This country is in real trouble...

[98Z5V]

I think this country is in real trouble - no poop, yeah?

For the longest time now, the 1st Amendment has ruled.  Say what you want, and you're protected.  Well, that's protected by men that do things, not on our continent, that others either can't, or won't, do. 

That is a result of men, ON our continent, that didn't want to be ruled by others, on ANOTHER continent.  It comes from nothing else.  Those willing to fight for what is right, in their own view of what true freedom really is, give it their last shot, and follow it through to the end - whatever that end was going to be.

That "end" is what resulted in this country.

THEY.  They were oppressed, in several different ways.  They were NOT allowed to speak out against that government, and in a sense, that started it all - they had no voice.  Not against the British government.  When everything settled, battles were over, and we were truly "free," it was time to write up directions for the future of this country. 

Freedom of Speech, without fear of government prosecution, was paramount.  That HAD to be "Number 1," and rightfully so.

Now, what got them there?  How did we become "free," finally?  Individuals got them there.  Individuals that owned firearms.  Our ancestors, that owned firearms.  Nothing else, no matter what anyone says, got them to that point of freedom.  Nothing.  Had they only been allowed to own wrist-rockets, we would be speaking "The Queens English" right now.  Typing it, to be exact.

Now, in today's current environment, I think that we've become weak.  Incredibly weak, as a nation.  Our morals, integrity, and intestinal fortitude have all but disappeared - no one has a spine anymore.  Real men speak what they feel, mean what they say, do what they say they will, and their word is their bond.  That has all but disappeared in today's society. 

Today's society talks alot of poop, but they can't back it up.  They have no spine.  They have no morals, they have no integrity, and they have no intestinal fortitude to carry out the actions that they talk so much poop about.  Today's society couldn't fight their way out of a piss-soaked paper bag.  We are a nation of weaklings.  We are a nation of sheep, led by a common community of voices, powerful in a herd of weaklings, when all the voices are loud.  As soon as a wolf - ONE wolf - invades that herd...  the loud, collective voices are silenced, and the herd scatters, shitting all over itself, in fear.  ONE WOLF did that.  ONE WOLF, in a menacing fashion, wrecked that whole herd, as loud as it was before.  The herd scattered, freaked out and scared, silenced itself out of fear of being targeted by that one wolf, and it singularly prayed for it's own safety - without regard for everyone else in the herd.

This is where we are today.  We have a bunch of loud people in this country, we have a bunch of collective voices, saying what they will, and nothing will silence them.  Until they get scared.  Until something fearsome threatens that collective safety. 

As soon as something threatens that collective safety - they scatter, and they silence.  they don't want to be the ones that attract attention to themselves, so they shut up...  until it's safe again.

What makes them safe again? 

The people that come in to protect them, or save their collective asses from certain destruction.  Most people view that savior as "police," and they can't get it out of their head that the police CAN'T save them.  Police are, by current situation, reactive.  They can't be everywhere, all the time, and save you from harm - Harm happens, calls go out, and police react to that harm.

So then, where is the real defense, against real harm?  YOU.  YOU are the defense against real harm.  YOU are right there, WHEN that real harm is going down.  YOU are the one that determines what will ultimately happen, in your own defense.  Right then, at that moment.  It's YOUR decision, at that very moment, and your very future depends on what you do right then.

The 2nd Amendment GIVES you that right.  Just as much as the 1st Amendment gives all of today's people the right to run their mouth, about anything and everything - the 2nd Amendment has CONTINUED to provide that very right FOR them to do so. 

One is not more important than the other, in a sense, until one of them is taken away from you.  Can you face an oppressor, speak your view, and defeat that oppressor with reason and logical discussion?  Yes, you can, if your discussion is that strong, and you can reason with your oppressor - discussion can win, with logical minds.  Your chances are much greater, if you are armed.  When you are armed, your oppressor must listen to your logical views, and must listen to your discussion, backed by the fact that you are armed.  Envision yourself in a situation where you are a cashier in a grocery store, and an armed robber confronts you - and you are not armed.  That armed robber will influence the discussion, completely.  Now, imagine that same situation with the armed robber, when he/she enters the store - and you ARE armed - and you get the drop on that armed robber, right off the bat...  Where is THAT discussion going?...  At that point, your personal training will determine where that discussion goes, but you will be the one with the advantage, not the armed robber... The 2nd Amendment gives you that advantage, wholly, and nothing more.

Can you face an oppressor, speak your view, and defeat that oppressor if you're NOT armed?  That depends on whether or not you oppressor is armed...

One is not more important that the other, but both are the very reason we are here, right now.  They were both created equally, hand in hand.  Speech was deemed more important overall - and it was the 1st Amendment.  It was backed by nothing more than the 2nd Amendment - or we wouldn't be here right now, reading this. 

What the 1st Amendment (ONLY) proponents don't understand is...  The 2nd Amendment proponents are the reason they are even here.  Too many generations of 1st Amendment-Only people have risen to the ranks of senoir leadership.  "I can say anything I want."  The 2nd Amendment people are the only reason that you people are even still here.  Fact.  There are alot of 1st Amendment-Only people here, but I know of NO 2nd Amendment-Only people.  With the 2A people, the 1A is a given, and incorporated and ingrained in them.  To the core.  Not so much, with the 1A-Only people.  The exist because of us.  Only.

