Corrupt Government?

[Mr 5 0]

Originally posted by bigwhitecobra :

Before I start another flame war here, let me say this;

I am lucky to have been born here. This is the best place on Earth for me. I have been around the world and have seen many places that had very beautiful aspects, but none as heart warmingly beautiful.

I would fight and die for this country without hesitation. Not for the people that govern it. If called to fight, I fight for you. The people of this great country that have been dupped by our government.

We are but a heartbeat away from being a dictatorship. Say the wrong thing or see the wrong thing, and the FBI will wisk you away to some hole and "debrief" you. Or whatever happens when they come get you. (this is all speculation, of course) Make a negative comment about our government and even Mr. 50 will come after you. (couldn't resist mate. no harm intended) This country has forgotten why it was founded. Slave owners that wanted freedom....... Oh wait, that's not right.......

Oh dear. Your patriotic fervor was so inspiring there for awhile. Then you had to spoil it by putting on your tinfoil hat. Sigh.

Those who live in the freest county on earth and yet wish to believe that it's really nothing but a dark hellhole of corruption with a sinister government made up of evil people who lie in wait for you to 'slip up' so they can imprison you or worse, are apparently willing victims of the 'conspiracy mentality' that wish to believe that, like the Man Behind the Curtain in The Wizard of Oz, some top-down 'powerful forces' are behind everything that happens and the gulag awaits those who give even a whiff of trouble to the sinister 'government'. How sad.

This kind of pathetic delusion that tries to make modern America into George Orwell's '1984' prison is rampant around college campuses and of course, here on the internet, where anything goes...especially victimist nonsense.

I cannot help but resent the recent practice of mocking the brave men - once affectionately known as the Founding Fathers - who risked and lost both their fortunes and in many cases, their lives to establish the United States of America and to give us the best government ever devised who are now are derided by much lesser people as mere 'slave owners' and thus, dismissed, just as modern public school 'history' books do. Books that go on and on about slavery yet barely mention the hardship, the bloodshed and the loss of life that it cost to establish this nation apart from Great Britain.

Do you know why cocaine was made illegal? Any guesses at all? I know this is off subject, but it kinda goes along with what I'm saying. It wasn't because it was bad for you, it wasn't because cocaine was that addictive. Cocaine used to be as readily accessable as asprin. It was a Main ingrediant in Coca-Cola. Hence the name, Coca(as in COCAine)-Cola.

No it was more devious than that. Cocaine was made illegal simply because white men were afraid black men would use it in the south, and one of two things would happen. 1. Black men would make a profit off of it; and 2. Black men that use it might get all hyped up on it, and let's face it you do get pretty hyped, and have sex with white women.

Now personally, I have never, and will never use Cocaine. But for all the reasons to place a ban on something, this one is really f'n stupid.

So is mindless cursing to make some inane point but I noticed that you do it anyway. This little fantasy regarding the genesis of the process of declaring cocaine an addictive drug and thus, illegal for general consumption is a ridiculous exercise in looking for something to whine about, in my opinion. That it has a neat little racist twist makes it even more of a fallacy.

As I understand it, cocaine was being used in not only Coca-Cola but in a number of 'patent' medicnes available over-the-counter to anyone during the later 19th century. Many famous people used some form of cocaine for a number of reasons, including to fight depression and to gain more 'energy'. No one thought it was a problem. Eventually, a growing number of people were becoming addicted to both the 'medicines' and to cocaine, itself, as you would expect of any narcotic. It was quietly removed from Coca Cola in 1903. Medical doctors had noticed it's negative effects and complained to the new Food and Drug administration board. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1904 and the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 effectively outlawed most uses of the drug. No loss.

The story about it being banned because 'the government' was 'afraid' that black men would make money from it and/or get high and rape white women is nonsensical. Some blacks may believe this and some racist whites may have believed it too, at one time, but that doesn't make it true. Some black people still profess to believe that 'white people' introduced AIDS to the black population - on purpose - in order to wipe out black people. Another fantasy that someone will probably be repeating 80 years from now, swearing that: IT'S TRUE! Just as you're repeating the 'cocaine' story you posted here.

What is wrong with our Government? It's a very simple answer, too simple actually. Greed. Greed for power, money, respect, you name it. "Beware the green eyed monster, for he shall devour you all." I don't know what that's from, but it fits in really well doesn't it?

It's from Shakespeare's 'Othello', spoken by the character Iago to Othello:

O beware, my lord, of jealousy! / It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock / The meat it feeds on

As it's about jealousy, not greed, it really doesn't fit well at all.

Your simplistic analysis (that all problems in government are based in greed) is irrelevant as it's human nature to want power and wealth and no people or government is immune. From the ancient Greeks to the Romans to the Goths to the kingdoms of the world over the centuries, human greed is the constant but yet, in America, we manage to live very comfortable lives free of most of the fears and problems other nations have to deal with on a regular basis due to an oppressive government. This desire to see the land of the free, America, as an oppressive, devious and sinister place is very odd and rather foolish, in my opinion. The 'tinfoil hat mentality' is a waste of time and ignores all of our very real freedoms in order to maintain a fantasy that you know what's really going on and that it's baaaad. Right.

Anyway, the fix for our problem is even easier than answering the question above. The fix is to fire them all, and start over. Or as some would say, a COUP. But then another asshole would come into power and we'd still be screwed. So what to do? I leave that to you. Later.

Thanks for sharing. Please pay the cashier at the door.