# Home of the free my ass! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 4, 2003, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424 "2003-04-04T09:14:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/41 "2003-04-05T10:36:01Z")
Its a human instinct, one of the most reliable and dependable of responses, one that has been the salvation of any number of braindead regimes, up to and including our Fearless Misleader. When the drum starts to pound and Johnny goes marching off to war, regardless of how mistaken that war may be, the American people go into patriotic retard mode. If you can look at American responses to the “war” in Grenada, you will find that a vast majority of Americans, who previously thought Grenada was a revolting liquer, believed without question that elite squads of Cuban commando bulldozer drivers were busily building an airfield for refueling Soviet strategic bombers, hence a desperate and urgent threat to Amercian security. It is knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal stupidity, but it never, ever fails: just start the ball rolling, and the Americans will fall into lockstep. In all fairness, it should be noted that this reaction is not peculiar to Americans. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/42 "2003-04-05T10:42:16Z")
I really hate this thread because everytime I see it my brain parses it as ( home of the (free my ass)) and I am wondering what a ‘free my ass’ is and what it’s home would be. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/43 "2003-04-05T10:56:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Evil Captor \* > \*\*I think Americans who would suppress free speech – like the fucktard deejay on my local Clear Channel Voice of Evil Network station, who says people shouldn’t be allowed to oppose the war – are a disgrace to all the Americans who took up arms and died believing they were defending freedom. \*\* While I agree very strongly with this, it’s important to point out that the aforementioned guaranteed Freedom of Speech only means that the government cannot restrict your speech (except in the usual well-worn exceptions). It doesn’t mean that a private corporate entity is required to broadcast your views on their media (or, indeed, have even a remotely objective editorial viewpoint). It doesn’t mean that the entire rest of your neighborhood can’t say rude things about you (in fact, for the most part it means that they _can_). It doesn’t mean that those that disagree with you aren’t free to disassociate themselves from you and any enterprise with which you may be connected. Mind you, them doing these things may well be evidence of their fucktarditude, but hey-- for the moment it’s a free country. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/44 "2003-04-05T11:09:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Priceguy \* > Best damn answer I’ve ever heard. I hear some of the deserts are breathtaking. And the Rockies. And the beaches. To hell with the cities, though, but that goes globally. Woody Guthrie lives ! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/45 "2003-04-05T13:43:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoe \* > \*\*Priceguy, why not do your on non-scientific research? Hand out copies of the Bill of Rights to Americans and ask them to sign them if they believe in them. \*\* Two problems with this plan: 1. It would require me to cross the Atlantic, which costs money I don’t have. 2. Of those who even know what the Bill of Rights is (which is not going to be all of them), most will probably sign just because it’s the obviously right thing to do. _Of course_ we support the Bill of Rights. Now excuse me while I go tape this protester’s mouth shut. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/46 "2003-04-05T14:35:20Z")
I don’t know. In my local paper, there’s at least one person in every letter to the editor column telling protesters that protesting is un-patriotic and un-American. But they’re morons, and that’s it. I haven’t seen any protests up here get silenced yet. Is it me, or is Gary Kumquat a king mixer? ---
**Author:** ![Kitfox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@Kitfox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kitfox)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/47 "2003-04-05T14:53:36Z")
We, here in America, have the right to write and publish any oddball philosophy we happen to by into and will never be thrown in Gulag. We can petition and redress the government in numberous ways without a single jackbooted thug “disappearing” us. We can hold idiotic rallies complete with giant puppets and drum beatings for days on end on private property without a single tank showing up to run anyone down (though the police may ask us to keep it down if the neighbors complain). In short, we have the right to talk about anything we want, think anything we want, and back anyone we want without fear of government reprisal. Yet we don’t have free speech because people get irritated when others stand in the street and scream? Maybe, just maybe, its not the messege people are upset about, but the protests. And maybe, just maybe, people will respond to poll, which to the best of my knowlege isn’t legally binding, with a different set of values than they would pending legislation. But I’m sure as the obviously intellectually superiour beings you are, you realised this, and didn’t just knee-jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/48 "2003-04-05T14:57:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Priceguy \* > \*\*I’m willing to bet money that this article is the source for the article I read, and that the Swedish newspaper managed to reverse the figures. > > One in six is still pretty fucked up, though. \*\* Well, yeah, you can also say it invalidated most of your OP. One in six? Shit man, where have you been in Western Society the last few decades? I’ll bet I can get 1 in 6 people to agree that Ronald Mc Donald is a Mayan demigod, that _Daredevil_ is a documentary, and that Lysol enemas make your whole outlook on the day piney-fresh. