The ACLU is not really about the Bill of Rights. They have an entire division devoted to forwarding policies by which the government punishes people for having the wrong skin color in the name of "diversity" (so much for due process). They have frequently tried to censor non-government speech that happened to be considered "religious". Finally, as far as they are concerned, the Second Amendment does not exist.
If the ACLU supported equal rights for all, opposed all censorship, and gave consideration to the Second Amendment, I'd support them.
"The freedom of speech ends when causing bodily injury"
Excellent point! Then why do you care about individuals expressing their 2nd amendment rights to keep and bear arms regardless of whether or not they cause bodily injury or even threaten to at all?
"and certainly my rights are in conflict when a simple electrical fire can blow up my neighbors house and take mine with it."
The exact same thing can happen if your neighbor happens to use natural gas. In fact, natural gas explosions are far more numerous (by a significant magnitude) than personal ammo dump explosions. Yet, which one are you worried about?
"The NRA seems to focus selectively on guns"
So? Maybe their arguments should be expanded. That, however, does not make them apply less to guns.
"So, you think it should be legal for someone to wave a gun in your face? "
Such brandishing of weapons in an assaultive or threatening fashion is a perfect example of existing laws against gun crime that the NRA specifically wants enforced even more. Don't confuse the constitional right to merely have them (which the NRA supports) with the idea of actually doing bad things with them (something the NRA is a leading voice against.)
"I guess you must be smarter than a supreme court justice."
I know I have better reading comprehension than a few of them. And no, I will not chill on thinking that the Bill of Rights is a good idea.
"we wouldn't have to pay for.... tax credits to corporations"
We already spend $0 on that. A tax break or tax credit is never a transfer of money from the the government to someone. It is merely allowing someone to keep more of what they earned or owned in the first place. Nothing spent by the government, so no taxpayer funds ventured.
"we wouldn't have to pay for any more international military adventurism"
"I bet that "government forces the average taxpayer to give money to NPR" really puts a hole in your pocket so you can't seem to feed your family"
Ah, the old "One little bit of government waste won't cause any problem" fallacy..... the one that forgets that big-time government waste of tax money is made of a lot of little wasteful things. All of them added together make a REAL difference.
"I would personally rather Google quit storing the data they have picked up on me without my asking them."
Their excuse is that you "ask them" by agreeing to their obscure privacy agreement/etc that nobody ever seeks or our reads. Great point you made anyway. This contradicts "do no evil."
Here's just one example of their hardline attitude toward gun violence. And here's supervision at work.
"Do you not understand that arms != guns?"
When the Bill of Rights was put in place, most of the arms they were concerned about happened to be guns. The same is true now.
"Please expand on how "licensing guns" violates such constitutional protections"
The protection violated is the right to keep and bear arms. This is not a priviledge, like driving the cars on the roads, for which you need a license.
"I'd like to think I was safe from him having a dangerous 100,000 round ammo dump 30 ft from my house, but that would be regulation, and his rights apparently supercede mine."
Your rights aren't even at conflict. As long as he doesn't have a bunch of nuclear rockets that are irradiating over to your property, it's really none of your concern or problem. Just like you aren't violating his rights by having a tablecloth of a color he does not like. If you don't like guns, don't own them. Problem solved.
"So you want to zero out the 2% of their funding that comes from government grants. Sounds OK. I assume you also want to zero the government grants that go to commercial radio stations?"
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. (Produces a box containing two colored chads, one for Blue George W. Bush and one for red George W. Bush) This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You vote for blue Bush, the story ends, you awake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You vote for red Bush, you stay in Halliburtonland, and I show you how deep the fox-hole goes. (Pause. Neo reaches for the red chad.) Remember: all I'm offering is the truth, nothing more. (Neo votes for the red George W. Bush)
Once they bar the door to Dan Rather, who is trying to get in to show everyone the touch-screen result archives from the 1972 election for comparison, the anchors will watch as the big map of the US goes all blue. They'll quickly get Howard Dean, all screaming with joy, on the video feed for his comments. Then someone looks up at the blue screen and asks "Guys, didn't we just convert this system to Windows?".
They'll paint it to look like a Dell or an Apple and start sticking pins into it, now that they have been prevented from engaging in their more conventional business practices.
Except this one is quite rational, and the logic is sound (NPR is indeed using its taxpayer money to harass competitors). Same your complaint for a place where it actually applies.
"So, you are denying that Japan has a homogenous culture? That's very difficult to believe. Are you saying there isn't a strong culture of misogyny? I may be wrong on suicide rates, though. -- Who's the real 7 billion ton robot monster here?"
