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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:16 pm Post subject: The Quiet Death Of Freedom |
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For the full article by John Pilger Click Here
Here are a few snippets:
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| On 7 December, Maya Evans, a vegan chef aged 25, was convicted of breaching the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act by reading aloud at the Cenotaph the names of 97 British soldiers killed in Iraq. So serious was her crime that it required 14 policemen in two vans to arrest her. She was fined and given a criminal record for the rest of her life. Freedom is dying. |
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| Eighty-year-old John Catt served with the RAF in the Second World War. Last September, he was stopped by police in Brighton for wearing an "offe! nsive" T-shirt, which suggested that Bush and Blair be tried for war crimes. He was arrested under the Terrorism Act and handcuffed, with his arms held behind his back. The official record of the arrest says the "purpose" of searching him was "terrorism" and the "grounds for intervention" were "carrying placard and T-shirt with anti-Blair info" (sic). He is awaiting trial. |
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| "Here is delayed news, just in. From 1945 to 2005, the United States attempted to overthrow 50 governments, many of them democracies, and to crush 30 popular movements fighting tyrannical regimes. In the process, 25 countries were bombed, causing the loss of several million lives and the despair of millions more." |
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In his epic acceptance of the Nobel Prize in Literature on 7 December, Harold Pinter spoke of "a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed". He asked why "the systematic brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless suppression of independent thought" of Stalinist Russia was well known in the west while American state crimes were merely "superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone acknowledged".
A silence has reigned. Across the world, the extinction and suffering of countless human beings can be attributed to rampant American power, "but you wouldn't know it," said Pinter. "It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest."
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:09 am Post subject: |
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| ...the Blair government banned any expression of opposition within a kilometre of Parliament. |
Yet another symptom of the worrying growth in autocracy. The governments of the UK and US have been consistently preaching liberty and 'less government' while steadily increasing the power of central government. It started in the 80s and the war on terrorism has only accelerated it.
Why do we have politicians with so little respect for freedom and democracy?
This sort of thing makes me feel so helpless. What is the point of banning opposition near Parliament? It's not going to stop any terrorists. I used to think we needed a written constitution to prevent government abuses but that doesn't seem to be working in America. |
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:26 am Post subject: |
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To preserve liberty and stop government abuse of power, you must take away their power and abolish it. You must defund the government. You must take away forever the power of any government to tax incomes and property. You must take away their power to conscript slaves (whether soldiers for armies or tax slaves). You must take away the government power of eminent domain. You must end the power of government to interfere in any voluntary relationships among individuals.
The fascist socialists must give up their dreams of national health care and national service.
The communist socialists must give up their dreams of controlling or imposing their religious views on others. They must give up their dreams of controlling the reproductive choices of individuals.
All property controlled by the government including ownership of the environment must be turned over to individuals who will protect it against polluters.
Liberty is an abolute. All rights belong to the individual. The government has no rights. |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:42 am Post subject: |
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| ontheway wrote: |
| To preserve liberty and stop government abuse of power, you must take away their power and abolish it. You must defund the government. |
Heh I know what you mean. It gives me a chuckle when the liberals say "freedom is dying" and then vote for the bigger-government, less-freedom party. Now both American parties are turning into bigger-government, less-freedom parties. I guess that's what the "progressives" mean by "progress". |
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Leslie Cheswyck
Joined: 31 May 2003
Location: University of Western Chile
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 2:22 pm Post subject: |
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The Death of British Liberty
http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/RobertLocke60118.htm
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Sadly, this is not hyperbole. A man in Britain named Nick Griffin, chairman of a small opposition party called the British National Party, is facing such a trial, to begin, January 16, 2006.
What did this man do? He said, at a private political meeting,
��Islam is an evil and wicked faith.��
Unfortunately for him, government thought police were watching, and recorded him on video tape. That��s right. Thought police. In England.
This is not a joke. It is not even China or Iran. Such things really do happen in Britain today. Let us pray they do not happen in America tomorrow, and draw the line now. |
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bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, the justice system in the UK is now a joke. The Police, being too lazy and incompetent to actually deal with real criminals, have become obsessed with 'hate' crimes, which often amount too little more than going against PC orthodoxy. Hence the trial of Nick Griffin for saying something nasty about a belief system, Islam. In the offending speech, he also predicted that a terrorist attack in the UK would be carried out by British born Pakistanis or asylum seekers, for which he was proved 100% correct. But apparently pointing out these facts, might stir up 'hatred', so he could be going to jail.
In the UK we already had a perfectly good set of public order and violent incitement laws. But now, it has become illegal to incite 'hate', which is a rather subjective word and open to all kinds of abuse.
More absurdly, a young student was recently arrested for a 'homophobic hate crime' for telling an officer, on duty at a demonstration, 'excuse me officer, do you realise that your horse is gay?' The horse was so distressed that the police actually arrested the guy and then attempted to take him to court, for insulting a horse! |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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| bigverne wrote: |
| More absurdly, a young student was recently arrested for a 'homophobic hate crime' for telling an officer, on duty at a demonstration, 'excuse me officer, do you realise that your horse is gay?' The horse was so distressed that the police actually arrested the guy and then attempted to take him to court, for insulting a horse! |
He should have just said; "Go _____ your horse."
Or is that an arrestable offense in a free country? |
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memorabilis
Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul, Korea
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| Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:47 am Post subject: |
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| Leslie Cheswyck wrote: |
The Death of British Liberty
http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/RobertLocke60118.htm
| Quote: |
Sadly, this is not hyperbole. A man in Britain named Nick Griffin, chairman of a small opposition party called the British National Party, is facing such a trial, to begin, January 16, 2006.
What did this man do? He said, at a private political meeting,
��Islam is an evil and wicked faith.��
Unfortunately for him, government thought police were watching, and recorded him on video tape. That��s right. Thought police. In England.
This is not a joke. It is not even China or Iran. Such things really do happen in Britain today. Let us pray they do not happen in America tomorrow, and draw the line now. |
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Griffin is the chairman of the fascist (and I use this in the real sense of the word, not the cavalier way it was used above) British National Party. You could also call it the Nazi party. They advocate white supremacist views. You don't think the gov't should be watching what's going on with them? I do. |
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memorabilis
Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul, Korea
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| Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:54 am Post subject: |
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| ontheway wrote: |
| To preserve liberty and stop government abuse of power, you must take away their power and abolish it. You must defund the government. You must take away forever the power of any government to tax incomes and property. You must take away their power to conscript slaves (whether soldiers for armies or tax slaves). You must take away the government power of eminent domain. You must end the power of government to interfere in any voluntary relationships among indivi | | | |
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