German was proposed as the offical language of the US in the 1700s. If I recall right German, Dutch really, barely lost being the official language in Pennsylvania, ie "Pennsylvania Dutch". About the same tyme Benjamen Franklin proposed a law barring Germans from immigrating to the USA.
I would prefer to have one digital pad which contained all my personal information, including money and tax information, so I do not have to carry a cash card, credit card, health card, library card, bus & metro card and money with me all the time.
That shoud be your choice, not a government requirement.
As for Europe, legal drinking age is 18 in many places, prostitution is illegal but "tolerated"
Maybe not all but some European countries have redlight districts with legal prostitution. I recall when I was in Germany they even had magazines listing prostitutes and how you can contact them to setup an appointment.
Our government wouldn't really need those passports
Passports aren't really for the nation that issues them but are for any country that requires them for a foreigner to enter. US citizens don't need passports to go to Canada or Mexico, but to go to Europe one is needed, European countries demand one for entry. So passports aren't used in the US like the internal passports the Soviet Union used to require.
Id theft/forgery would be a federal homeland sec. crime. We could do this and it would would work for the war on terror.
BS, there is not one valid reason a national id will work against terrorism. Not ony will it not work but it will actually make it easier for terrorists, a national id is one long chain and a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. This could be employees, it could be how the system works, or it could be the software, db used.
You would think that using and developing open source software and homebrewing would have a harmonic resonace; and/. would be crawling with homebrewers.
I agree, OOSers and homebrewers seem a natural fit. I have come across a few on/. who homebrew. Some have posted links to homebrew software, something I hadn't thought of before. Keeping a log of brewing is one thing but the homebrew software does much more than that. I may install some to try out. However I first need to make some space where I can setup my equipment, the apartment I live in now is small and filled with clutter.
Every law, or resolution having the force of law, shall relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.
That would make a nice ammendment to our Constitution, wouldn't it?
It would indeed. Congress would never go for it, but luckily, they don't have to. If thirty-three states go for it, it's a proposed amendment, with or without Congress' blessing.
Unfortunately I'd bet the same thing happens in almost all states of the union.
Its a good sign of the state of affairs in this country when we are expecting the Dems to restrict the power of the government. Are we in the Twilight Zone? Republicans/Democrats are NOT what they used to be. Me? I'm a fiscal conservative and a social liberal and like a small federal government. What the hell am I?
If you're fiscally conservative and socially liberal then you're Libertarian. Though Democrats are somewhat socially liberal, neither they nor Republicans are fiscally conservative. The Republicans twice ran up the biggest budget deficits and in between the two tymes Democrats ran up the biggest budget surplus. Democrats and Republicans who occupies the White House that is.
An article in The Advocate [advocate.com] (NSFW, suggestive ads, exposed flesh, no dangly bits though) from a trans woman covers some of the problems with the current, fractured ID system and touches on how Real ID may make things even worse.
And what of intersexuals? For those who have never heard of them or don't know what they are, intersexuals are born neither male nor female or are both.
I fail to see how the average law-abiding citizen's rights are threatened by an ID card that could potentially tell the federal government information about activities that violate no law. If you're worried that any illegal activities might be exposed by these cards, well...
And you know, I bet a week of dumpster diving your trash would tell someone a lot more potentially harmful things about your habits than an ID card would, just as handing your credit card to the waitor is much less secure and easier to take advantage of than low-grade encryption on a shopping website.
Nope, what financial records I get I either file away if I'm going to keep it, or if I don't keep it, mostly credit card offers, I either shred or burn. Most of the tyme I don't even toss out receipts when I pay with cash, which I try to use most if not all the tyme, unless I shred it first.
You keep mentioning this East Timor, I never really paid to much attention to it because I didn't think the US was involved in it outside of not protesting it. You seem fixated on it so I brushed up a littlw and it seems that I'm once again correct. Wikipedia often gets rewriten to support one cause or another. So when I confirmed my position with the link you gave to the wiki as well as followed it to the same conclusion from other links in the site, I checked a few other placed too. It apears the the US didn't support anything at all. They just didn't object to it. You make it sound like we were directly behind it and ford was the most evil president until Bush.
