For sure. I cannot improve upon this statement. ^^^

Bruce

As I have said many times before, I did personally live in the Soviet Union, and I find comparisons very valid.

Actually, in some ways what is going on in the US now is even worse than the old Soviet Union due to superior technology.

My prefernce would be to see the US go back to the way it was in the 80s, the country I chose to live in and to which I swore the Oath of Allegiance at my Naturalization.

people are being conditioned for this. A good number of businesses are now demanding ID before selling certain items, such as alcohol. Even when you're obviously decades away from being underage. Yet few of us even blink. Those places don't get my business, but their policy certainly hasn't hurt them much apparently.

One of my professors, who was German, told me to always be on the watch for these kinds of developments in our country. "Just leave. Don't try to fight it and don't hope it will get better; it won't and the delay may be fatal. Just get out."
I'm torn on this. Canada being a decent alternative. But I'm not giving up yet, just because I'm convinced Americans have liberty written into their DNA. Slowly, the tide is turning against the federal overreaches. Against the violence from DHS and TSA. Against criminal violence in random strip searches such as was performed on Hebshi at Detroit a few days ago. This *is* not the country it was, not even close; it has turned into a h*ll hole from citizens' neglect of their duty and from federal malfeasance. But this can be fixed when the conditions are right, and in fiscal and economic terms, the conditions are aligning.

Dead on, except for one point: I think the first quoted poster was referring to the Secretary of State's boss (so should have been "her boss"), not the officer's boss. And while DHS reports to Nappy, the State Department is in charge of all things passport. Other than that, no issues with the above .

What truly scares me is what's going to happen next time there's a big event.

It is absolutely mind-boggling how 9-11 has been used to pry into nearly every corner of our lives 'out of an abundance of caution'.

Think about our starting point on 9-10-01 and look where we are ten years later.

Now imagine where we are now as a starting point if/when there's another big event.

Read up sometime about the implications of the former 'color code' system. IIRC, if a code 'red' had ever been declared, I think we would have been confined to our homes and all travel would have been shut down. It sounded eerily similar to martial law.

Perhaps one day in the future, the US will relive the uprisings in Egypt, and Lybia, and other parts of the world where freedom is being fought for, perhaps we should watch and learn from then, because perhaps some day it will happen here.

Exactly. I don't see much of the resistance that others seem to see. The setpoint for "acceptable" has been moved substantially, and I don't think it's going to go back in my lifetime.

I've officially left the US. There are some other northern expats in my new location, and there's a telling pattern that occurs when I meet a new one:

Me: So where are you from?
Expat: The US. I decided it was time to leave.

Not "I love the weather here!" or "I've always wanted to live somewhere exotic!"

Not a chance; the vast majority of the population is fat and happy. So long as they can lie on the sofa with a six-pack of beer, they are 'free'.

For those of us who already live elsewhere, we should not look at what is going on in the US with disinterest, or "so what if the US goes to h. e. double toothpicks". Until some other country becomes the super power and the UN police, when the US goes down, they will take a whole host of other countries with them. Canada being the first.

The Canadian government already kowtows to big brother and would be the first to follow, like the good sheeple we are.

Do you really think he grew up in the 19th century?

And is there any doubt that there WILL be another event?

We have been born into interesting times.

Big event yes; considerable doubt.

I'd say this country hit its stride when it comes to personal freedom between about 1967 and 9/10/2001. We had our problems, and we can debate all day various economic and foreign policies, but we were pretty ok on the domestic freedom front.

Well said^