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Well -- there used to be more security that you could go to work and not have Middle Easterns hijack a plane to destroy the building you're in, and there used to be a right to run in the Boston Marathon without Middle Easterners' bombs in place to kill and maim everyone near the finish line.
Well -- there used to be more security that you could go to work and not have Middle Easterns hijack a plane to destroy the building you're in, and there used to be a right to run in the Boston Marathon without Middle Easterners' bombs in place to kill and maim everyone near the finish line.
Here, in the U.S., perhaps in 1973 there was no expectation of terror attacks organized by fundamentalist Arab nationalists, though I seem to recall that in that year and for some years before Americans had experienced civil violence, including bombing, by radical groups of one sort or another, and certainly elsewhere in the world terror attacks were not unknown: IRA, Red Brigades, Bader-Meinhof, PLO, etc., etc.
In an America with a full respect for the Bill of Rights, there would be no Federal Communications Commission regulating the airwaves and forbidding certain speech, no Federal Election Commission limiting how much Americans can donate to political candidates or what they can say in independent political ads, no Food and Drug Administration harassment of pharmaceutical and wine producers regarding their commercial speech, no federal laws that have anything to do with religion whatsoever, and no federally established "free-speech zones."
There would be no laws disarming Americans, prohibiting airlines from allowing pilots or passengers to carry guns on planes, or limiting how much ammo or what kind of firearms people can buy and own.
There would be no Patriot Act, no secret searches, no spying on telecommunications without a warrant.
There would be no civil asset forfeiture, no horrendous eminent domain abuses, no kangaroo courts, star chambers and phony hearings for the accused.
There would be no torture in America's "terrorist" dungeons.
There would be no federal laws against starting a business without a license, buying and selling drugs, competing with the government to provide its "services" at a better cost and higher quality, or seceding from the central state.
There would be no federal programs not authorized by the Constitution: no Departments of Energy or Education, no Medicare or Obamacare or Social Security, no Federal Reserve or Selective Service, no farm subsidies or corporate welfare.
Last edited by OhioRules; 04-16-2013 at 07:57 AM..
This is an honest question, intended not only for those on the right, but also on the left. Both complain of lost liberties, but rarely is such a list compiled. I'm not looking for generalities, but specific freedoms that you believe have been lost.
Besides the most glaringly obvious freedom denying piece of legislation, as in ObamaCare?
It's been a rather subtle loss of market freedom over the years. Slowly but surely we have been watching our options and choices shrink over the years. Our choices in what we can purchase have dwindled, due to mountains of new federal regulations.
For example, we can still buy large home appliances, like washer, drier, frig, air conditioner, but the only ones we can buy are those government has decided meet their standards for what we are allowed to buy.
The CAFE standards alone, dictate what cars we are allowed to buy. People think still have a freedom of choice to buy any car we want, but do we really? No, we don't, the choices available to us are only those which the government bureaucrats have decided we are allowed to choose from.
There are also products and services that we cannot buy, because our government has made it impossible to start businesses to build these items and create those new jobs. I remember Steve Wozniak stating that the Apple Computer company would be impossible to create with today's federal regulations. He said there would be no way on earth they could build computers out of a garage today, the mountains of regulatory paperwork and hurdles would make it impossible.
Well -- there used to be more security that you could go to work and not have Middle Easterns hijack a plane to destroy the building you're in, and there used to be a right to run in the Boston Marathon without Middle Easterners' bombs in place to kill and maim everyone near the finish line.
Do you have information that the rest of us don't? Because I currently live in Boston and they haven't released information yet on who or what group planted the bombs at the Boston Marathon. Do you have some magical insider knowledge that it was a Middle Easterner that did it? I'm sure the Boston PD would love to hear from you in that case.
The freedom to decide if my bar or restaurant will allow smoking.
The freedom to decide if I want to wear a seat belt.
The freedom to drive down the road without being stopped by police and having to prove my innocence.
The freedom to speak on the phone without LE listening in without a warrant.
The freedom to send email without LE filtering for things they don't agree with.
The freedom from unreasonable searches because the government thinks I might be a terrorist.
Freedom of speech; The Government may now prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they reveal that the government requested information on their clients or members in the course of an investigation. It has become a crime for these individuals to try to safeguard your privacy or to tell you that you are under investigation.
Freedom of privacy. Law Enforcement may now demand any personal records held by any source including your doctor,employer, accountant, or library. All they have to do is claim that it is related to an investigation into
“terrorism.” The record keepers may not reveal that your records were provided to the government.
In some states like CO, the freedom to collect rain water.
The freedom to smoke flavored cigarettes.
In some cities, the freedom to eat foie gras.
The freedom to drive down the road without being videoed.
The freedom to have a toilet that only needs to be flushed once.
The freedom to choose what light bulbs are right for me.
The Freedom to have a shower head that produces the amount of water that I think is right for me.
The freedom to buy a gun without telling the government about it.
The freedom to not have your front door bashed in by a SWAT that thinks you might be a bad guy.
The freedom to choose a health insurance plan that does not cover pregnancy, abortion, contraception and many other government mandated services.
The freedom to NOT have health insurance.
The freedom to not be arrested for protesting near the president.
The freedom to not be labeled a terrorist based on where you go, what you take pictures of and what you post online.
The freedom from drones flying over our property to spy on us.
The freedom from our government collecting information on innocent citizens. The American government is collecting and storing virtually every phone call, purchases, email, text message, internet searches, social media communications, health information, employment history, travel and student records, and virtually all other information of every American.
The freedom from "black boxes" installed in your car to track your movements.
The freedom to travel within 100 miles of the border without being stopped and asked to prove you are an American citizen.
The ability to travel without the DHS looking at your laptop data and other private information. Federal agents at the border do not need any reason to search through travelers’ laptops, cell phones or digital cameras for evidence of crimes, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, extending the government’s power to look through belongings like suitcases at the border to electronics.
This is only a start. There are dozens and dozens more.
Interesting list. But didn't they drop the no-more-incandescent lightbulbs thing?
Lots of people think driving is a right...well they say priviledge but they want it to be a treated like a right.
If you dont want to hook up your seat-belt take a bus. I could care less if you buckle up...but somehow other people care that you and your family are not injured in a wreck.
I would be OK if you didnt want to wear a seatbelt so long as you placed a big placard on your car...In case of emergency...Do Not call 911, Do Not attempt to rescue me, or take me to the Hospital...push me out of traffic and Leave me to the buzzards.
I'm OK with that.
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