We are sending robots the size of cars to Mars ...

[Ben]

---

@jcarmody wrote:

---

@Ben wrote:

[...] 

The US is being invaded now. There are regions of the US southwest that are dominated by the drug cartels.

[...]

---

That reminds me of another part of "our way of life" - controlling what folks can put into their bodies and stopping other folks from supplying the demand.

The War on Drugs is a gigantic drain on the economy.

---

A very big Dittos the that!

Not trying to be opositional on purpose but that is why I actually liked Robert's decision regarding Obamacare. He did not extend the Commerce Clause (congress shall have authority to regulate commerce between the states) but rather found the justification under the taxing clause.

It is abuse of the commerce clause that is used to let the government dig into anything they want. The case (don't recall the name right now) that let congress have free reign to dig into our buisness was the case of a farmer growing wheat on his own property for his own consumption. The Supremes said there was a potetial his lack of participation in comerce affected the rest of the commerce and well we know the rest of the story.

It is under the commerce clause that the justice dept has tried to step on both state right and 2 amendment rights saying that there is potential the guns can cross state lines so they have athority to regulate them. I believe there is/was a state testing this with there own law covering guns made in the state for use only in the state. never did hear how that one played out.

Was is Colidge that used to veto almost every bill saying "I don't find the athority in the constitution for that."?

Re: Silent Cal

I heard a stort that he seldom spoke. While he was vice president a reporter try to engage him in conversation saying he had made a bet with another reporter that he could get Cal to say more than three words. His response was "You loose."

But back to the issue at hand.

Yes shut-down all of that nanny-state stuff ASAP!

Take care,

Ben

[manumohannair]

Hello Ben, Thanks for your wonderful reply.

[jcarmody]

---

@Ben wrote:

[...]

Was is Colidge that used to veto almost every bill saying "I don't find the athority in the constitution for that."?

[...] 

---

I appreciate the time you spend thinking through and answering my rapid-fire, knee-jerk posts.  🙂

As far as the Constitution is concerned...  You won't find me going there for authority because I'm not bound by it (because I never agreed to it).  There's a higher authority that defines what is right and what is wrong and it is wrong to use violence (or the threat of it) to coerce people into behaving a certain way when the behavior they'd choose to engage in isn't harming anyone, regardless of the end being sought.

I expect that I'll have a similar answer for everything you write; I suppose that's a symptom of something being wrong with me.  At least I don't vote.  🙂

Just for fun, here are a few quotes from the novel 1984:

• Winston Smith:  To be in a minority of one doesn't make you mad.
• O'Brien: If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.
• Winston Smith: [reads from Goldstein's book] "In accordance to the principles of Doublethink, it does not matter if the war is not real, or when it is, that victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous. The essential act of modern warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labor. A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. In principle, the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects. And its object is not victory over Eurasia or Eastasia, but to keep the very structure of society intact." Julia? Are you awake? There is truth, and there is untruth. To be in a minority of one doesn't make you mad.

The first is the only one I meant to include (it lets me hope that I'm OK); I added the others because they're great!

[Intaris]

---

Ben wrote:

---

Shane wrote:

I'm sorry Ben but re. defending: when was the last time that America was invaded?

---

Start rolling your eyes now.

No need to appologize! You are calling me on the floor to justify my thoughts and that is perfectly fair and I thank you for doing so.

The US is being invaded now. There are regions of the US southwest that are dominated by the drug cartels. You may have heard of Jihadi links to the cartels or perhaps not. The rise in beheading occuring just south of the border with some incidents occuring on the US side. The beheading thing seems to be the signature of Jihadi groups.

I'll set that to the side for you to scream about but yet another invasion is illustrated by the Fort Hood shooting where the US military is being infiltrated.

OK lets call Ben crazy thinking the behedings in the south west Fort Hood are all just flukes. "Move along people there is nothing happeing here."

---

Well in any other country, this would lead to massive increases in financing for the POLICE, not the ARMY.  Buying into the phrase "War on drugs" allows this to slip past your otherwise active thought filters because after all War = Army.  But this is clearly a job for the police as it does NOT involve two states in disagreement.  It's a crack-down on illegal activities by groups of people not sanctioned by their government.

I don't believe im and kind of jihadi links to drug cartels, sorry.  It's a smokescreen.

Shane.

[PaulG.]

Look at this little guy. Isn't he the cutest thing?

I still think NASA ROCKS! 

