[Lazamataz]

What a sad day for freedom.

.... what little freedom remains, you mean.

I have friends from other countries, a few have settled here, and without fail, they remark "You Americans think you are free. Maybe once you were, but now, you live in a police state that rivals that of East Germany."

[sam_paine]

Hmm.

I still get to choose my own job, or no job. That wasn't available in East Germany.

I still get to choose where I live. That wasn't available in East Germany.

My taxes are lower than anywhere in Europe. Ditto East Germany.

I choose my doctor.

I get a few bonus years at the end of my life that people born in other countrie don't get.

I can be part of the government if I want to. Or not.

etc.

Hyperbole suits you and your friends, Laz.

[george wythe]

Last time I went to Scotland, I remember an incident between a local cop and lady which surprised me. A cop was walking his beat, chatting with a fellow on the sidewalk. A car pulled up and parked in a loading zone, downtown Edinburgh.

The driver, a lady, got out of the her car. The cop called her and told her to move her car from the loadling zone. Instead of obeying, she just told him that she was doing a quick stop and kept walking toward her intended store. The cop continued chatting with the other fellow like nothing had happened.

If that had been in LA or Miami, the lady might have had her car impounded and arrested. The friendly relationship between cops and citizens is disappearing rapidly in our country.

[contemplator]

"...without fail, they remark "You Americans think you are free. Maybe once you were, but now, you live in a police state that rivals that of East Germany.""


- Not even close. Thoughts and ideas are not illegal here.

[ampat]

Your friend doesn't know what he's talking about.

[Fiddlstix]

I have friends from other countries, a few have settled here, and without fail, they remark "You Americans think you are free. Maybe once you were, but now, you live in a police state that rivals that of East Germany."

I think any American over the age of 60 can attest to lost freedom. My heavens, the things we used to do and think nothing of it. Now you need a "license" of some kind for almost everything.

[js1138]

I have friends from other countries, a few have settled here, and without fail, they remark "You Americans think you are free. Maybe once you were, but now, you live in a police state that rivals that of East Germany."

I'm not a fan of WOD, but the main two freedoms in this country are the freedom to complain about government and the freedom to engage in commerce. I am more concerned about the erosion of free commerce than I am the erosion of freedon to ingest drugs.

We have been through prohibition and survived. We can survive this.

[Wurlitzer]

"I have friends from other countries, a few have settled here, and without fail, they remark "You Americans think you are free. Maybe once you were, but now, you live in a police state that rivals that of East Germany."

Your friends are right! We keep saying we are free but saying it and being free are 2 different things. There are things going on that we used to laugh at the communists for doing. The 4th amendment no longer exists except on paper. Some JBT will always find a way around the former right to privacy.

[IGOTMINE]

Papers!?! VHERE ARE YOUR PAPERS!?!

My God...I agree with Ginsburg and Breyer. Is this a sign of the apocolypse?

[JoeV1]

What freedoms have any of you lost? If you are speeding you are stopped. If you are lucky you get only a warning, if you have drugs in your vehicle or on your person then you are committing a crime. Why on earth should ANYONE be permitted to slide because he wasn't sporting a flashing red sign on his vehicle saying he had the drugs? So the dog sniffed and the motorist was caught. He was breaking the law.

As far as I;m concerned the police can stop me every freakin' day as long as they are trying to stop crime. A sniffing dog would find no drugs in my vehicle because I don't use them. To believe that money in my wallet that had drug remnants on it would send me to jail is absurd.

[paudio]

"You Americans think you are free. Maybe once you were, but now, you live in a police state that rivals that of East Germany."

Is such remark correct? Do Americans now have to shut their mouths out of fear for their lives? Do political enemies start to disappear one by one? Do police come to your house after a foreigner visited you, asking who the guest was?

[WildTurkey]

I have friends from other countries, a few have settled here, and without fail, they remark "You Americans think you are free. Maybe once you were, but now, you live in a police state that rivals that of East Germany."

My wifes says that Americans who make stupid comments like that have never lived in a police state and are woefully ignorant of how much freedom we have and in most cases totally inadequate in the taking of their responsibilities.

[petitfour]

Repeat after me: "O'er the land of the free . . ."

"Let freedom ring."

"with liberty and justice for all."

If you repeat it often enough, you'll know that you are free. At last.