I call BS. Ford and Kissinger encouraged or gave green light to Suharto to invade East Timor:
From the National Security Archives at George Washington University: Ford and Kissinger Gave Green Light to Indonesia's Invasion of East Timor, 1975: New Documents Detail Conversations with Suharto
Finally, according to the State Department, 90 percent of the weapons used in the invasion came from the United States. Two years later, as the atrocities in East Timor were reaching a peak, President Jimmy Carter authorized an addition $112 million in weapons sales to Indonesia. Coverage of the fall of Suharto reveals with startling clarity the ideological biases and propaganda role of the mainstream media. Suharto was a ruthless dictator, a grand larcenist and a mass killer with as many victims as Cambodia's Pol Pot. But he served U.S. economic and geopolitical interests, was helped into power by Washington, and his dictatorial rule was warmly supported for 32 years by the U.S. economic and political establishment. The U.S. was still training the most repressive elements of Indonesia's security forces as Suharto's rule was collapsing in 1998, and the Clinton administration had established especially close relations with the dictator ("our kind of guy," according to a senior administration official quoted in the New York Times, 10/31/95). But Suharto is a U.S. ally, and has conducted his atrocities with either the approval or the active participation of the U.S. government. Despite the atrocities and numerous U.N. resolutions condemning the invasion and occupation, the U.S., Japan and a number of Western European countries continue to provide the invader with about $5 billion in annual economic assistance. The Indonesian dictator (pdf) then raised the Timor issue, saying, "We want your understanding, if we deem it necessary to take rapid or drastic action." Ford replied: "We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand the problem and the intentions you have." Suharto needed Washington's go-ahead due to a 1958 agreement that prohibited Indonesia from using U.S.-origin weaponry, which made up 90 percent of Jakarta's arsenal at the time, except for "legitimate national self-defense." (2) For this reason Kissinger suggested that the invasion be framed as self-defense, thus circumventing any legal obstacles. Ford, Kissinger and 1975
East Timor was ruled by Portugal for about 3 centuries. During World War II, thousands of East Timorese lost their lives helping Australia forces fight against the Japanese. East Timor was then invaded by Indonesia shortly after Portugal abruptly left, in 1975. This was the day after U.S. President Ford's visit to Indonesia, with what people have suspected as being a "green light" to invade. At that time, Indonesia had military, economic and politica
Actually states do issue id cards, for instance if a teenager can't get a driver's license or if an adult has their license revoked they can get an id card.
Currently, we have 50 different standards for ID cards. Once you leave California, your ID is invalid
BS. I can use my license in any I could drive state without having a license issued by that state. I've driven from Florida to Canada using the same license. My license which is issued by the state I live in and I can use in every other state. I can even use it in Canada and Mexico. Now if I were to go to some other countries I may have to have an international driver's license, however I can go to AAA to get one.
Regardless, it's yet another usurpation of state power and authority by the feds. I'm waiting for New Hampshire to do the same thing (and kinda saddened that they weren't first).
Yea, seeing as how New Hampshire is the home of "Give Me Freedom or Give me Death" and "Do not Tread on Me" as well as the home of the Free State Project I'm kind of supprised Maine beat them to the draw.
And, with REAL-ID, I'm thinking the "Stick" is "This D/L isn't acceptable for use boarding this plane".
Currently an id is not required to fly. However if you choose not to show your id then you may have to good through a more thorough search to get on the plane.
It essentially invalidates local politics in the minds of a lot of people, because they figure they already voted for someone who "outranks" state representatives, therefor they don't need to care.
Probaly also killed off the possibility of state and regional political parties.
I'm not sure about that. Years ago as a college student I was deputized to register people to vote, and for the party of political affiliation we had about 40 different parties in the state that the voter could register as.
I think the real problem is the lack of civic duty in the vast majority of the population, and the fact that we have a very lazy media. Just making poltics more local wont make much of a difference, imo.
