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Originally Posted by powerclown
My friend, you don't know what real oppression is.
Do you know how difficult it is, for example, to travel about in Russia? One must consult with the central authorities months in advance for clearance.
Here in the States, you can jump in your car and go wherever you wish, whenever you wish.
You have cheap, plentiful gasoline.
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Starting to push up toward $2.50 a gallon, and half of that is tax for roads that we pay tolls on anyway. What you have scited is not an example of freedom, but an impediment. Were oil companies not so economically powerful, we might have some viable alternatives, and then they would all be cheap and plentiful.
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You can hop on a plane tonight and fly to anywhere on earth.
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Provided you have 10 times as much money as you would have needed if you had decided last year to fly today, and your name isn't similar to someone's who - reasonably or not - is on one of several secret terrortist watch lists, and, provided, you don't accidentally put a cigarette lighter or a tonenail cleaning knife in your carry on luggage, and of course, that you leave your drugs at home.
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You've got free (FREE!) porn here on the TFP.
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But not entirely legal porn, not after the recent decision about file sharing which seems to roll back all the precedents about photocopiers and VCRs.
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You can go to your corner liquor store and buy as much alcoholic refreshment as you wish to consume.
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If you're not in a dry county, and it's not Sunday, and it's not after 8:00 ion Connecticut, and you don't try to make it yourself. Basically, your mileage may very.
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You can buy all the food you want at the grocery stores, which are filled to brimming.
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Unless you want Coke sweetened with sucrose instead of HFCS, or locally grown, but not photogenic produce.
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You can assemble, and protest your government right outside your front door without fear of imprisonment or worse.
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Oh sure, but try to do it where there might be some sort of contextual linkage and you will be shunted off to a "Free Speech Zone", or try to argue something that there is a vested and monied interest in avoiding, and see how quick the heat comes down.
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You can buy a real, live gun if you want. In fact, you can buy 100 guns if you wanted.
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I missed the part where this was a good thing.
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You can raise killer bees.
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Again, this is a good thing because...? And you can raise killer bees, but not smoke killer Bs.
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You can buy 100,000 Harvester ants for around $500 bucks.
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Fess up, you have an entymology fetish. Actually, I am curious as to why this would be a good example of freedom.
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You can buy stock in Google and become a millionaire in 5 years.
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You can also buy stock in Enron and become destitute overnight.
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You can paint your house purple.
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But your homeowners' association will take you to court and probably win because, don't you know, purple houses lowere property values.
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You can move to Utah and have 10 wives.
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You can also assassinate anyone you are committed to killing, but not legally.
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You can hunt Grizzly bears in Alaska, and fish for Blue Marlin in the Florida Keys.
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But you won't be able to go to ANWR without tripping over an oil well if the current gang of thugs gets its way, nor would you be able to even try to catch that marlin without paying the government for the privilege of registering, something you wouldn't have to do if you, say, wanted to buy a handgun. (I recommend just shooting marlin. You shouldn't need a liscence for that, and the NRA will back you up.).
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You can nail 50 broads a week in Vegas and not get thrown in jail.
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You can only nail broads in Vegas if you live in the 1920's (like the current occupant of the Whitehouse). You can nail 50 hookers a week in Vegas, but, according to my research, it will cost you $25K a week to do it, and no one makes that kind of disposable money legally. No one.
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You can build your own rock mountain in your backyard.
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Subject to local zoning ordinaces. Not bloody likely unless your backyard is in the boondocks.
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You can download every one of your favorite songs - for free!
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Not so much any more, and not legally.
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You can ride the tallest, fastest rollercoasters in the world in the States.
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Nolo Contendere - but it'll cost you.
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You can travel to New Orleans and experience the finest food you ever dreamed of.
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I pity your culinary imagination (though the food there is quite good.)
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You can hike the Grand Canyon or fly to Hawaii.
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For now.
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You can ski down some of the tallest mountains in the world here.
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Oh sure, but eat an Oster from the Chesapeake (if you can find one) and you take your life in your hands.
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You can rollerblade around Manhattan at midnight.
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If you spring for a bullet proof vest.
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You can learn to fly a plane.
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Evidently you don't even need to learn how to land.
But there is an antibiotic cream that will clear tht right up.
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You have over 100 National Parks to visit.
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And harvest old growth timber from
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You don't have this in Mexico, or Brazil or Romania for that matter.
What is it precisely that you wish to do that you can't?
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Smoke a big fat joint on the national mall.
Be lead by the leader we need, not the one we evidently deserve.
Distill my own liquor for personal use without the ATF busting through my windows.
Not have to pay quadruple the global price for sugar or presciption drugs.
Travel without being a target.
Respect my government.
Retire on the money I have been paying to the government to support me when I retire.
Not run the risk of being killed because a DA lacks the imagination to find the right guy.
Pay the taxes I can afford and not have to subsidize motherfucking billionaires who pay diddlyshit and actually get money from the government.
Have a level playing field.
And, finally, on a lighter note, Shoot Evangelists. (Yes, I realize that they would shoot back. That's what is meant by a level playing field.)