and who did you call today?

[Nathans_Dad]

I'm sorry, you HAD a point? Missed that part.

[Jim Richards]

Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
Remember when you ran away
And I got on my knees and begged you
Not to go because I´d go beserk?
WELL,

You left me anyhow and
Then the days got worse and worse
And now you see I´ve gone completely
out of my mind

AND


(chorus 1)
They´re coming to take me away,
Haha, they´re coming to take me away,
Ho ho, hee hee, ha ha,
To the funny farm
Where Life is Beautiful all the time
And I´ll be happy to see
Those Nice Young Men
In their Clean White Coats
And they´re coming to take me AWAY,
HA HAAAA

You thought it was a joke,
and so you LAUGHED, YOU LAUGHT
When I had said that losing you
Would make me flip my lid,

RIGHT?

You know you laught.
I HEARD you laugh, you laughed
And laughed and laughed
And then you left,
And now you see I´m Utterly Mad

AND

(chorus 2)
They´re coming to take me away,
Haha, they´re coming to take me away,
Ho ho, hee hee, ha ha,
To tha Happy Home with Trees and Flowers
And Chirping Birds and basket weavers
Who sit and smile and
Twiddle their thumbs and toes
And they´re coming to Take me Away,
HAHAAAAAAAAA

I cooked your food,
I cleaned your house,
And this is how you pay me back
For all my kind unselfish loving deeds

RIGHT?

Well, you just wait,
They´ll get you yet,
And when they do, they´ll put you in
the ASPCA, you mangy MUTT,

Thanks Jeff. It's been ages since those words rang in my head. I think that Mul must've been the muse for this.

[techweenie]

Originally posted by Moses
If you trust ANY government with the most intimate details of your life you are no student of history or the mechanics of power. The lessons you learn will be harsh and lasting.

Very few students of history left, Moses. That's why it's constantly "deja vu all over again."

People don't stop to think how the Nazis came to know all about their citizens: who to make wear a patch; who to cart off to camp; who to pull out of camp for slave labor/industrial development work. People don't know the numeric tattoos on concentration camp prisoners carried work specialty information coded and stored on punch cards to make it easy to make life or death decisions.

Interesting read:
"IBM and the Holocaust: the strategic alliance between Nazi Germany and America’s most powerful corporation."

--------------part of abstract---------------
Herman Hollerith, an employee of the U.S. Census Bureau, won a contest to provide the best automated counting device to be used for the 1890 census. His “Hollerith machine”, a punch card information storage and retrieval system, became the foundation of the corporation he founded, International Business Machines (IBM). This book tells the story of how IBM, through its German subsidiary, Dehomag, knowingly and willingly afforded Nazi Germany the statistical power and efficiency to locate Jews and others for persecution and eventual extermination throughout the 1930's and continuing throughout World War II. To Americans at the time, IBM’s president, Thomas J. Watson, seemed “the nation’s chief industrial patriot”, but he was reaping profits from both Nazi Germany and the Allies - apparently without a hint of moral unease.

At first, IBM’s direct business dealings with Germany were not hidden and Watson micromanaged virtually every Dehomag decision. For his assistance in helping the Nazis conduct censuses to identify “racial Jews” down to the 1/16th level (e.g., one Jewish grandparent, as well as people in other disfavored ethnic or political categories, Watson was awarded the Merit Cross of the German Eagle with Star (second in prestige only to Hitler’s German Grand Cross) in 1937, an honor Watson proudly accepted at the International Chamber of Commerce meeting that year. Eventually, Hollerith machines would be used in record-keeping for slave labor and for the railway trains to concentration camps. Hollerith machines were onsite at the Nazi concentration camps: the tattoos burned into the flesh of inmates originally were Hollerith punch card numbers. But after the November 1938 Kristallnacht, Watson relied more on intermediaries to conduct business with Nazi Germany. IBM New York went into “don’t ask, don’t tell” mode, and Watson began to wage a successful public relations campaign to keep his all-American image intact. After all, the Allies also found Hollerith machines invaluable for their war effort. (Unfortunately, I must note that the United State did use the Hollerith machine to locate Japanese American citizens for internment.)

-------------------------------

[Seahawk]

Originally posted by Moses
I've been passively watching this thread and I am AMAZED at how easily we accept government intrusion into our lives.

At some point, our liberty is threatened more by our own government than by any attack Al Quaida could ever deliver.

We have embraced illegal wiretaps, justified gestapo tactics at Ruby Ridge and Waco, endured the Alternative Minimum Tax, we pay our speeding tickets dutifully when no public danger was at issue, our states have surrendered the right to decide issues relating to medical marijuana, end of life issues and abortion. The IRS tramples citizens rights with no due process and no oversight.

The liberty and freedom that is our birthright have been eroded and degraded by both parties, always for the "greater good".

If you trust ANY government with the most intimate details of your life you are no student of history or the mechanics of power. The lessons you learn will be harsh and lasting.

And I am AMAZED how easily YOU wank about government without doing a f'ing thing.

Too busy?

[Moses]

Originally posted by Seahawk
And I am AMAZED how easily YOU wank about government without doing a f'ing thing.

Too busy?

Yup. Same problem with global warming. I'm just too busy to fix that problem, too.

[Seahawk]

Originally posted by Moses
Yup. Same problem with global warming. I'm just too busy to fix that problem, too.

Ride a bike to work.

[M.D. Holloway]

I know a guy in our neighborhood who is a surgeon, good guy. Just got elected to the city counsel.
I guess if you really had the passion for change you could always start small and see what happens?