I might of agreed with this but a lot of politics is local, ie people have more control over local politics than they do over state, regional, or national politics. This has been a problem with the LP, Libertarian Party. If the LP were to concentrate on getting a lot of candidates elected locally, they could then have more success at running national candidates.
The 16th and 17th were passed because this very deliberate limitation was seen as a problem.
I'd add the 12th Amendment, Choosing the President, Vice-President, was added for this purpose as well. It gives political parties greater power and should be repealed. Let's go back to voting for the president and NOT the president and vice president. The winner becomes the president and the runnerup the vice president.
National speed limit could POSSIBLY be seen as an extension of the Commerce clause, with the Interstate Highway System also POSSIBLY seen as an extension of the same.
I agree the Commerce Clause can help here, however as the Constitution specifically states the US government has the responsibility of postal roads, using the interstate commerce clause only reinforces the power of the feds to build highways, the highway system.
It is simply a fact of reality that 85%, or likely far more, of this population has never even read the constitution and does not know the rights and limitations it affords.
I'd agree most students don't know and would fail a test on what the USA Constitution says. Yet when I was in school in one of my classes, poly sci I think, we had to memorize the Preamble. And this was a public school.
The courts aren't going to change things.. it will take state legislatures and ultimately the Congress, imo. Either that or an Executive (governor/president) who pardons non-violent drug offenders and refuses to enforce the laws.
A few years back someone ran for sheriff in Texas campaigning on a pledge to not enforce drug laws. I don't know if he won or not though.
Whilst it may be constitutional for the US Government to insist on people wishing to board commercial airliners to hold certain specific documents it is really only reasonable that they do the issuing. e.g. it might be constitutional to require all passengers and crew to hold valid passports.
Can you show where the USA Constitution gives the federal government the power to require documents to fly?
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German was proposed as the offical language of the US in the 1700s. If I recall right German, Dutch really, barely lost being the official language in Pennsylvania, ie "Pennsylvania Dutch". About the same tyme Benjamen Franklin proposed a law barring Germans from immigrating to the USA.
FalconThe states haven't done it themselves, so the feds finally did it in a way that is constitutional.
Please point out where the USA Constitution gives the federal governemnt the power to issue or mandate a national id. Hint, there isn't one.
FalconI would prefer to have one digital pad which contained all my personal information, including money and tax information, so I do not have to carry a cash card, credit card, health card, library card, bus & metro card and money with me all the time.
That shoud be your choice, not a government requirement.
FalconAs for Europe, legal drinking age is 18 in many places, prostitution is illegal but "tolerated"
Maybe not all but some European countries have redlight districts with legal prostitution. I recall when I was in Germany they even had magazines listing prostitutes and how you can contact them to setup an appointment.
FalconOur government wouldn't really need those passports
Passports aren't really for the nation that issues them but are for any country that requires them for a foreigner to enter. US citizens don't need passports to go to Canada or Mexico, but to go to Europe one is needed, European countries demand one for entry. So passports aren't used in the US like the internal passports the Soviet Union used to require.
Id theft/forgery would be a federal homeland sec. crime. We could do this and it would would work for the war on terror.
BS, there is not one valid reason a national id will work against terrorism. Not ony will it not work but it will actually make it easier for terrorists, a national id is one long chain and a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. This could be employees, it could be how the system works, or it could be the software, db used.
FalconYou would think that using and developing open source software and homebrewing would have a harmonic resonace; and /. would be crawling with homebrewers.
I agree, OOSers and homebrewers seem a natural fit. I have come across a few on /. who homebrew. Some have posted links to homebrew software, something I hadn't thought of before. Keeping a log of brewing is one thing but the homebrew software does much more than that. I may install some to try out. However I first need to make some space where I can setup my equipment, the apartment I live in now is small and filled with clutter.
FalconEvery law, or resolution having the force of law, shall relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.
That would make a nice ammendment to our Constitution, wouldn't it?
It would indeed. Congress would never go for it, but luckily, they don't have to. If thirty-three states go for it, it's a proposed amendment, with or without Congress' blessing.
Unfortunately I'd bet the same thing happens in almost all states of the union.