[jcarmody]

---

Intaris wrote:

[...] 

I don't believe im and kind of jihadi links to drug cartels, sorry.  It's a smokescreen.

Shane.

---

I'm Fast & Furious to believe that there's someone behind the cartels; it's the folks I mentioned earlier that want to end "our way of life" and they're not overseas.

[Ben]

---

---

@Intaris wrote:

...

Well in any other country, this would lead to massive increases in financing for the POLICE, not the ARMY.  Buying into the phrase "War on drugs" allows this to slip past your otherwise active thought filters because after all War = Army.  But this is clearly a job for the police as it does NOT involve two states in disagreement.  It's a crack-down on illegal activities by groups of people not sanctioned by their government.

I don't believe im and kind of jihadi links to drug cartels, sorry.  It's a smokescreen.

Shane.

---

I would settle for financing a wall, fence or even a row of daisies would be better than the current situation.

The US has some laws that prevent the military evr being used domesticly. All it takes is one black helicopter to get the rumor mills churning.

The word "war" in the US has taken on special meaning that has been abused big time. Traditionally all "wars" are thing the citizens unite behind and gird up their loins to win. "Wars" let the politicians "bend the rules" (which I scream about everytime I hear about yet another abuse). "Wars" are national emergencies that require extrordinary measures (not!).

Set silly mode for moment...

"war how I love thee, let me count the wars"

War on Poverty

War on Drugs

War on smoking

War on polution

War on obesity

War on women

It seems we pick-up another unwinable war every other president or so. 

The war on drugs in particular points out a catch-22 situation that is not unique to drugs. The catch-22 lies in the motivation of those who make their living fighting the war. If the War on Drugs (WOD) was ever won, they would be out of a job. How many people actually have the intestinal fortitude to work themsleves out of a job? The same issue affects the private prison industry where they are interested in more buisness (convictions not neccessarily crime.. oh my) and Unions for that matter (if labor and management ever got along the unions would not be required).

Re: I don't believe...

The normalcy bias speaks of peoples tendencies to believe the world is normal unless clear indications show otherwise. Although I was obviously not in the planes of 9/11 but I think the fables reported regarding those flights ilustrates the normalcy bias. After the first three planes were reported as having crashed I BELIEVE the passengers of the plane that crashed in Shankville PA (about an hour for here) learned of what had happened and realized this was not a "normal" hijacking where every sits down and behaves and eventually everything will be settled. I BELIEVE they took action when it became clear they were in a unique situation.

Some of the reports that covered the recent Batman movie shooting illustrated teh normalcy bias as well when people in theatre #8 thought the gun shots were part of the movie. initially I was curious (as well as some of my buddies here) why nobody attempted to tackle the guy. I have since then read that at least one person did.

For me, "beheadings" are not normal.

So for my part and my part only, I have to look closer and try hard to guard against hoping things are normal.

I am not trying to get you to believe. I defend eveyones right to believe what they want.

---

Jim wrote;

I'm Fast & Furious to believe that there's someone behind the cartels; it's the folks I mentioned earlier that want to end "our way of life" and they're not overseas.

---

Dinesh Desouza (sp?) speaks to that point very well. A term that was common in the early 1900's was "Colonialism" or anti-colonialism when the countries that could were expanding their control around the planet. We do not hear that term much theses days. Dinesh's movie "2016" (that I have not seen yet but did hear him discuss it in an interview) presents this concept as a way to understand what is happening today. ...

I just deleted what would fall short of illustrating what i am trying to say.

I do plan on seeing 2016.

Again thank you all for the intelegent conversation. We may not be able to solve the worlds problems but we can at least share our thoughts and hearts.

Ben

[Ben]

---

@PaulG. wrote:

Look at this little guy. Isn't he the cutest thing?

I still think NASA ROCKS! 

---

I agree!

Sorry to take your thread off-topic.

Q:

Who, what took that picture?

Ben

[crossrulz]

---

@Ben wrote:

Q:

Who, what took that picture?

---

Maybe the rover behaves like Survivorman, constantly placing cameras to take it's own picture while it roves around the surface.

[Ben]

---

@crossrulz wrote:

---

@Ben wrote:

Q:

Who, what took that picture?

---

Maybe the rover behaves like Survivorman, constantly placing cameras to take it's own picture while it roves around the surface.

---

"you've got one eye in the mirror as you watch yourself go by"

A vain robot?

Ben