Personal-freedom-ranking-slips-below-france | SouthernPaddler.com

Personal-freedom-ranking-slips-below-france

dawallace45

Well-Known Member
Interesting article for those in the USA

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/under ... le/2556322

Mate who sent this to me also sent some articles on the number of people imprisoned in the USA , one of the articles mentioned that the USA has more people incarcerated than the rest of the world combined , don't know if that is true but I didn't bookmark the article otherwise I'd send some links , but what really got me was a article on private prisons and the bribing of judges to send people for jail for ridiculous things that wouldn't even rate police involvement here in Australia

David
 

Wannabe

Well-Known Member
Apr 5, 2007
2,645
2
on the bank of Trinity Bay
Good to hear from you David. You should get on here more often.
I am highly suspect of polls and statistics. But they are what they are. I would not doubt the incarceration part. You cannot legislate morality and we do it at every turn. From local ordinances to County, to State, and to Federal laws. Then the Feds. alphabet soup departments with their rules and regulations we don't have a chance. We are subject to break some kind of law or rule at any time. And don't forget the trouble you can get into from running your mouth telling the Truth. Dang, I make it sound like Idi Amain was running the Country. I remember one time I had an Iraqi working for me and we were talking and he ask me. 'Mr. Bob, just what do you want from your government?' I said this is rather simplistic, but I want my Government to protect our borders and leave me the heck alone. So yes David. We have too many people in prison. Or at the lease a lot of the wrong ones in there.
Bob
 

Gamecock

Well-Known Member
Jul 17, 2012
161
6
Just when you think it can't get any worse, our self appointed emperor,"the moron", wants to really do what ever he wants. The congress should step up and stop him and impeach him. But they won't. Thomas Jefferson said: When government gets large enough to give you everything you want, it"s large enough to take everything you have. I'm afraid we've strayed so far from the founding fathers idea of government and reverence for God, that we can never recover. Gamecock.
 

dawallace45

Well-Known Member
Guys , I have several email mates from the USA who are serving police , sheriff's office or retired from , they send me a lot of links all the time , I met these guys on the old Shooters.com and have been corosponding with them ever since , but I have to say that I just don't have time to look at them all and the ones I do look at tend to give my ulser a caning , I don't tend to send most of them on as I've found that many americans see this as disparigaging their country , so I only send on the milder ones

I see a lot of similarities between our countries but a lot of differences as well , for instance the level of patriotism in the USA would never catch on here , the My country right or wrong , just wouldn't work here at all

We don't think much of our politicians and we don't get much in return , our politicians are used to being abused and I think most don't take themselves all that seriously because we sure as hell don't , not long back " Big Ears " [ our prime minister ] was trying to meet people at a supermarket and several people just told him to " Fu$% off " , there is a youtube clip of it , there was another clip where he went up to a crusty old feller and the old feller told him to " Fu$% off you dopy Cu#$ " , unfortunately that clip has been removed , I especially liked the part where the federal Police minders just stood there and grinned like cheshire cats

We do give our politicians a pat on the back on the rare time they do right but we call them on all the shit they do wrong

Personally I consider the whole incarceration thing very important , especially with the level of corruption involved with the industrial prison system , one case that come to mind was where a teenager was jailed for several months for not showing proper respect for county officials and police , how is jailing some of for that a good idea ?, if he didn't have a good opinion of authorities before he now hates them with a passion [ and no , from the article it seems he was actually white ] but the local private prison had beds to fill , that judge is now serving time in one of those prisons , but most get away with it for years it seems

Bob , you are right , You cannot legislate morality , but that doesn't stop people trying to and it never works , you would think people would learn their lessons from the Volstead act , but they didn't and so they banned drugs , look how well that worked out , it wasn't just the USA who lost out on that one as the US government then went and relentlessly pressured the governments of the rest of the world to do the same , so they took a problem that wasn't and made it a worldwide problem

Hell they are still trying to ban prostitution , that has worked well for them too , every time a government bans something it just means that somewhere organized crime , corrupt police and judiciary and possibly the same politicians that banned it are making money

They can't really justify it as being for the peoples own good , hell alcohol , cigarettes and legally prescribed and taken pharmaceuticals kill many many more people and damage lifes much more than illegal drugs have ever done , hell I read a article some time back written my a well known law enforcement officer who reckoned that law enforcement have killed more users and ruined lives much more than the drugs ever could , he reckoned that drug dealers normally just kill other dealers but law enforcement isn't as selective ,

