From: veal@utkux1.utk.edu (David Veal)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Re: FREE 1-YEAR NRA... enough allready!!
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 21:45:31 GMT
Organization: University of Tennessee Division of Continuing Education
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: leviathan.ce.utk.edu

In article <cthong.713767290@sfu.ca> cthong@fraser.sfu.ca (Christopher Thong) writes:

>>In <cthong.713669756@sfu.ca> cthong@fraser.sfu.ca (Christopher Thong) writes:
>>>firstly- hold on -let me get a grip on myself-- heh- 
>>>I AM NOT FROM THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA!!
>>>SINGAPORE IS NOT , HAS NEVER BEEN , WILL EVER BE A CHINESE STATE!!
>>>HEH.HEH..AHHHMMMM..
>
>>Ah.  You're from the place which has a leadership that's so
>>anal-retentive, it has outlawed CHEWING GUM.
>sigh.... once again my insulting young friend....get your damn facts
>straight - the act of chewing gum is not illegal in s'pore.
>it's the importing of the gum to SELL that is.

     Not totalitarian control, just trade barriers.

     Somehow it seems amsuing someone being caught at customs and arrested
on the charge of posession of chewing gum with intent to sell.

>each person is allowed to bring in 2 cartons if he gets it from overseas
>for his own use...
>the reason for imposing the ban on importation is that a 20 cent piece
>of gum was time and time again responsible for bringing sections of a 
>5 billion dollar subway system to a halt.

     Did it occur to anybody to make the subway system gum-proof rather
than making laws against chewing gum?

>every 4 years we have elections in the state.
>MP s fight for the right to represent their constituencies in parliament.
>we elect the best person whom we feels best represents our wants and 
>needs and we put him in. we have a president and a prime minister.
>you need a gun because you don'y feel safe in your own home
>or outside.

     Interesting leap from one subject to another.     

>you take so much longer to get things done- laws passed - legislatures
>proposed and even getting a proper geographical education
>and i'm the UNFREE one? 

     A few points:

     The national government of the United States was supposed to be slow
and deliberative (it was *designed this way*) so as to prvetn spur-of-the-
moment laws made without careful thought.  (That's also the reason it has to
go through two houses and a President.)  Quick action was to take place at
the state level.
     It was also intended to help curb the grabs for power possible under a
system where laws can be made quickly and without input.

     As for your being "unfree," I fail to see how your government being able
to pass laws quickly makes you any more free.  Laws, as a general rule, 
more often tell people what they *cannot* do.

>i'm the one whose controlled ?
>feh...

     What do you think laws are for if not controlling people?

>i'm the one whose living in a police state when:
>(if you're canadian)- you have a politician who knows full well that 
>can go back on campaign promises and doubledeal doctors in b.c. and 
>get away with it?

      This is the fault of an apathetic electorate, not a police state.  A
police state comes from the government and is imposed downward.

>(if you're american) - you have darryl gates?
>feh...

     Ohhh.  Darryl Gates is no longer Chief of Police in Los Angeles.  Much
of his actions were because of abuse of power, not power he was lawfully
given.
     But one example of a bad police chief does not a police state make.  
(BTW, Darryl Gates worked for the local police, and was not affiliated with
the National government.)

>i can't tell if you're american or canadian.
>but once again , i still have a healthy respect for both countries , 
>brush up on your geography and general knowledge before you discuss
>my country again . i'm proud and happy to be s'porean and am fully
>aware of faults in my own country's system which i'll be more ready 
>to DISCUSS with you when you (OR ANYBODY) gets their facts together.
>chewing gum indeed... and i bet you put your hand under bus seats
>and lecture theatre desks every day and thank god that your govt isn't
>anal retentive.

     Somehow, I am not all that concerned that my government doesn't
waste its time with chewing gum put under the seats of theatre chairs.
They're not the government's chairs, and they're none of the government's
business.


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|David Veal  PA146008@utkvm1.utk.edu  University of Tennessee             |  
|                                     Division of Continuing Education    |
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Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns