Our friend's brother

[Walker]

]

[Sovereign Curtis]

lol

[Kat Kanning]

Don't they give DUIs for walking drunk, even?

[EthanLeeVita]

Driving your body? If one had an open beer in their hand, would that be open container in vehicle?

[Fluff and Stuff]

Don't they give DUIs for walking drunk, even?

Public intoxication, most likely.

[Ogre]

Sadly, this shows how screwed up the system is (depending on your point of view, I suppose). I have a buddy who got a DUI on a bicycle in MN. Yes, they suspended his driver's license for riding a bicycle with a .08 blood-alcohol level. Clearly, these laws are about cash and nothing more. How sad for your friend who will now likely have to pay hundreds of dollars and spend loads of time defending his driver's license because he rode a HORSE.

[EthanLeeVita]

I wish I could say I was alive back then in order to be able to compare the difference. The vast majority of the things you listed were things I've been raised with....whats a free world like?

[Fluff and Stuff]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I see the world as a much more unfriendly place when I walk out the front door every day.  I'm not just being nostalgic when saying it was a different world in the 1960s and 1970s.  There was no mandatory auto insurance.  No seatbelt laws.  No drug testing.  No excessive fines violating the 8th amendment.  No Hitler traffic cameras.  No presenting ID at the airport.  No police checkpoints, which is a scourge I am fighting.

We don't have the mandatory auto insurance, adult seat belt laws or ticketable traffic cameras in NH.  The police checkpoints are kinda confusing in NH but still better than most states.  We can roll some of this back with your help.

[Kat Kanning]

I wish I could say I was alive back then in order to be able to compare the difference. The vast majority of the things you listed were things I've been raised with....whats a free world like?

We do need the really old farts like Lloyd around to tell us how it used to be.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Things were going just 'swimmingly', but, she had to take a bite out of that apple!

[Pat McCotter]

 

[Sam A. Robrin]

I wish I could say I was alive back then in order to be able to compare the difference. The vast majority of the things you listed were things I've been raised with....whats a free world like?

It was no free world then, either (you didn't spend your teenaged years worrying about the draft, for example), but there was an absence of restrictions unnoticeable except in hindsight.  People like me who pointed out certain historical indications of a decaying infrastructure were told that since things could be worse, then of course, they couldn't be better; or we were dismissed as hysterical lunatics, much like the "alarmists" in 1913 who warned that the income tax could one day climb to ten percent . . .

[FreelanceFreedomFighter]

It was no free world then, either (you didn't spend your teenaged years worrying about the draft, for example),

I guess I'm older than you... I clearly remember the draft and being anxious when they would do the annual draft lottery drawings for a "free trip" to Nam...

but there was an absence of restrictions unnoticeable except in hindsight.

I also clearly remember plenty of restrictions. Not as bad as now, but they were there... and if you dared to befriend the "wrong" people, you could be setup by the cops then too.

People like me who pointed out certain historical indications of a decaying infrastructure were told that since things could be worse, then of course, they couldn't be better; or we were dismissed as hysterical lunatics, much like the "alarmists" in 1913 who warned that the income tax could one day climb to ten percent . . .

Or the fact that passing GCA'68 was the beginning of the end of the 2nd... which had started with NFA'34, which our parents and/or grandparents had let slide by because they basically ignored it then anyway. I remember asking a U.S. Senator when I was on a visit to DC, the following question:

"In 1918, both the People and the Government of the United States knew that the only way to legally outlaw alcohol on a national basis was through passing a Constitutional Amendment. The 18th Amendment, known as Prohibition, was passed in 1919 and became effective in 1920. That was repealed by the 21st Amendment at the end of 1933. Yet during the same time, the SCOTUS upheld the Harrison Act making "narcotics" illegal and now President Nixon has signed the CSA (Controlled Substances Act) further outlawing various substances. Please, Senator, explain to me how it is that a Constitutional Amendment was required in order to allow Federal control and outlaw of alcohol, yet it only took mere "legislation" since the 1920s and 30s to allow Federal control and outlaw of drugs and other substances?"

After some babble about how the Harrison Act was agreed to by the States (ignoring the fact that the SCOTUS had said it was Constitutional regardless of that agreement) and a whole host of other obfuscation, we all stood there listening to the crickets chirp for a few minutes before I was led away by some nice Federales and told that MY visit was over.

Basically, the slippery slope actually started with A. Lincoln, proceeded with various Federal power-grabs, hit a stride in 1913-1916, was greased with NFA'34 and broke into a free fall by the second half of the 20th Century. A lot of citizens' blood was shed over those things in the early days going back to the Whiskey Rebellion and culminating in the (not-so-)Civil War. More citizens' paid the price for trying to keep their freedoms through the 1920s and then were distracted from that fight with the Great Depression and WWII. After that, our freedoms were basically gone and were being given lip-service. In the last 50 years, we've seen the same folks who protested in the 60s become the same folks clamoring to stomp on our rights and freedoms in the 90s & 00s. I used to be a minarchist because I was tired of the encroachment of Big Government on all levels, but I've run out of excuses and want to abolish every bit of the People's slavery to the elitists in government... get rid of it all. I used to think that was possible, but have grown more and more cynical that we can achieve any sort of overwhelming gains in freedom while playing under "their" rules. Now, unfortunately, I'm starting to feel too old to make any great difference.  I had hoped that moving to NH would be a good start, but now the NH delegates to the U.S. Congress have also been voting for more and more encroachments on our freedoms. sigh....

[Sam A. Robrin]

I guess I'm older than you... I clearly remember the draft and being anxious when they would do the annual draft lottery drawings for a "free trip" to Nam...

The "you" was Ethan.  I turned 19 a mere eight days after the draft was ended.

[EthanLeeVita]

I wish I could say I was alive back then in order to be able to compare the difference. The vast majority of the things you listed were things I've been raised with....whats a free world like?

It was no free world then, either (you didn't spend your teenaged years worrying about the draft, for example), but there was an absence of restrictions unnoticeable except in hindsight.  People like me who pointed out certain historical indications of a decaying infrastructure were told that since things could be worse, then of course, they couldn't be better; or we were dismissed as hysterical lunatics, much like the "alarmists" in 1913 who warned that the income tax could one day climb to ten percent . . .

I suppose I was rather unclear. I didn't mean to imply I thought it was free then, just freer than it is now. Though I suppose there might be some things that have improved and some that have worsened. I just wish I was able to say I experienced both for comparative reasons.