Everything you do right now matters.  Everything.  Every action you take, every letter you write, every post you make.  It all matters.  You - all of you - are here right now, just to make sure that the 1st Amendment-Only people will continue to have the right to speak their mind in the future. 

As soon as the 2nd Amendment is defeated, the 1st Amendment will fall...

[edgecrusher]

You are correct, and then shortly there after the fourth.

[planeflyer21]

I agree with a lot of that, Tom.

People wriled up and voicing their disdain of current events online, and others (sheepish) warn "The government monitors the internet!  Sshhhh!!" 

Totally pertinent: 

While that deals with taxes, it is the same for any liberties...God-given.

The Bill of Rights is an acknowledgement of those Natural Rights.  If the BoR was given by men, it can be taken away by men.  While there are those that believe that to be the case, it isn't so.

But as the short presentation The Tiny Dot points out (and Tom), the masses of people...even if they are agitated...will react no more than a disgruntled chicken having their egg taken.  They may cluck a little louder with the hand in their nest but will soon settle in, starting to formulate another egg to be stolen.

A complicit mainstream media furthers the efforts of controllers/money-lender puppets, by focusing on minute little incidents when necessary and big ones when available.  Even only 30 years ago, the state of media reduced a shooting of two or three people at work to a blurb on page 3 of section B in the newspaper.  Now a shitbag that shoots a schoolbus driver and snatches a kid is 24/7 in the middle of a national gun-ban debate, where the unknowingly-being-used shills are crying "Do it for the children!"  Mass-media has the ability to pull a distant and remote private tragedy to center-stage to advance any agenda...and they do advance agendas.  http://www.corporations.org/media/

Conspiracy fact right there. 

To people like that, who crave the power of public office, they don't care.

Know what I've been thinking?  Who sold Saddam Hussein the nerve gas he used on the Iranians and the Kurds?  What's to stop those people from doing such a thing in the United States, as they lose their grip on power, the controlling influence of thug-enforcers waning?

"Freedom's just another word, for nothing left to lose."  Janis Joplin

The jiggy is up.  The workers in this country see the takers with more than they themselves have.  While "advances" in technology have created a nation of couch potatoes and softies, those that feel cornered and trapped will do anything.

And we are about evenly divided now, whether people vote or not...workers and takers.  The funny thing is the takers believe they are a united coalition of coexisting tolerant kumbiya-ians, the rich man is the problem, the white man is the problem, industry and business is the problem, those racists are the problem.  Test their belief system just a bit and they seem to turn on one another, pointing their fingers and laying blame.

The other half are those which realize the above philosophy of the takers is unsustainable.  More and more I see people of all races and many creeds realizing just how much of the current system is bull crap.  They honestly don't care about another's color or what happened 50, 100, 150, or 1000 years ago perpetrated by one group on another.  They are worried about NOW and want to enjoy the fruits of their own labor, without someone in a suit or someone in a box telling them how to do it.

I've been disappointed by some of those in the firearms community and how they seem to be in a mass of dots, but willing to heed the every command of the tiny dot with threats of enforcement.  That isn't their fault though.

As Tom points out with the 1st A-only-ers, we have been force-fed for decades an agenda.  Look up Stockholm Syndrome.  We are innundated with images of "right-wing extremists" holed up against SWAT teams and gunned down, had multiple guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition (pffftt...a short day at the range)...all only because they wanted to sieze his house to build a park "for the children".  Can't you just concede or die already?

Jon

P.S. As I've said before, there are millions of us that may be willing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder and FIGHT...well once it's started, because I have to work, and what if they take my home?  I have to think about my three kids and getting them peacefully into slavery, rather than watching me get gunned down standing alone, etc, etc, etc.

Nobody wants to be that first one.

Failing to acknowledge that if we rose up en masse as one, they would have crap panties.

[MaDuce]

The more I have scientifically studied the function of peace and harmony, the more it became apparent that this country genuinely has no hope. It goes much deeper then the subjects of a few debates. It covers the very threads upon which our cultures and national structure are built. To save our country we would have to uproot everything upon which our lives are built. Thousands, even millions of Americans will literally defend to the death the very factors that are bringing this country down.

There is no realistic solution to the problem anymore. At least not one that can be solved in the next couple decades, if even our lifetimes.

TBH, there's going to have to be a 3rd world war. I am not saying this as some wacky "apocalypse seeker" but as a realist. It all has to do with population growth and the breakdown of education. As populations grow, it becomes harder to educate and people start acting like wild animals. Nature's answer is to thin the population back down. This happens routinely in the Animal kingdom as well as in the world of human beings. Right now, we're making a heavy effort to prevent it but eventually we're going to loose control and that part of nature is going to explode. Exactly how it will, I don't know, but it has to happen. The laws of nature demand it.

[planeflyer21]

Thousands, even millions of Americans will literally defend to the death the very factors that are bringing this country down.

That's a mouthful of truth there.

I'm not sure though how many are "committed", just as with constitutional issues like firearms ownership.  Like Tom pointed out.

Dude on the local radio plays a clip, "Ain't nuthin' nice about nature!"

Yup.

Jon

[Magwa]

A disease or something will get us next knock us back down to a more humble level and life will go on.... until then keep your powder dry and the sun at your back...

[unforgiven]

Without the 2nd you won't have the 1st,that is the honest to God truth.

[tackleberry2000]

With out the Second there are no others. If you can't defend it you won't have it.