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Originally posted by sgtclub
(in response to my "I can't drink on Sunday) Where do you live? My bet is that the blue laws there are a function of historical precedents rather than anything else. In CA, you can't get served after 2:00 a.m. Seems to be that these are all just degrees of limits that are not really caused by the social conservatives.
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I live in Podunkville, and the reason that I can't drink on Sunday is not solely that Cotton Mather forbade sullying the Sabbath with John Barleycorn when the town was founded in the 1600s. No, the primary problem is the social conservatives. See, every so often a bidnessman gets elected to city council, and hears about all the lost revenue caused by the fact that one can't buy or sell beer, wine, or spirits on Sunday. "That's not good for our hard-working small businesses," he says, and proposes a change.
Then the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Podunkville (it ain't just the Baptists -- sometimes it's the pastor of the Evagelical Church of Jesus, or the pastor of the Liberty Christian Church, etc.) goes apeshit. He gathers the forces, and they testify at the council hearings on how sacred Sunday is, and do "we" want people going to bars instead of churches at 9 am on Sunday mornings, and shouldn't the Sabbath be kept as a day of rest?, and maybe some God-fearing people need to run for council come the next election.
And the city council members reflect upon the fact that they can get themselves in an awful lot of political trouble if they listen to the bidnessman, and so they talk about "tradition" and "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and how "we need to bring the people of the town together, and this is too divisive." And they cut the bidnessman loose.
Quote:
Originally posted by sgtclub
(buying books) You should be, but not because of the Patriot Act. See BRC's post.
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It ain't the privacy issue. It's the idea that the government -- without a warrant or probable cause -- can get a list of everyone who bought "Animal Farm" or "The Turner Diaries" or "Atlas Shrugged."
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Originally posted by sgtclub
How is this (having my picture taken at a rally) an infringement on your freedom?
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Are you serious? That is such a classic case of attempted intimidation. The message -- we know who you are, we are watching you, and we don't like what you are doing. What else could it be? And the fact that Podunkville PD takes my picture at a union picket line, but not if I'm at the county commissioner's Blockbuster blockade tells me that some political speech is considered by the people who can arrest me as acceptable, while other speech is not. Jesus.
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Originally posted by sgtclub
Nor should they. Parents should teach that. Or the internet, depending on your preference. But I would not want some hack teacher teaching my kids anything about sex. They have enough trouble teaching real subjects.
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I'm not even talking about birth control. Simple stuff. Men and women. Women have eggs, men have sperm. The two mix when you have sex. This is how babies are born, so sex equals possible pregnancy. And diseases, some of which are not curable.
My kid knows this stuff. But her friends might not. And not only do I not want kids raising kids, I don't want them to have abortions. I don't want to pay for their ignorance in AFDC or in all of the other social problems caused by babies born to single teen parents.
But we can't explain this in the schools here.
Quote:
Originally posted by sgtclub
(county commissioner at the Blockbuster) Are you serious? Do you realize what you are saying here? You would curtail their rights to free speech in favor of your rights of what, convenience?
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I was unclear. Picket away, oh ye tittie haters. Yeah, I'll complain, but so be it.
My problem is that the county commissioner is doing this, constantly trying to get these movies outlawed, and in general, trying to pass laws that impose his moral beliefs on me. One or two of his ideas have passed, and the county has been sued. And lost. So, he tries to keep me from renting "Bound" and costs me money in legal fees paid to the county attorney as well as that prick in East Podunkville who gets to represent all of the bars and mail order porn places. (I bet he gets paid in movies. Bastard.)
