Seriously thoughtful How do you plan to prove you are a citizen?

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

No, it's not.
And let's be clear: The U.S. government is still accountable to its people. The problem is, the people refuse to do their duty to hold them accountable. It's called participating in government... which doesn't mean voting every 4 years for a President, and ignoring everything that happens in-between.

The result of which is the same thing... the people being accountable to the government! Doesn't matter if we CAN change it. It matters only if we DO change it. And as you say, we don't.

(LOL! I haven't made so many political statements in the past 30 years added together! Couldn't we switch to a less controversial subject... like religion or something? My God got better grades in school than your God!)

Stitchawl

[Robert Minneman]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

There ought to be a corollary to Godwin's law to include the first use of the term "liberal" in a derogatory manner.

I was the first?!?! Cool!

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

(LOL! I haven't made so many political statements in the past 30 years added together! Couldn't we switch to a less controversial subject... like religion or something? My God got better grades in school than your God!)

I'm still amazed this thread hasn't self-ignited in nuclear fire by now, myself...

[McKGrif]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

But it isn't the same country our founding fathers envisioned, nor is it the same country for which Emma Lazarus penned her "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."

Everything changes. That's neither good nor bad. It's change.

Stitchawl

The New Colossus is my favorite poem. Thought you might like this. It's a screen saver for your ebook

[McKGrif]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

No, it's not. In a reality of limited resources, people taking advantage of services that weren't intended for them (and that they did not contribute to with taxes), and falsifying identities in order to defraud governments and individuals, there is every good reason to have an ID proving citizenship.

I don't want to go all political in a mobileread thread, but being a citizen doesn't entitle you to the fruits of someone elses labor, anymore than it does a non citizen.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by McKGrif

I don't want to go all political in a mobileread thread, but being a citizen doesn't entitle you to the fruits of someone elses labor, anymore than it does a non citizen.

Of course not... but being a citizen entitles you to the services entitled all citizens by your country (and supposedly services for which citizens duly paid taxes for). Allowing non-citizens access to those services--or, for that matter, a citizen who pretends to be someone else in order to defraud the system--may mean a citizen doesn't get what they are entitled to, and your tax money is not being spent properly.

I'd think anyone would be concerned enough, over whether their tax money is being improperly spent, to welcome ID cards that would help prevent it.

[DawnFalcon]

...

If tax is the dividing line, then surely all taxpayers, citizen or not, should have equal access.

[GlennD]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I'm still amazed this thread hasn't self-ignited in nuclear fire by now, myself...

Maybe we're finally growing up enough to disagree with each other courteously.

[Xenophon]

No we're not!

Yes we are!

Mom! GlennD is poking me!!!


Xenophon

[Angst]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."

...and we will build a fence to keep them out, and deport them when we find them.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Might have been due to radiation levels in the water? The US did a lot of nuclear testing in that area right up until the early 60's. God only knows the size of the octopi there today!

Mmmmmmm; tako poki!

[luqmaninbmore]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

To those who cry "Big Brother" over the matter... I completely discount their concerns on the basis that they are way overdue for a reality-check...

In other words, your only response for their concerns is an ad hominem attack. I expect a little better from a person of your intellect.

Luqman

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

In other words, your only response for their concerns is an ad hominem attack. I expect a little better from a person of your intellect.

It's not an attack. It's a dismissal of an overly-paranoid, content-lacking cliche disguised as an argument.

Hey... now we're getting somewhere!

[luqmaninbmore]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

The result of which is the same thing... the people being accountable to the government! Doesn't matter if we CAN change it. It matters only if we DO change it. And as you say, we don't.

(LOL! I haven't made so many political statements in the past 30 years added together! Couldn't we switch to a less controversial subject... like religion or something? My God got better grades in school than your God!)

Stitchawl

Why is it bad to make political statements? Politics is a collective negotiation of autonomy and identity; to abandon the former seems to me to be tantamount to abandoning the latter.

Luqman

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

It's not an attack. It's a dismissal of an overly-paranoid, content-lacking cliche disguised as an argument.

Yes, shame about the legal immigrants whose processing time was delayed, not like they belonged in America anyway.

*sigh*