Thanks for concluding a posting about Japan with what must be a reference to Mecha-Godzilla.
It is using public funds (which taxpayers are forced to pay) to file frivolous complaints to harass competitors. Just another reason the taxpayer subsidy to NPR should be eliminated.
"So when President Bush said (as Governor of Texas at the time), that the military should not allow Wiccan ceremonies because they're not a real religion"
He has a point on Wicca. Regardless of the point of whether or not ALL religions are fake, if there ever was a fake religion, Wicca is one. It was made up rather recently, just like Scientology. It certainly does not belong in the same category as any of the actual, valid, real cultural spiritual traditions.
"Just like freedom of speech is all about protecting the unpopular types of speech that the government might otherwise want to stomp on"
Ahem... it is not. It is about protecting speech, period. No Constitutional preference is given to "unpopular" speech.
T"he NRA is less clear, but their position [nraila.org] is NOT about the constitutional right to bear arms. It is about the right to own guns."
What part of "keep and bear arms" do you not understand?
"From the link above, the NRA is AGAINST "well regulated": "
The NRA has been long in favor of stiff sentences against those who abuse their firearms (commit violent crimes with them). This is a good example of them wanting the matter to be "well regulated." They have been against ludicrous over-regulation, however, including such ideas as "licensing guns" which violates the 2nd Amendment. They are all about the second amendment and its protection.
Slashdot Mirror
The ACLU is not really about the Bill of Rights. They have an entire division devoted to forwarding policies by which the government punishes people for having the wrong skin color in the name of "diversity" (so much for due process). They have frequently tried to censor non-government speech that happened to be considered "religious". Finally, as far as they are concerned, the Second Amendment does not exist.
If the ACLU supported equal rights for all, opposed all censorship, and gave consideration to the Second Amendment, I'd support them.
Those trials took place after the war had ended, interestingly enough. Is there a legal distinction between wartime vs when the war is over?
"$250 pre odor now!"
We store them in Sumo's crotch for minimum 3 day for desired effect!"
"The freedom of speech ends when causing bodily injury"
Excellent point! Then why do you care about individuals expressing their 2nd amendment rights to keep and bear arms regardless of whether or not they cause bodily injury or even threaten to at all?
"and certainly my rights are in conflict when a simple electrical fire can blow up my neighbors house and take mine with it."
The exact same thing can happen if your neighbor happens to use natural gas. In fact, natural gas explosions are far more numerous (by a significant magnitude) than personal ammo dump explosions. Yet, which one are you worried about?
"The NRA seems to focus selectively on guns"
So? Maybe their arguments should be expanded. That, however, does not make them apply less to guns.
"So, you think it should be legal for someone to wave a gun in your face? "
Such brandishing of weapons in an assaultive or threatening fashion is a perfect example of existing laws against gun crime that the NRA specifically wants enforced even more. Don't confuse the constitional right to merely have them (which the NRA supports) with the idea of actually doing bad things with them (something the NRA is a leading voice against.)
"I guess you must be smarter than a supreme court justice."
I know I have better reading comprehension than a few of them. And no, I will not chill on thinking that the Bill of Rights is a good idea.
"we wouldn't have to pay for .... tax credits to corporations"
We already spend $0 on that. A tax break or tax credit is never a transfer of money from the the government to someone. It is merely allowing someone to keep more of what they earned or owned in the first place. Nothing spent by the government, so no taxpayer funds ventured.
"we wouldn't have to pay for any more international military adventurism"
You bet! Instead, we'll have international military adventures right here, and we won't have to spend a dime on them.
"I bet that "government forces the average taxpayer to give money to NPR" really puts a hole in your pocket so you can't seem to feed your family"
Ah, the old "One little bit of government waste won't cause any problem" fallacy..... the one that forgets that big-time government waste of tax money is made of a lot of little wasteful things. All of them added together make a REAL difference.
" jumped-the-shark-by-now specialty (e.g. Kerry 2004 campaign"
"I jumped the shark, and then I didnt jump the shark".
Enough about its brain. Show us the Wii's pinky.
"I would personally rather Google quit storing the data they have picked up on me without my asking them."
Their excuse is that you "ask them" by agreeing to their obscure privacy agreement/etc that nobody ever seeks or our reads. Great point you made anyway. This contradicts "do no evil."
"profit just demonstrates that NPR is as evil as the rest of corporate radio "
Looks like from your wording that you also realize that NPR is a corporation.