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/49 "2003-04-05T15:00:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Priceguy \* > \*\*And this is relevant how, exactly? \*\* Sad. He can’t even remember what he wrote. > [@](#): > > _both by the moron who started this thread_ > We’re talking about a supposedly civilized country where shooting is a statistically significant cause of death. > [@](#): > > I’d kill to protect their right to say it, Hence _my_ response > [@](#): > > See? And in a civilized country like America, you’d have the right to own guns with with to do it. Remember, **Priceguy** time-binding is one of the hallmarks of sentience\*. Try to be brighter than plankton next time, 'k? Fenris \*“The plants adapt to their environment through their awareness and control of energy. The animals adapt to their environment through their awareness and control of space. And we humans adapt to our environment through our awareness and control of time.” 1921, Alfred Korzybski ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/50 "2003-04-05T15:02:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anthracite \* > \*\*I’ll bet I can get 1 in 6 people to agree that Ronald Mc Donald is a Mayan demigod, that _Daredevil_ is a documentary, and that Lysol enemas make your whole outlook on the day piney-fresh. \*\* “piney-fresh”… Bwah-hahahaha! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/51 "2003-04-05T15:03:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Priceguy \* > \*\*Best damn answer I’ve ever heard. I hear some of the deserts are breathtaking. And the Rockies. And the beaches. To hell with the cities, though, but that goes globally. \*\* What’s a city? If you mean the incredibly fucked-up view of American cities that Europeans receive from our own American media here (which gives one the impression that every American city in a continent-sized country looks like New York, LA, or San Francisco), then you have no idea about the inner 95% of the US cities (which look a lot like Kansas City and Colorado Springs). ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/52 "2003-04-05T15:15:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anthracite \* > \*\*… then you have no idea about the inner 95% of the US cities (which look a lot like Kansas City and Colorado Springs). \*\* Holy Crap! Ninety-five percent of the inner cities look like Kansas City? Dude. I give up. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/53 "2003-04-05T15:19:19Z")
Fenris, I’m not at all sure what you’re trying to say. I mentioned shooting deaths because that is a bad thing about the USA. I assume we agree on that. I said I’d kill for free speech, because I would. And then you say that in America citizens are allowed to own guns. How is that relevant to the discussion? Have I said that I’m opposed to gun control? In favor of gun control? Have I said anything about gun control? I don’t even remember mentioning guns. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/54 "2003-04-05T15:20:58Z")
Gotta dash out an buy a new irony meter. Mine just got busted for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/55 "2003-04-05T16:11:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Priceguy \* > \*\*Have I said that I’m opposed to gun control? In favor of gun control? Have I said anything about gun control? I don’t even remember mentioning guns. \*\* You were the one who brought up this in your very OP: > [@](#): > > We’re talking about a supposedly civilized country where shooting is a statistically significant cause of death Claiming that you “don’t even remember mentioning guns” is disingenuous enough that I cannot help but wonder how this is no longer “trolling” and expect that the Staff will close your thread here. I suppose you would argue that “shootings” occur from knives, hammers, and biros? ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/56 "2003-04-05T16:20:51Z")
And syringes. Shooting definitely happens with syringes. Just, you know, not with bullets. (But it would be funny to see someone ask for a .38 caliber needle. Somehow that Saturday night ain’t so special anymore.) ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/57 "2003-04-05T16:33:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SkipMagic \* > \*\*And syringes. Shooting definitely happens with syringes. Just, you know, not with bullets. (But it would be funny to see someone ask for a .38 caliber needle. Somehow that Saturday night ain’t so special anymore.) \*\* My insulin injection this morning hurt enough that it may as well have been .38 cal… ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/58 "2003-04-05T16:45:45Z")
Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/59 "2003-04-05T18:28:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anthracite \* > **. . . that Ronald Mc Donald is a Mayan demigod** Do not mock the Lord of the Two Arches, woman, lest he afflict us in our gatherings, so that our meals will never be happy. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/60 "2003-04-05T20:37:55Z")
Since I got to say what I wanted and this thread subsequently turned into an all-out trollfest, I’ll request that the thread is closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424.md?page=4)