I don't know enough about the subject to know if that is any way true , but the guy seemed to have the credentials to have a better idea than me

Personally I don't believe in banning anything unless what it is negatively affects others and not just the people using it

I figure that in a free country I should be able to do anything I like as long as it doesn't hurt others and by hurt I don't mean hurt their sensibilities , I don't like drugs but I figure it's my business if I either choose to take them or not take them , the government has no business sticking their nose in it at all

By that same point I don't like the idea of Wife swapping , Bondage and S&M and a number of other sexual practices so I don't do them , that is my choice but I have no problem with other consenting adults doing it , just as long as they don't involve me in it

To me the choices are no different than the choice not to drink a certain rum

I'm a atheist , I just don't believe but I have no problem with what others believe just as long as it doesn't involve me in any way

I was talking about this to a mate a little while back and he said that taking that train of thought a step further what did I think about the people who were pushing to get the age of consent lowered and and to get Paedophilia recognised as just a different form of sexuality like gay or lesbian

I told him that they were two different things , with Paedophilia there is no mutual consent , just the same as beastiliaty , there can be no consent and as such should always be banned , personally I don't understand why the media is giving these people a chance to be heard at all , there is NO justification for those sorts of acts

But as to the lowering of the age of consent , I'm of two minds , the age of consent here in QLD is 16 , but even back in the days when I was a teenager girls were sexualy active at a younger age than boys , girls tend to mature physically and I think mentally at a younger age than boys , hell I had a mate who had his life screwed up when his girlfriend pressured him into having sex and her parents found out , seems she left her new diary out and her mother read it , [ good thing she didn't get to read the old diary ] well they had the boy , my mate through the courts and then to Westbrook [ for juvenile offenders ] there was only two months in age between them , he was a virgin and she certainly wasn't but it was he who ended up in the shit and there are numerous stories like that , as I said I'm in two minds , but I think the application of the law needs a bit more common sense

Especially when you consider that 100 years ago 13 year old girls marrying wasn't all that uncommon , trouble is that you can't make a law to encompass everyone , some people are mature enough at 14 and 15 to engage in a steady relationship but others aren't at 18 , so a bit of common sense in needed

I think that I've mentioned before the problem we had here in QLD with police corruption , but not only in the police but in the judiciary and state government , it's something I feel very strongly about , not just because we the people of QLD were being screwed over and that is a big part of it , but because I had relatives and friends who were screwed over ,

Some of the most corrupt policemen in the state were given full amnesty and allowed to stay on in the police service with no loss of rank or pay just to give evidence , some of those people are now pretty much in charge of the QPS

A schoolmate of mine who come from a police family joined up as soon as he left school and he got screwed over big time , he made complaints about the corruption and that complaint was filed away with all the rest by the police minister until he considered there to be a political will to tackle the corruption issue , he was called to give evidence , because he was honest he didn't have any deal with the commission to give evidence and he was given a real hard time by the other police he served with , the people who were giving him a hard time weren't corrupt but they considered that he had broken ranks and treated him like shit , he had to work by him self and he couldn't get back up and was sent into situations that were extremely dangerous for a team of officers let alone a single officer

He also had his flat broken into , he had by this stage lost his marriage due to the stress of it all and was living in a one room flat , in the end he just had a camp chair and camp table , TV , fridge and a hammock , no cupboards or closets as he had to come home every day and search his flat for drugs of any thing illegal , a few times he got home found his place had been broken into , so searched , found and flushed stuff just ahead of a raid by the drug squad , he even had to keep the back off his TV to make searching it easier , same with the toilet cistern lid

He sold his car and took public transport just so no one could hide contraband in his car , he complained to his bosses and was told " What do you expect " , he got abused by his inspector when he told about the break ins and raids and was told he was very lucky he wasn't charged with destroying evidence ,

In one break in they slashed his hammock and his spare uniforms , broke up his table and camp chair , pissed in his fridge and on the floor , shit on the half a pizza in the fridge and wrote DOG on the wall in human shit