"will jump into bed with government to reduce our freedoms."
They are already in bed with government: government forces the average taxpayer to give money to NPR.
Why else would they actually archive personally-identifiable information about searches?
"NRA is against ANY control or supervision"
Here's just one example of their hardline attitude toward gun violence. And here's supervision at work.
"Do you not understand that arms != guns?"
When the Bill of Rights was put in place, most of the arms they were concerned about happened to be guns. The same is true now.
"Please expand on how "licensing guns" violates such constitutional protections"
The protection violated is the right to keep and bear arms. This is not a priviledge, like driving the cars on the roads, for which you need a license.
"I'd like to think I was safe from him having a dangerous 100,000 round ammo dump 30 ft from my house, but that would be regulation, and his rights apparently supercede mine."
Your rights aren't even at conflict. As long as he doesn't have a bunch of nuclear rockets that are irradiating over to your property, it's really none of your concern or problem. Just like you aren't violating his rights by having a tablecloth of a color he does not like. If you don't like guns, don't own them. Problem solved.
"So you want to zero out the 2% of their funding that comes from government grants. Sounds OK. I assume you also want to zero the government grants that go to commercial radio stations?"
Yes.... Why would you ask?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. (Produces a box containing two colored chads, one for Blue George W. Bush and one for red George W. Bush) This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You vote for blue Bush, the story ends, you awake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You vote for red Bush, you stay in Halliburtonland, and I show you how deep the fox-hole goes. (Pause. Neo reaches for the red chad.) Remember: all I'm offering is the truth, nothing more. (Neo votes for the red George W. Bush)
Once they bar the door to Dan Rather, who is trying to get in to show everyone the touch-screen result archives from the 1972 election for comparison, the anchors will watch as the big map of the US goes all blue. They'll quickly get Howard Dean, all screaming with joy, on the video feed for his comments. Then someone looks up at the blue screen and asks "Guys, didn't we just convert this system to Windows?".
And then the Greens or Libertarians sweep it with 113% of the vote.
" I was under the impression that all religions were made up like Scientology was at one point or another."
I already mentioned the "all religions are fake" issue.
"What I meant by that is that popular speech never needs to be protected"
Yes it does. Just because it is "popular" does not mean you won't get someone trying to censor it.
They'll paint it to look like a Dell or an Apple and start sticking pins into it, now that they have been prevented from engaging in their more conventional business practices.
"The traditional broadcasters (i.e. ClearChannel) are trying to maintain their hold over the radio market."
And a tiny hold it is: they have 8% or so of radio stations.
Except this one is quite rational, and the logic is sound (NPR is indeed using its taxpayer money to harass competitors). Same your complaint for a place where it actually applies.
"So, you are denying that Japan has a homogenous culture? That's very difficult to believe. Are you saying there isn't a strong culture of misogyny? I may be wrong on suicide rates, though. -- Who's the real 7 billion ton robot monster here?"
Thanks for concluding a posting about Japan with what must be a reference to Mecha-Godzilla.
It is using public funds (which taxpayers are forced to pay) to file frivolous complaints to harass competitors. Just another reason the taxpayer subsidy to NPR should be eliminated.
"So when President Bush said (as Governor of Texas at the time), that the military should not allow Wiccan ceremonies because they're not a real religion"
He has a point on Wicca. Regardless of the point of whether or not ALL religions are fake, if there ever was a fake religion, Wicca is one. It was made up rather recently, just like Scientology. It certainly does not belong in the same category as any of the actual, valid, real cultural spiritual traditions.
"Just like freedom of speech is all about protecting the unpopular types of speech that the government might otherwise want to stomp on"
Ahem... it is not. It is about protecting speech, period. No Constitutional preference is given to "unpopular" speech.
T"he NRA is less clear, but their position [nraila.org] is NOT about the constitutional right to bear arms. It is about the right to own guns."
What part of "keep and bear arms" do you not understand?
"From the link above, the NRA is AGAINST "well regulated": "
The NRA has been long in favor of stiff sentences against those who abuse their firearms (commit violent crimes with them). This is a good example of them wanting the matter to be "well regulated." They have been against ludicrous over-regulation, however, including such ideas as "licensing guns" which violates the 2nd Amendment. They are all about the second amendment and its protection.
"Satellite radio is stealing their listeners"
Does anyone on Slashdot really have any idea what the words/concepts of "theft" and "stealing" mean anymore?
"Siphoning off listeners is just business...."
Didn't you just say it was stealing?