Really? That's odd, someone just told me a few days ago that we're a retired justice away from the overturn of Roe v. Wade and Mcdonald v. Chicago and Heller v. DC.
Until a couple years ago if you lived in Chicago your rights were restricted. Granted there's a relaxing of the ban but many choices are banned and they're trying to ban more all the time. magazine size restrictions, ammo limits....
I think I do get your point, that recently 2nd amendment rights have been affirmed and they have, so I would agree with you there, but my larger point is the method of eroding rights outlined above, claim that some guns do not fulfill legitimate "needs" and slowly acclimate the public to accepting that.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Possible? Sure. It's also very likely that he would have gotten home safe and sound. We don't know which. Can't say what would have happened if something else didn't happen. Life doesn't work that way. It's like saying the Bears would have won if Cutler didn't throw two pic-6's .

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

You're absolutely right. There is no way to know for sure. When we get up every morning we take steps to protect ourselves and the ones we love from things that may happen. Whether that is locking your doors and turning on your alarm when you leave your home or paying for different types of insurance or it could be having a firearm for the protection of yourself and your family from an intruder. Most days these safety measures aren't needed. On the rare occasion that they are needed you are happy that you had taken steps to protect your family and your valuables. These inconvenient road checks are similar to the safety measures you take everyday. There are days where they wouldn't have saved 1 life and there are likely days that a parent or child made it home safely because of the road check. We can't accurately measure the effectiveness of the safety steps you take or the road checks. That doesn't mean they aren't effective. Checking for potential drunk drivers on a holiday is just as reasonable as the road checks that are put in place to check for other criminals.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Ok. Maybe we should also check people's houses for illegal fireworks on holidays too like the 4th of July. So we can prevent fires and people blowing their hands off. While checking houses I'm sure they could find criminals too.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I'm glad you found a line that allowed you to make a statement like the one above. Even if you feel that way about that statement it doesn't discount the point I made.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Pretty sure Andy and Stewart live in California. Sting lives in Italy .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Ok but how far is stopping someone and having them blow in a tube from stopping someone and having them pee in a cup? Can you imagine the checkpoint arrests if they tested for pot?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I would volunteer to piss in a cup if I were stopped. I would be sure to piss all of the place. I couldn't imagine cops wanting to do that. I understand your point. There is a point where I will believe they are going too far. I just don't feel that way now. Obviously you do.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Yeah I kinda do. Sorry.
I won't be drinking and driving tonight, staying home to watch the Hawks and make drunken posts from here. But I'm still against it and the greater erosion of civil liberties by the Feds. I honestly believe that since 2000 we're living in bad times.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

yeah IIRC when piss/blood is taken for a DUI situation if there's any weed in your system you're pretty much fucked. i don't think there's a way to differentiate if the THC in your system is 6 hours old, 6 days old, or 6 weeks old.... if it's in there they can charge you with a DUI/DWI/something-costly, so indeed you are what the spanglish call "el fuckedo."

fortunately, i can't envision checkpoints getting crazy enough to the point where they set up a pissing-booth or whatever it'd take to facilitate mandatory piss-tests for all. traffic would probably back enough to where the people they're trying to catch would try to GTFO of dodge, barring some sort of a trap being set with additional units flanking the checkpoint to catch would-be/ditchers.

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Why not? 15 years ago the idea of DUI roadblocks was crazy. Hell you're most of the way to the roadblock pee test.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

man, it's a pity that time travelers from the future haven't come back with implantable technology to monitor people's thoughts and thusly warn the authorities if they even so much as conspire to do anything illegal. there's children out there, aged 0-3, who are the most adorable cuddly little guys whose hobbies include shitting themselves and crying when they don't get what they want and if we allow people to have unmonitored thoughts they could develop into criminal acts that could harm those beautiful beautiful children, therefore what the fuck are we doing living life with this "privacy" that's resulting in so many beautiful beautiful children dying unnecessarily? get rid of it now, i say! save the children!

freedom's a motherfucker, isn't it steve? i mean i don't know about you, but i live in constant fear of the fact that if anybody decided potential/consequences be damned because they have a mind to summarily execute me, odds are that i'm going to die because most crimes can't be prevented even with ubiquitous surveillance and proactive preventative measures.

what i don't like is using kids as some sort of unquestionable means of tugging on people's heart strings to beg for more surveillance/checkpoints/stop-n-frisk-sentimentality. i don't value some kid's life as being > than everyone else's, especially the drunken person who caused it, just by virtue of the fact that they're kids. fuck 'em all i say... so yeah, the sanctimony dripping off of your post there made me wanna puke..... cuz seriously man, drunken driving can lead to some nasty business whether it happens to some random innocent kid, some guilty ass drunk driver, or anyone else. life is life; has feminism taught you nothing? we're all equal, steve! check your privilege you CIS bastard!

the other thing i truly loathe and despise is those PSA commercials that constantly play around holidays all like THE POLICE ARE OUT THERE.... WATCHING YOU.... [shot of camoflagued cop blending in].... IF YOU DRIVE DRUNK THEY WILL GET YOU.... YOU WILL GO TO JAIL. YOU WILL LOSE. hell there's that radio commercial where they have some chick all like "oh i'm not going to go on a date with that guy.... he got a DUI, he lost his car, and i'm not going to go on a date with a carless loser" ---- that's right, our society has stooped to the level of literally saying "those shallow whores won't wanna fuck you if you lose your wheels, son!" which is just all kinds of menacing and idiotic.