His nerves were shot , he lost weight and started getting ill , his inspector told him that he needed to get out of the QPS and not to even think about trying for a medical discharge or pension of an sort and if he tried then all the shit that had come before would look like a walk in the park by comparison , this was an officer with a very good record and several commendations for bravery

This sort of thing happened to a lot of officers who gave evidence willingly , not to all them , in some stations they were very supportive of their officers but in others they were even worse , thing is word of what was happening to some of these officers seemed to be hushed up to a large degree or at least not talked about

I've heard bits and pieces from a lot of the officers I knew back then , many of them had stories about what happened to them or other officers they knew personally but didn't realise it was happening to other officers outside of their aquantance

A good mate of mine who retired a few years back and uses me as someone to talk to about it all [ he reckons telling me is cheaper than telling a therapist , although I do wish he would get a therapist as some of the stuff he tells me really screws up my ulcer ] tells me a lot of stuff as he was transferred to Headquarters as the Fitzgerald was going on

So we and the USA have a lot of the same problems , of course with the USA being so much bigger in population when you get corruption it tends to be a lot worse

A friend in the USA always used to reckon that the USA was founded on the ideal of " One man one vote " , but it didn't take long for it to be changed in reality to " One Dollar one Vote " , but he reckons with inflation it's now most probably " $10 one vote " or possibly more , he reckons that the USA has the best political system that money can buy which is saying something because every political system is for sale as is every political party

When you consider the amount of money spent on every election , doesn't matter if the election is here in Australia or in the USA , at the end of the day some one is going to be expecting a return on their money

Sorry if this post is a bit rambling and disjointed , but I've written if it a dozen or so sittings , my knees are stuffed these days and I've been doing some stuff in the shed and I can only stand for about 10 to 15 minutes at a time before I have to lay down with my leg up , so I lose my train of thought , so I apologize and hope it isn't to rambling and makes sense on some level

David
 

dawallace45

Well-Known Member
Just as a matter of interest , an old work mate who was born in Russia but come over with his family when he was 4 years old gave me a ring yesterday after I got home from the rifle range , he was telling me that he had retired a couple of years back and had spent some time traveling with his wife to visit his family that had spread out a bit over the years , he still had family in Russia and also in the Ukraine but he also had family in the USA and Canada ,

So first off to Russia , he was there before all the strife involving the Ukraine , not long before though , and he remarked how different it was traveling around , he flew in and one of his cousins picked him up from the airport and drove him and his wife around the whole time they were there , even taking them to the Ukraine , well actually some place on the Crimean peninsula he was saying how good it was going through customs , no problem ,

When they found out he was from Australia and had come to visit relatives , some of them told him of friends and family who had gone to Australia and he reckons they couldn't have been more friendly and easy to get along with , he had the same response from the border guards when he went to the Ukraine and it turns out he knew one of the guards auntie , when this was revealed they had to pull the car out of the way and the vodka was bought out and they had to toast to the guards aunt , he reckons he had a great time

Next step of the trip was to the USA , I think I remember him saying that he flew in from Moscow to Los Angeles where he had his prostate examined and then decided to hire a car and drive to their first lot of relative in Arizona , he was saying that he had to go through several check points with very serious unsmiling men who wanted to see his papers and searched his car and held them up for around half a hour each time , they didn't break out the vodka , once he was held up for a hour and a half

He reckons he had a great time in Arizona and met a great many Americans and has developed a great love for American BBQ

He then drove on to Texas where he had more relatives and ate more American BBQ , he had the same problem with the checkpoints in texas , he reckons the American government seem to have forgotten the concept of a free country , he reckons he actually found one of the checkpoint stops very scary

From Texas he flew north to visit more cousins about 150 miles from the canadian border and had a great time again but no BBQ , and his cousin drove him and his wife up to canada to his uncles place , only one checkpoint and the border crossing where he didn't get another prostate exam hut they did search the car and he got a pat down

Once in canada he had no more problems with check points ,

Mate reckons he asked one of his uncles living in Texas what he thought of all the checkpoints [ one is between his uncles place and town and they went through it 6 times ] his uncle just shrugged and said it just reminded him of home in the old days

He flew out from Canada to Hawaii then on to Australia where he didn't get his prostate checked in any of those places

