Starting a new thread,  because this one:
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1426998718/30
(Page 3)  has gotten Way off track !
In response to: mpescatori

(Not to get in a ATGATT discussion),
‘Individual’  States.  50 of them. Are, ‘Individual’ !
A,  State, which decided, 'Individually’,
which is decided by the majority of people, IN That STATE.

(‘No shoes’, have  NOTHING  to do with it)

It is a little thing call, ’States Rights”.
The SAME thing, the Civil War here was about.
Many think it was about only, slavery, it was not,
it was about a  STATE, to DECIDE, to have slavery or not.
(A little thing called, 'Re Writing History', which the 'ultra liberals, just Love to do)

Slavery here, was on the way out anyway.
It is MUCH, cheaper, to, ‘pay’ people to do the work.
than provide everything they need, so they can do the work.

Gee, just look at Smith, (Latter Day Saints, etc)
He said:  ‘Come Here, I will PAY you”.
They came in DROVES !
Well by the time the, ’slaves’ came their,
They had LESS.
Sure they got, ‘paid’, but Now,
THEY, Paid, for their food/housing/wood/cloths/etc..

And slavery was NOT new here.
If fact the Romans had ’slaves’.  (Many of them !)
And who do you think took the salt, out of King Solomon’s mines?

And you think  that, ’slavery’, has, stopped?
In ALL  the Countries of the World ??????
Well I suppose, one, used to call a, ‘Drug Dealer’, a  Drug Dealer.
Now, it; ‘Un-Licensed Pharmacist’
Just as the term;  ‘Indentured Servant”.

And yes, UK residents, ARE, ’Subjects’.
USA resident’s, ARE, ‘Citizens”.

(Well ass long as the, ‘gimmie-gimmies, stop electing the likes of, ‘King Bama’)

Oh,  isn’t,  San Marino, the Country, which  ITALY, has been trying to EXTORT, for 100’s of years?
The country, which has the Highest GNP of anyone, and one of the Wealthiest Countries in the WORLD.
The country which only has 30,000 people.
The Country, which is Still, (Technically), involved in WWII,
because someone, ‘FORGOT’, to include them in the armistice agreement ?
Is that, the, San Marino you are talking about?

In Italy, their are So Many, absolutely wonderful places to visit.
Such history, such beauty, just assume.
But, their are places, ‘ya just don’t go to’.
Same as here.
The difference is, in Italy, if you go to one of those places,
you are toast.
Here, at least you have a chance, because
one  has, the, "FREEDOM", to have a GUN.    

This is a shame. I rode to Gettysburg last August and did a tour of ... what was it called. It was a round museum thing.
Anyway, the museum tour guides made it clear that the War of Northern Aggression was about slavery.

I know the truth. It was about the North exerting dominance over the South.

I'm more in favor of state's individual rights. I don't like the feds getting too much power but I also like the idea of experimenting. To use Dan Carlin's analogy each state could be like a science project. One state wants to legalize marijuana, let them and see the result. One state wants to ban gay marriage, let them, check for the result. This way if something catastrophic happens only one state goes down. These blanket federal laws are going to drag the whole country down if they fail. Keep everything compartmentalized.


--Steve

Considering the initial post draws me straight onto the stage and then tries to slap me in the face, I believe I am entitled a reply.

Oh,  isn’t,  San Marino, the Country, which  ITALY, has been trying to EXTORT, for 100’s of years?
The country, which has the Highest GNP of anyone, and one of the Wealthiest Countries in the WORLD.
The country which only has 30,000 people.
The Country, which is Still, (Technically), involved in WWII,
because someone, ‘FORGOT’, to include them in the armistice agreement ?
Is that, the, San Marino you are talking about?

In Italy, their are So Many, absolutely wonderful places to visit.
Such history, such beauty, just assume.
But, their are places, ‘ya just don’t go to’.
Same as here.
The difference is, in Italy, if you go to one of those places,
you are toast.
Here, at least you have a chance, because
one  has, the, "FREEDOM", to have a GUN.

First things first, San Marino is not, and has never been, "extorted" by Italy.
It is like claiming that the States of Virginia and Maryland "are extorting the District of Columbia"

Picture this : Middle Ages Europe, where Kingdoms, Principalities and Sovereign Duchies are broken down into smaller fiefdoms for purely administrative purposes.

Picture this: in the Middle Ages REPUBLICS such as Genoa, Venice, Pisa, Amalfi... and SAN MARINO were born...
...but, often REPUBLICS were created when the PEOPLE revolted against a dissolute ruler (generally referred to as the Duke, or Dux in Latin correspondance)

Picture this: a small city-state, so small you can see the Adriatic Sea from its city walls  but which has no access to the sea (so no ports and no navigation)
is considered so puny it is left alone by all, from the Pope to Garibaldi to the Germans and Allies themselves during WW2.

Picture this: a city-state which has just as many off-shore banks as the Principality of Luxemburg or the GrandDuchy of Liechtenstein, but they don't speak an ancient German dialect, nosiree,

theyz speaks Italianz



AND... going back to WW2...



San Marino was NEUTRAL throughout the entire conflict !!!

May I quote from ubiquitous Wikipedia:
"During World War II, San Marino remained neutral, although it was wrongly reported in an article from The New York Times that it had declared war on the United Kingdom on 17 September 1940.[16]
The Sammarinese government later transmitted a message to the British government stating that they did not declare war on the United Kingdom.[17]

Three days after the fall of Benito Mussolini in Italy, PFS rule collapsed and the new government declared neutrality in the conflict. The Fascists regained power on 1 April 1944 but kept neutrality intact.
Despite that, on 26 June 1944 San Marino was bombed by the Royal Air Force, in the belief that San Marino had been overrun by German forces and was being used to amass stores and ammunition.
The Sammarinese government declared on the same day that no military installations or equipment were located on its territory, and that no belligerent forces had been allowed to enter.[18]"

Oh... and... by the way... WE DON'T HAVE GANGS AND GANG WARS like you guys over there...

See my post about educating my 17-y.o. ...

My son is allowed to go out on Saturday evening and stay out as late as midnight, or Beyond if I go and pick him up in agreed locaitons (i.e. subway stop)

With all the criminality we complain about, Rome is still considered one of the world's safest Capital cities.

My wife is a family physician and she does house calls up to and beyond 9 p.m. (even though night-shift ambulance services start at 7 p.m.)
She does not carry and nobody expects her to carry.
Even most hoodlums don't carry, they wield switchblades, not guns.

You guys live in an inherently violent society by European standards. You just don't realize it.

Actually the US ranks 111th in the world in TOTAL per capita murders (that's all murders, not just those involving gun)s, FAR behind most European countries
that's a straw man comparison, ignoring murders that don't involve firearms
and most European countries never HAD a problem with gun murders, even when their populace were permitted gun ownership
you compare apples to apples, not oranges. those places in America with the toughest gun laws, have the highest crime rates, including murder, those with the least gun control legislation tend to have the lowest
in fact, if we ignored the states with the toughest gun laws, our crime rate drops WAY down
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELwCqz2JfE