There are two ways to freedom, it seems. The first is to give it and let what will be, be. The second is to give it and punish those who abuse it. There’s a quote I once saw on the board in my high school history teacher’s classroom: “Those who are free will never be equal. Those who are equal will never be free.” I think it pretty much sums up what I’m thinking. It seems like in the effort to spread universal happiness and prosperity that the government (and people) think that we need to come down on anyone making life “harder” for someone else and take that right away to make another’s life easier. What we miss is that when we’re done we’ve taken that right away from the abused as well.

For instance, I cannot joke about killing. I can’t laugh and point and say “You say that again and I’ll kill ya, ya slimey bastard!” I can’t, obviously these days, joke about bombs or explosions. I can’t say anything remotely violent in this country of free speech.

Barring that, I can’t insult the capabilities of the police when I get pulled over. No, really, I can’t (this is Texas, after all; the cops are just walking penises with reflective sunglasses and cowboy hats [std. issue]). I can get taken in for having a difference of opinion, literally, with an officer. Sure, I will be released, but not after they do everything they can to make me feel like crap.

And as if that wasn’t enough, now I find it illegal to decrypt, in the privacy of my owen home, anything that was delivered to me encrypted (thank you DMCA). I can’t play my DVDs as VCDs (a conversion guaranteed to me, in part, by the Audio Home Recording Act). This is illegal because there was basic encryption applied to make my life hell. I cannot exercise my license to the material, basically. Lovely.

You have to love America. If you don’t they can arrest you and make you love it. Gotta love it.
 
Current Music: Silence – Jars of Clay – The Eleventh Hour