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Free Country My ASS

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with ha media group

For those of you who do not know me intimately - I wasn't born here....

At some point of my growning up, my parents decided to travel from Moscow to New York, with one way tickets, which is how all real traveling should be done. I had to come along, being a minor of sorts.

I finished high school at sixteen, and promptly declared that I liked heavy metal music, perms, boys and i was gonna smoke if it killed me. We had this brand of cigarettes in Moscow called Manhattan, and it came in a gorgeous sky-blue and white packaging, with the skyline of the city being completly white. It looked oh so promising to a sixteen-year-old me - that's where were were 'traveling to'... A city of white skyscrapers where one could say: "With All Due Respect, Fuck You, Mister President," and still be alive in the morning.... That's the country I moved to, cause my parents couldn't say stuff like that and get away with it - they'd be homeless or locked up, but here they could. We all could.

Not that any of us wanted to utter that sentence, but it felt GREAT knowing that it was possible.

So how and why is it that all of us here are basically ignoring the fact that our personal freedoms (all of them) just got trampled on?  Why are we ok with it?

See, here is the thing... If the phone company turns in the records of my conversations to the FED, i could care less if I was talking about uncle Joe's liver transplant - the subject matter is and always has been irrelevant. It's my conversation to which they, whoever they may be, have no RIGHT per the Constitution of this country...  

It's not about terrorism or freedom of speech... It's not about how afraid we are of anyone with an Arabic sounding name or accent. It's not about our kids' future safety... It's about a much larger monster, that we have bred and raised in the name of Fear, that we've been feeding one Constitutional Amemdment at a time, knowing full well that the beast is insatiable...

I haven't written much in a while, for a reason... We are all pedlling used goods in a used country.

The mermaids will not sing to any of us if we keep silent...

 >> Copyright (C) 2008, inna hardison. please, don't steal from the starving artists, it's illegal and well, just plain freakin' wrong!

Comments(263)

Amanda Evans
DFW Living - Fort Worth, TX
Real Estate Broker - Fort Worth Texas

Inna, I know you wouldn't edit comments in your blog.  It was Terry editing her own comments after she realized that Bush Sr didn't serve 3 terms as President. 

Chris, I thought the point of the post was that Inna was still trying to figure out if OJ did it or not.  As far as flying with a stun gun is concerned, it's not that I was scared to fly without it so much as I was jealous of the little old lady in the wheelchair getting all the action.

Paul,  1.  you cut a hole in a box....

Jul 27, 2008 10:59 AM
Terry Haugen STAGE it RIGHT! 321-956-2495
Stage it Right! - Melbourne, FL

Amanda, I'm not that stupid!

Jul 27, 2008 11:39 AM
Inna Hardison
ha media group - Orlando, FL
Wordpress for Real Estate & Design, Print HaMedia Group

Mandy - you funny... Thank god it wasn't your red hot stapler, than we'd all have issues. BTW: OJ did do it, and i am not a lawyer because of it... Yep, it's true - doesn't take much to make me change direction.:-)

 

Jul 27, 2008 11:47 AM
Inna Hardison
ha media group - Orlando, FL
Wordpress for Real Estate & Design, Print HaMedia Group

Paul, of course we are friends:-) Cute!!!! Hey, any verdict on all that stuff i sent you?:-)

Jul 27, 2008 11:48 AM
Amanda Evans
DFW Living - Fort Worth, TX
Real Estate Broker - Fort Worth Texas

Inna, I wanted to be a lawyer, too but Clara Harris doing time for running over her cheating ass husband turned me off.

Jul 27, 2008 11:54 AM
Amanda Evans
DFW Living - Fort Worth, TX
Real Estate Broker - Fort Worth Texas

Meet Amanda's stapler...

you know you wanna click it.

Jul 27, 2008 12:04 PM
Paul Slaybaugh
Homesmart - Scottsdale, AZ
Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate

I know you are in my corner, Inna.  My peace offering was intended for a few others.  My apologies if you have been permanently scarred by opening that box ;)

I must confess that I haven't been able to read the stuff you sent yet.  Sorry for making you wait.  I was out of town when you emailed it, and life has been frantic since I returned.  I haven't forgotten, though, and will sit down with it in a relatively quiet spot over the next day or two.  I am very much looking forward to it.

Jul 27, 2008 04:00 PM
Chris Fisher
Your Virtual Assistant - Concord, CA

Amanda - you are definitely funny.  I'm sure the little old ladies need the pat search more than you do.  : )  I'm going to click your stapler link now.

Paul - I love that video, one of my favorites.

Chris

Jul 27, 2008 04:50 PM
Inna Hardison
ha media group - Orlando, FL
Wordpress for Real Estate & Design, Print HaMedia Group

Gee, Mandy made a FUNNY:-)

Hi Chris-:-)

Paul, I know! Cool on the other stuff-

Jul 28, 2008 03:02 AM
Jim Lee, REALTOR, CRS, ABR
RE/MAX Shoreline - Portsmouth, NH
Buying or Selling? Ann & Jim are the local experts

I often wonder how many illegal immigrants they have in Mexico, Honduras, and how they get along if they're found out?