Mate reckoned that he loved America and the People but doesn't know how they can live like that , he was saying his uncle goes through the check point between his property and town pretty much twice a day and still gets stopped every time and asked for his identification , I understand it's only at certain points they have these checkpoints but it must get extremely annoying to have to go through it every bloody way , I suppose the bulk of Americans never see the check points so it's not really a worry to them

I suppose it must appear worse to a visitor than to some one who lives there , but coming from Australia the mate had never seen a check point , actually the only places that used to have checkpoints were military bases and quite honestly up to a year ago most of them were unmanned , now they staff them with unarmed security guards

David
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
I don't know where he found checkpoints in the US? Only ones I've ever seen were going into California where they asked if we had any fruit. Never been searched or patted down.
Perhaps others can tell of checkpoints in US, but it sounds like a made up story to me, David. Last spring I was all across Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Misouri, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan. Just like all other trips here - no checkpoints.
I think he's pulling your leg?
Jack
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
There are checkpoints in Florida ( at the state line ) just before going into Georgia but they are agriculture checkpoints and check trucks , RV.s and trailers but not cars.
The checkpoints requiring passports that I have gone threw are at the border with Canada , both the US side and the Canadian side. The US side has the grumpy Border People with no sense of humor. The Canadian side the border folks are friendly , courteous and very helpful.
 

texastom

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2013
184
4
Dallas
In south Texas there are border check points. At the border naturally, then for some reason another one about 100 miles north of the border. We get stopped when returning from dove hunts. No big deal other than a slight delay. Never had to get out of the car, I think they just asked if we're all US citizens. No ID's shown either.
 

tx river rat

Well-Known Member
Feb 23, 2007
3,043
2
Waco Tx
All your border states have check points ,normally a citizen of the USA is just waved on through ,if not a citizen they will check your papers. They can sear ch your car and do a pat down on you .They are looking for dope and illegals.
When I was pulling rvs and delivering them we went through them all the time.
Ron
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
My guess is that some of the folks working the borders just are sourpusses with no sense of humor.

When I returned to the states from the kids wedding in Canada ( and my improvised camping trip ) the guy at the US Border had no sense of humor. ( Canada's 402 where it meets the States at Point Edward .)
He asked where i had been and I told him the wedding and some camping to enjoy the area since I was up here , the reason I had the little camper back of the Jeep.
Then he asked more questions and I answered them when he came around to the one about is there anything to declare ?

I told him that since I was from the south that I do Declare I'm really happy about being back in the states.
He asked if I was Canadian and I said NO WAY , American , you have my passport. He looked at it and then at me and said , If you were Canadian you would be inside getting strip searched for being such a smart a##. All I could think of was that someone had burned his Grits that morning and probably the Eggs also. He's not really good at being courteous.
Hell the SOB probably did not know what Grits are. :twisted:
He flagged me on threw and the last that I saw of that ass hole was in my rear view mirrors. I sure felt sorry for anyone else going threw his area that day.
 

dawallace45

Well-Known Member
An old gentleman I knew from another list told me about the check points around a year or so ago , he was retired Border patrol , long retired ,

I understand from talking to a good friend of his after his death earlier this year he was a contemporary of Bill Jordan and Skeeter Skelton , those of you who are keen shooters and a bit on the grey side may remember those names , he also mentioned that he was much decorated both from the military and the patrol , but I just knew him as a good friend who was extremely interested in firearms

Although my old friend didn't talk much about those days , he did mention once the first time he met Charles Askins [ another name some may remember ] ,

Any way my old mate was telling me about the checkpoints , he reckons that they were set up some where from 70 to 100 miles inland from the border at various points and some were permanent and some temporary , he reckoned that they were manned by the border patrol and that from what he could see their main use was to piss people off

He told me that since 911 the whole border patrol had changed and it bore very little resemblance to the organisation he knew and he didn't consider it for the better , there again I really don't know as I have no first hand knowledge of it and only can take his word for it , but he was a man I respected and I respected what he told me

There are a lot of web pages and maps of the permanent points but here is a link to wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta ... heckpoints

I didn't realise there were so many of them until reading the wikipedia page , also seems a lot of people aren't happy about them

David
 

Wannabe

Well-Known Member
Apr 5, 2007
2,645
2
on the bank of Trinity Bay
We (as a Nation) have been giving up our freedoms in the name of safety for quite a while now. Like the old Gentleman from days gone by said, we will wind up with neither freedom nor safety.
Bob