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sargebaldy

liberty's decay

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dan posted an article by his guy ralph nader so i feel compelled to post a recent article by my favorite poltician harry browne (a libertarian). and you can find it right here. enjoy. or flame me, or whatever.

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An interesting article with some good points. But still, Libertarianism is just a crazy ideal. :P

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In 1886 powerhouse companies could buy an entire industry and charge whatever they wanted. In 2003 those companies can get rich but they can't buy the whole industry.

In 1886 if you didn't like the way that other guy lived you probably shot him. In 2003 you go to jail for that.

In 1886 that hotdog on the street could kill you and nobody cared. In 2003 the hotdog guy would be jailed so now he has to make safe hotdogs.

...

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This politican sucks. To add to what Aliotroph? said:

In 1886, if you were black it would be highly likely that you'd have to use different facilities than whites. You'd probably go to a crappy school that didn't get nearly enough money. You could get lynched and probably no one would give a damn. People probably wouldn't give a damn if you were Irish, Italian, or Jewish either. In 2003 we the complete opposite.

In 1886, if you were a woman, you couldn't vote. If you were anything other than a white male you couldn't vote.

In 1886, workers didn't have many rights.

In 1886, children worked in factories and got paid very low wages.


On a side note, I was reading about Roman "Democracy" the other day, and I was like, "Man, those stupid Romans sucked, only white land-owning males could vote." A little while later I relaized that America was the exact ssame way. When America was first formed only land-owning white males could vote. Later it was expanded to all white males. It wasn't until the early 1900's that women could vote, and it took 'til the 1960's to ensure that blacks could vote. Then there was the slavery problem. Is this the way American history is taught in Europe?

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Grimm said:

Is this the way American history is taught in Europe?

European countries don't necessarily have a better record, certainly when it comes to women's right to vote. IIRC, there is one European country where women didn't gain the right to vote until the 1970s.

As for "democracy" in the ancient world, you're right. In the "birthplace of democracy", Athens, slaves were regarded simply as property, women had few rights, and there wasn't exactly equality for the men either. Link.

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Grimm said:

On a side note, I was reading about Roman "Democracy" the other day, and I was like, "Man, those stupid Romans sucked, only white land-owning males could vote."

you obviously didn't read well enough to see that rome never was a democracy, it was a very limited republic for part of its history, and an empire after that.

as for women's suffrage, new jersey established the first worldwide voting rights for women in 1776 (although that ended in 1807). sweden allowed women to vote in local elections in 1862, the UK did the same in 1869 and between 1880 and 1920 states in the US started to allow this as well. 1920 is only the date when ALL states had switched to this system and it was made into federal law, so obviously it was going to take awhile. i think america has a pretty good record on women's rights. it's the world as a whole that doesn't.

Grazza said:

IIRC, there is one European country where women didn't gain the right to vote until the 1970s.

1971
* Switzerland

1976
* Portugal (restrictions lifted)

1984
* Liechtenstein

and one nation (albeit a tiny one), Vatican City, still doesn't.

source

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yea, there isn't really that much ancient about Rome.

i think early america had voting rights if you owned land, this included any blacks. however how many blacks owned land in 1780?

all hail the roman states of america

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Ah, Liechtenstein. The forgotten country.
Heh...I think Washington had women's voting rights pretty early on. It also imposed and lifted prohibition earlier than the rest of the country. :P We're so ahead of everyone (tis also one of the places in America where medical marijuana is legal).

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oregon has medical marijuana, although i actually disagree with it. i see no real medical use in marijuana, but feel it should be flat out legalized. we were also the state that came up with the ballot measure, we vote only by mail, we don't have a sales tax, and euthanasia is legal :)

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Only known "medical" use for marijuana is as a pain killer. It probably works nicely for that.

Took until around 1920 before women could vote in Canada. We still do all our voting by shoving really simple ballots marked with pencils into crappy boxes and counting them by hand. It never fails, unlike those silly punch card machines.

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i'm sure it works nice as a pain killer, but so do many other things :P trying to pass medical marijuana is really just a compromise or stepping stone by people who want to get it fully legalized.

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sargebaldy said:

i'm sure it works nice as a pain killer, but so do many other things :P trying to pass medical marijuana is really just a compromise or stepping stone by people who want to get it fully legalized.

Heh so?

Anyway, I think more than take the pain away, it probably makes you not really care that you're dying of cancer. You get stoned and all you can think about is how cool your hands are or weather or not maple bars would be a good topping on your sundae.

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you obviously didn't read well enough to see that rome never was a democracy, it was a very limited republic for part of its history, and an empire after that.


I realize that, silly rabbit. But for some reason, the textbook was comparing Roman "democracy" and American "democracy". I debated whether to throw in that I knew that Rome was never a "real" democracy, but I decided not to. As usual, someine said something. :(

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but it never even called itself a democracy. it's name was 'the roman republic'. i don't see why your book was comparing two republics as if they were both democracies.

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La-dee-da . . . quit nitpicking over stupid stuff, man. I probably don't remember correctly.

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