I was born here and some of my grandparents are Native Americans (Cherokee Indians from north Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Too often the current natives take for granted what our forefathers fought and died for; we need to be sure and remember.

 

Jul 29, 2008 01:24 AM
Inna Hardison
ha media group - Orlando, FL
Wordpress for Real Estate & Design, Print HaMedia Group

Jim, thank you for your comment.  I am not so sure it can be referred to taking it for granted - i think we are more 'willingly' giving up what the founding fathers of this country fought for... One could be attributed to laze and/or ignorance, but the latter is definitely a sympton of something more haunting, long-term and sinister in the end.

Jul 29, 2008 06:55 AM
James Monastero
Texana Bank - Fuquay Varina, NC
The Matchmaker

Very nice Inna....

 

I come back to the Rain and check on a few things... and wow...

 

one comment, and I'm sure Simon got this about 100 comments ago... but, in terms of 'winning' this war, who exactly is the enemy? If the enemy is evil, we will never be done- if God couldn't do it, not sure how in blue HELL we can. If the enemy is 'terrorism', we will never be done. There will always be terrorism as long as there are pissed off people who don't have an army behind them. So, my question would be- what does 'winning' mean? Who is the enemy we are trying to beat?

 

PS- I missed some of you. :)

Aug 09, 2008 02:12 PM
Michael "Mike" Miller
EXIT REALTY SERVICES - Moon Township, PA
My service will move you! Help me, help you!

Inna,  Thank you for presenting this thought provoking topic and thanks to all the commenters for sharing their perspectives for all to enjoy.  Mike

Aug 13, 2008 11:49 AM
Inna Hardison
ha media group - Orlando, FL
Wordpress for Real Estate & Design, Print HaMedia Group

Jennifer - I don't know how I missed your comment, but HI!!! Thank you for dropping by, and yes, Simon had been asked that question before, and I doubt his answer has gotten any clearer... :-) Good to see yah!!!

Mike- thanks for stopping by, and trust me, i wouldn't expect anyone to read through all the comments. I just hope the conversation was marginally useful to those who partook:-)

 

Aug 13, 2008 11:54 AM
Inna Hardison
ha media group - Orlando, FL
Wordpress for Real Estate & Design, Print HaMedia Group

It find it both sad and unsurprising that so far the freedom we gave up resulted in a minor embarrassment for our military.... So much for listening in on potential terrorist activity, and yet somehow picking up phone sex from military bases...

I guess privacy was not only about freedoms, - it was to save us from public embarrassments:-)

Oct 16, 2008 02:23 AM
Paul Slaybaugh
Homesmart - Scottsdale, AZ
Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate

Inna, funny that there hasn't been much talk about that recent revelation.  So much for the assertions in this thread and elsewhere that you have nothing to worry about from these unconsitutional wiretaps unless you are a terrorist.  That should be ammended to include servicemen, I suppose.  What many people foolishly forget is that such intrusions are left in the hands of people.  People will always fulfill the expectation of abusing the power which is bestowed upon them.  Eventually, the abuses are no longer abuses, but common practice.  Today's eavesdropping on X-rated booty calls home is tomorrow's ... who knows?  Even more disturbing is the fact that the listeners knew which calls to pay attention to and share with their co-workers.  Kind of makes you wonder what else they were listening to to be able to discern the juicy calls from the non-juicy ones.  As they say, freedom isn't free.  The cost of freedom is apparently freedom.

Oct 16, 2008 02:53 AM
Inna Hardison
ha media group - Orlando, FL
Wordpress for Real Estate & Design, Print HaMedia Group

Paul, it is somewhat odd just how unnoticed this has gone.  I wonder what my friends on the extreme right who have nothing to fear have to say on this...but they'll probably keep silent. 

Oct 16, 2008 02:58 AM
James Monastero
Texana Bank - Fuquay Varina, NC
The Matchmaker

Inna- you have friends on the extreme right??? ;)

I really can't believe they were tapping phone calls home- that is just sick, and sad... but at this point, anything is possible. After all, no one seems to care that Guantanamo Bay still houses innocent people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Small price to pay to keep America's ideals safe and sound!

 

Oct 16, 2008 03:08 AM
Inna Hardison
ha media group - Orlando, FL
Wordpress for Real Estate & Design, Print HaMedia Group

Jennifer - by my definition most right-wingers are somewhat extreme as of late, so yep, i've got a few of those I call friends:-)
As to the phone call fiasco, yep, both sad and sick. It's truly amazing how little it took for us to give up so much in exchange for we are not even sure what. I doubt we are any safer for knowing about some pervs in uniforms:-(

Oct 16, 2008 03:13 AM
"The Lovely Wife" The One And Only TLW.
President-Tutas Towne Realty, Inc. - Kissimmee, FL

Ahhh...

Politics. A subject that I avoid. You may have noticed I don't talk politics. Everytime I do a big fat can of worms opens up. I don't like worms unless I'm going fishing :)

TLW...ROAR!

Aug 12, 2010 08:17 AM