seriously society: you've got me by the balls. you've won. i have no expectations of actual "freedom" or any sort of privacy, and you know what? i'm pretty much largely ok with that..... so can you please just not rub it in with these stupid menacing commercials ad nauseum?

btw, the "police state" that people preach/warn about is already here. if you didn't know already, cellphones are pretty much the only reason there isn't some "tag 'em and bag 'em"/RFID system in place. you can ask steve: cellphones basically tell you everything you'd ever wanna know and thensome about people and their lives. so why freak out the tinfoil demographic with implants/RFID when you have a much better system where people will pay $100/month to have the newest/hippest/bestest mark of the beast in their coat pocket?

ah well, i'm sure that my thoughts are, as always, unnecessary and excessive. good luck to everyone out there smoking and drinking tonight. if you all band up together and pool your resources you just might be able to avoid the portable justice dispensing setups all over the roadways..... and as always, make those checks payable to the department of revenue!

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Do a Miguel Cabrera: Keep a bottle of James Buchanan under the seat and when you get pulled over, immediately pull it out and down as much as you can in full view of the police. They can then get you for open container/drinking in public but makes it difficult to prove you were driving under the influence.

You're totally right and thus I'm with you on this one; it's just that there's nothing that we can do in the wake of this pedantic "we have to save you from yourself" attitude. C'est la vie.

What gets me the most about the checkpoints/stop-n-frisk mindset is that it's literally the absolute perversion of our "innocent until proven guilty" justice system. With checkpoints/stop-n-frisk you're guilty until proven innocent, and thus any resistance, perceived or otherwise, to the will and domain of the officers is seen as probable cause for a more intensive search because why would you object to this unless you had something to hide?

Semantically speaking, it's about as unamerican as you can get... but then again this ain't our world... we're just permitted to live in it until told otherwise. That TV coverage of watertown, MA basically was a giant ad promoting the 2013/+ social contract, which is basically "fuck you."

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Listen, it's only going to get worse. We've got an arrogant, elitist ruling class who looks upon us as obsticles to gaining more power. It's happening at every level of government. Just look at your paychecks. We're nothing but serfs paying tribute to our lords every week or two. They look upon us with contempt when we complain. His dare us question the judgement of our betters? They know what's best for us. They know how to keep us safe. We need only to shut up and let them take care of us and not only save us from threats from the outside but also save us from ourselves. We should be thankful we're blessed with such benevolent and compassionate leaders. We're just ungrateful peasants.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

Oh guys c'mon they are only checking seatbelts with those specially trained German Sheppards while dressed in navy blue or black Army fatigues.

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Elections have consequences.

The dogs are only employed when an officer has reason to believe there may be drugs in the vehicle. If he spots drug paraphernalia for example, he now has probable cause for a search of the vehicle, including use of the K-9. But they don't use the dogs to search every vehicle.

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Go Cubs!!!!

They use police dogs on everybody at O'hare if they want to. Or Navy Pier. Or the Blackhawks parade (again this coming year). Why would this be different?

Some may not like the "I'm not doing anything wrong, come and get me" saying, but it is true. If I'm not doing anything wrong, and I don't get anything taken away as a result being law-abiding, how exactly are my rights being taken away?

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Coming from someone who happily voted for Steve Forbes, Ross Perot and Shrub, that's funny.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

So anyone get stopped at a check point tonight?

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In Kane County they run something they call "no refusal" where if a driver exercises his right not to blow, they drive him to a hospital and pull his blood. I'm not sure how that isn't an illegal search and seizure, but apparently it's stood up on some basis so far. Maybe spanky can offer his blood next time he's pulled over since he undoubtedly won't be doing anything wrong.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

this is a joke right? if youre serious, please move to north korea.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

You teeter on the edge of insanity, don't you? Just keep behaving as you were trained.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

Funny coming from the guy living in a government run town.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Is there any "town" not run by a government? You need a vacation.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

My rights were not affected even 1% last night. I lived to tell about it.


Just saying.

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so luck is now an acceptable form of rights?

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

As someone who does not drink, yes my rights are being violated if I have to prove I am sober, or belted up, or whatever to get home from watching a football game. You could probably make the case that a good portion of the folks on the road after midnight have been drinking, but it is not just during the holidays. Try hopping on the outbound Kennedy at 3 am when you are sober and it will scare the shit out of you.
Just wait when the new law about tossing smokes out the car window kicks in Jan 1. Low crime towns with lots of cops are going to hit the daily double by pulling over a litterbug (at $1,000 per crack) and also get to breath test if it is at a certain time of day--Bingo, another DUI. Nothing but revenue generation. If we were serious about stopping drunk drivers, there would be a breath interlock in every car. Liquor and bar industry would never stand for it--no one would go out to drink. Or there would be full parking lots of cars every Sunday morning and people would start drinking at home. Once upon a time the auto industry said airbags were impossible to make affordably, and now they use it as a selling tool. They mandated rear cameras for new cars because how many kids get run over a year? Far, far less than get hurt in drunk driving accidents. They could make it work if they were serious about stopping it, but follow the money, my friends.

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You cannot make me care about the WNBA.

This isn't the same thing as a checkpoint. At that point, you have already broken the law.

People who throw cigarettes out of their windows should be set on fire, and then beaten with a sack full of batteries.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way