FalconIts a good sign of the state of affairs in this country when we are expecting the Dems to restrict the power of the government. Are we in the Twilight Zone? Republicans/Democrats are NOT what they used to be. Me? I'm a fiscal conservative and a social liberal and like a small federal government. What the hell am I?
If you're fiscally conservative and socially liberal then you're Libertarian. Though Democrats are somewhat socially liberal, neither they nor Republicans are fiscally conservative. The Republicans twice ran up the biggest budget deficits and in between the two tymes Democrats ran up the biggest budget surplus. Democrats and Republicans who occupies the White House that is.
FalconAn article in The Advocate [advocate.com] (NSFW, suggestive ads, exposed flesh, no dangly bits though) from a trans woman covers some of the problems with the current, fractured ID system and touches on how Real ID may make things even worse.
And what of intersexuals? For those who have never heard of them or don't know what they are, intersexuals are born neither male nor female or are both.
FalconI fail to see how the average law-abiding citizen's rights are threatened by an ID card that could potentially tell the federal government information about activities that violate no law. If you're worried that any illegal activities might be exposed by these cards, well...
Is There a Good Response to the "Nothing to Hide" Argument?
And you know, I bet a week of dumpster diving your trash would tell someone a lot more potentially harmful things about your habits than an ID card would, just as handing your credit card to the waitor is much less secure and easier to take advantage of than low-grade encryption on a shopping website.
Nope, what financial records I get I either file away if I'm going to keep it, or if I don't keep it, mostly credit card offers, I either shred or burn. Most of the tyme I don't even toss out receipts when I pay with cash, which I try to use most if not all the tyme, unless I shred it first.
FalconThe fact of the matter is that there already is a National ID standard... it's called a passport.
And you are not required to get one, not even to drive or go to the bank to cash or deposit a check.
FalconYou keep mentioning this East Timor, I never really paid to much attention to it because I didn't think the US was involved in it outside of not protesting it. You seem fixated on it so I brushed up a littlw and it seems that I'm once again correct. Wikipedia often gets rewriten to support one cause or another. So when I confirmed my position with the link you gave to the wiki as well as followed it to the same conclusion from other links in the site, I checked a few other placed too. It apears the the US didn't support anything at all. They just didn't object to it. You make it sound like we were directly behind it and ford was the most evil president until Bush.
I call BS. Ford and Kissinger encouraged or gave green light to Suharto to invade East Timor:
From the National Security Archives at George Washington University: Ford and Kissinger Gave Green Light to Indonesia's Invasion of East Timor, 1975: New Documents Detail Conversations with Suharto
Finally, according to the State Department, 90 percent of the weapons used in the invasion came from the United States. Two years later, as the atrocities in East Timor were reaching a peak, President Jimmy Carter authorized an addition $112 million in weapons sales to Indonesia.
Coverage of the fall of Suharto reveals with startling clarity the ideological biases and propaganda role of the mainstream media. Suharto was a ruthless dictator, a grand larcenist and a mass killer with as many victims as Cambodia's Pol Pot. But he served U.S. economic and geopolitical interests, was helped into power by Washington, and his dictatorial rule was warmly supported for 32 years by the U.S. economic and political establishment. The U.S. was still training the most repressive elements of Indonesia's security forces as Suharto's rule was collapsing in 1998, and the Clinton administration had established especially close relations with the dictator ("our kind of guy," according to a senior administration official quoted in the New York Times, 10/31/95).
But Suharto is a U.S. ally, and has conducted his atrocities with either the approval or the active participation of the U.S. government.
Despite the atrocities and numerous U.N. resolutions condemning the invasion and occupation, the U.S., Japan and a number of Western European countries continue to provide the invader with about $5 billion in annual economic assistance.
The Indonesian dictator (pdf) then raised the Timor issue, saying, "We want your understanding, if we deem it necessary to take rapid or drastic action." Ford replied: "We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand the problem and the intentions you have."
