do to Muslim Arabs.
Falcon
Does that apply to the 9/11 terrorists too, or does your statement apply only to anti-India terrorists?
I didn't have those in India on my mind when I said that "One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter." Actually at the tyme I was thinking of Israeli Independence fighters, or terrorists. Irgun, the predecessor to today's Likud political party was even classified as a terrorist group by the new Israeli government after independence. Lehi, commonly called the Stern Gang, split off from Irgun, was another. Not only were these groups fighting the British with such acts as the King David Hotel bombing, but they were also in communications with NAZIs before and during WWII. In 1948 Irgun and Lehi attacked the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin where 107 were massacred. Deir Yassin is still remembered. And guess who was an Irgun leader... Menachem Begin. Ariel Sharon led Israeli troops in the Qibya massacre. Here are more crimes of Ariel Sharon. And here's a list of more massacres in Palestine.
In 1956 David Ben-Gurion said of Arab Palestinians "Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country ... There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? They may perhaps forget in one or two generations' time, but for the moment there is no chance. So it is simple: we have to stay strong and maintain a powerful army."
But he wasn't the only Zionist that wanted to expell Arab Palestinians. The Jewish group and magazine "Tikkun", which I read regularly, has the article The Long Path Out Of Denial: Zionism, Heartache, And A New Vision of Israel and Palestine.
Hell Israel even attacked the United States, in attacking and sinking the USS Liberty on 8 June 1967. But don't let reality and facts bother you.
Falcon
Or maybe it's just protectionism and they want to make things hard for RIM in an effort to develop some home grown alternative.
The problem with this rests with the WTO. If India allows domestic businesses to provide a service it has to allow foreign businesses to provide that service too. We've discussed stuff like this on /. before, how Antigua and Barbados I believe sued the US in the WTO because the US outlawed online casino gambling but some states run their own online gambling. These countries complained that that was against WTO rules.
Falcon
provider
True but many Indians use Blackberries and they'd be pissed if they could not use them anymore. Others, who have and conduct international business, will find their foreign contacts less willing to do business.
Falcon
I'm not saying that terrorists are something other than scum.
You might not, but I will say it. One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter.
Falcon
terrorism is such a big actual problem here
Is terrorism the problem or is the problem cowardice?
Falcon
Who are you to impose you particular view of how the world should work on others?
Ah but they can impose their views on you, me, and everyone else? Because that is what it happen if RIM caves in. I don't think RIM will be able to keep my communications secret while allowing someone's communications in India to be monitored and read. I don't have any smartphone but if I had a Blackberry I'd switch to an Android, install encryption software and use webmail. I may even use anonymous proxies or TOR to access the email.
Falcon
It's not just your taxes, it's mine too, and I'm ok with this. You got your interstate highway system, I got my Ebola cure, just like I always wanted.
You got the interstate highway system too. And I didn't say I didn't want a cure for Ebola. I dare you to point out where I did. No, what I said was I hoped it would not be a corporate give away. Further, what I'd like to see is for the government to open source this treatment. Treatment not cure. That is allow any company who wanted to to manufacture and sell the drug. If not that then have companies who do make and sell it pay a royalty, say 5%. That money can then be put back in the system to fund more research.
I'd say this falls under the 'general welfare' part of the Constitution
Your definition of "general welfare" is different than the USA's Founding Fathers. As Thomas Jefferson, the person who wrote the "Declaration of Independence", said: "[T]he laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They [Congress] are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union. In like manner, they are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose." James Madison referred to the enumerated powers of the federal government and said all other powers not mentioned are denied to the government. In a 1792 letter to Henry Lee who asked if the general welfare clause was a grant of power Jame Madison said "If not only the means but the objects are unlimited, the parchment [the Constitution] should be thrown into the fire at once." Meanwhile the 1828 edition of Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language defines "welfare" as follows:
WELFARE, n. [well and fare, a good going; G. wohlfahrt; D. welvaard; Sw. valfart; Dan. velfærd.]
1. Exemption from misfortune, sickness, calamity or evil; the enjoyment of health and the common blessings of life; prosperity; happiness; applied to persons.
2. Exemption from any unusual evil or calamity; the enjoyment of peace and prosperity, or the ordinary blessings of society and civil government; applies to states.
You're falling into the camp of "governmnet should never spend money to make life better for anyone unless there is profit involved."
Again I dare you to find where I said anything like that. Fact is is I want the government to stay within the limits put on it by the Constitution. However if you want to give the government more power then there is a process to do so, it's called proposing an amendment to the constitution.
The rest of the post is just more hogwash.
Falcon
Are you honestly telling me that if some group decided that the wiretapping laws Bush made were "going too far" and the decided to start an armed uprising against the president the military would have trouble finding people willing to go and shoot every last one of them dead?
Obviously not. Nobody did that when Bush did order wiretapping. However there was the Waco seige, the Oklahoma City bombing supposedly in response to Waco, and Ruby Ridge. Those were just in the '90s. In the '80s a number of militias sprang up. The Weather Underground began in 1969. Or look at the Senate race in Nevada. The republican candidate is appealing to militia types. Or look at the Tea Party movement. The Jewish ADL or Anti-Defamation League has this on the militia movement in the US. Let's see what the "Telegraph" in the UK says: " The truth behind America's 'civilian militias' Armed and extremely... patriotic. Why a growing number of Americans are preparing for a war against their government." Along a similar vein Foxnews, the conservative news outlet, has the article Militia Accused of Plotting War on U.S. Gov't.
Just look how quickly rumors are spread, then are corrected on the net, even if they don't die. Look at wikileaks, and all those reports from Afghanistan being released. Today it's foolish to believe the US government can get away with military action against it's own citizens. Hell people still denounce McCarthyism. And while you may not know or recall it yourself there still are people who recall J Edgar Hoover and COINTELPRO. Of course Bush did pretty good at rolling back the checks that were put in place to stop stuff like that again. But just as then people will rise up again to denounce and protest it.
Falcon