[TheForge] jobs OT

[Andrew Vida]

Peter Hirst wrote:
> Andrew, I was right there with you up until that last line.  Well, with 
> the minor exception of wondering where you were in October of 1962.

	*19*62?  I was in NYC - probably playing.  I was 4.

	If you look at our history you may observe that a quantum change in the 
way in which our government functioned occurred during civil war days. 
Prior to that it had been far closer to laissez faire and took big steps 
toward what it is today justified on the basis of the needs of wartime. 
  As appears to be common in human affairs, once the steps were taken, 
they were not withdrawn at war's end.  We have been on the slide 
downward ever since.  The sham of the cold war was used to terrorize 
people into ceding to the government powers it was never meant to have. 
  It is arguable that our entry into both world wars were based in the 
same nonsense.  We were under ZERO threat in WWI, yet we merrily marched 
off to save Europe.  Europe should have been left to burn to the ground 
once and for all.  WWI was (up until then) the culmination of of 
Europe's habitual and seemingly bottomless stupidity fueling at least 
1000 years of nearly uninterrupted warfare running amok yet again, this 
time aided by the first truly mechanized methods for mass murder.  We 
should have let them die by the millions - perhaps that would have given 
them something to think about before allowing the next generation and 
the horrors they brought to the table into power.  And the truth about 
how it is we came to be sucker punched by Japan in '41 is emminently 
arguable.  That came only as a result of the hanky panky of the people 
in power in OUR government because of the powers WE ceded to them. 
Hindsight is often 20/20 as opposed to that looking forward, but there 
are certain things that people can do on a daily basis (or could have at 
one time... not so sure about now) that we have failed to do.  As far as 
I am concerned, every war and every insult to our liberties since at 
least WWII has been OUR fault.  To expect those in power not to be what 
they are is as blindly stupid as expecting a viper not to bite you when 
you mess with it.  It is what they DO - it is what they ARE.
> 
> Otherwise some pretty good thoughts.
> 
> Save your Dixie Cups, the South will rise again!!  Just think where this 
> nation could have led the world in the realm of civil liberties without 
> the baggage of the 13th through 16th Amendments.

	The first ten amendments say it all, as far as I am concerned.  There 
are objective standards for judging human affairs.  That people ignore 
them does not mean they are not there.
> 
> Sheesh.

	You said it.