Suharto needed Washington's go-ahead due to a 1958 agreement that prohibited Indonesia from using U.S.-origin weaponry, which made up 90 percent of Jakarta's arsenal at the time, except for "legitimate national self-defense." (2) For this reason Kissinger suggested that the invasion be framed as self-defense, thus circumventing any legal obstacles.
Ford, Kissinger and 1975
East Timor was ruled by Portugal for about 3 centuries. During World War II, thousands of East Timorese lost their lives helping Australia forces fight against the Japanese. East Timor was then invaded by Indonesia shortly after Portugal abruptly left, in 1975. This was the day after U.S. President Ford's visit to Indonesia, with what people have suspected as being a "green light" to invade. At that time, Indonesia had military, economic and politica
OK. Then why hasn't there been a repeat? Something must be working.
Maybe because it was planned to happen only once?
FalconActually states do issue id cards, for instance if a teenager can't get a driver's license or if an adult has their license revoked they can get an id card.
FalconCurrently, we have 50 different standards for ID cards. Once you leave California, your ID is invalid
BS. I can use my license in any I could drive state without having a license issued by that state. I've driven from Florida to Canada using the same license. My license which is issued by the state I live in and I can use in every other state. I can even use it in Canada and Mexico. Now if I were to go to some other countries I may have to have an international driver's license, however I can go to AAA to get one.
FalconAll you ever get is a notorized copy.
Or a certified copy.
FalconRegardless, it's yet another usurpation of state power and authority by the feds. I'm waiting for New Hampshire to do the same thing (and kinda saddened that they weren't first).
Yea, seeing as how New Hampshire is the home of "Give Me Freedom or Give me Death" and "Do not Tread on Me" as well as the home of the Free State Project I'm kind of supprised Maine beat them to the draw.
FalconAnd, with REAL-ID, I'm thinking the "Stick" is "This D/L isn't acceptable for use boarding this plane".
Currently an id is not required to fly. However if you choose not to show your id then you may have to good through a more thorough search to get on the plane.
FalconProbaly also killed off the possibility of state and regional political parties.
I'm not sure about that. Years ago as a college student I was deputized to register people to vote, and for the party of political affiliation we had about 40 different parties in the state that the voter could register as.
FalconI think the real problem is the lack of civic duty in the vast majority of the population, and the fact that we have a very lazy media. Just making poltics more local wont make much of a difference, imo.
I might of agreed with this but a lot of politics is local, ie people have more control over local politics than they do over state, regional, or national politics. This has been a problem with the LP, Libertarian Party. If the LP were to concentrate on getting a lot of candidates elected locally, they could then have more success at running national candidates.
FalconThe 16th and 17th were passed because this very deliberate limitation was seen as a problem.
I'd add the 12th Amendment, Choosing the President, Vice-President, was added for this purpose as well. It gives political parties greater power and should be repealed. Let's go back to voting for the president and NOT the president and vice president. The winner becomes the president and the runnerup the vice president.
FalconNational speed limit could POSSIBLY be seen as an extension of the Commerce clause, with the Interstate Highway System also POSSIBLY seen as an extension of the same.
I agree the Commerce Clause can help here, however as the Constitution specifically states the US government has the responsibility of postal roads, using the interstate commerce clause only reinforces the power of the feds to build highways, the highway system.
FalconIt is simply a fact of reality that 85%, or likely far more, of this population has never even read the constitution and does not know the rights and limitations it affords.
I'd agree most students don't know and would fail a test on what the USA Constitution says. Yet when I was in school in one of my classes, poly sci I think, we had to memorize the Preamble. And this was a public school.
FalconThe courts aren't going to change things.. it will take state legislatures and ultimately the Congress, imo. Either that or an Executive (governor/president) who pardons non-violent drug offenders and refuses to enforce the laws.
A few years back someone ran for sheriff in Texas campaigning on a pledge to not enforce drug laws. I don't know if he won or not though.
FalconWhilst it may be constitutional for the US Government to insist on people wishing to board commercial airliners to hold certain specific documents it is really only reasonable that they do the issuing. e.g. it might be constitutional to require all passengers and crew to hold valid passports.
Can you show where the USA Constitution gives the federal government the power to require documents to fly?
Falcon