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chegitz guevara
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Ft. Lauderdale, FL Communist Party of Apolyton
Jun 2000
time: 00:31
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http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2...raft/index.html (you'll have to sit through an ad)
quote:
The community draft boards that became notorious for sending reluctant young men off to Vietnam have languished since the early 1970s, their membership ebbing and their purpose all but lost when the draft was ended. But a few weeks ago, on an obscure federal Web site devoted to the war on terrorism, the Bush administration quietly began a public campaign to bring the draft boards back to life.
"Serve Your Community and the Nation," the announcement urges. "If a military draft becomes necessary, approximately 2,000 Local and Appeal Boards throughout America would decide which young men ... receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service."
Local draft board volunteers, meanwhile, report that at training sessions last summer, they were unexpectedly asked to recommend people to fill some of the estimated 16 percent of board seats that are vacant nationwide.
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Not since the early days of the Reagan administration in 1981 has the Defense Department made a push to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots. Recognizing that even the mention of a draft in the months before an election might be politically explosive, the Pentagon last week was adamant that the drive to staff up the draft boards is not a portent of things to come. There is "no contingency plan" to ask Congress to reinstate the draft, John Winkler, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for reserve affairs, told Salon last week.
Increasingly, however, military experts and even some influential members of Congress are suggesting that if Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's prediction of a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to consider a draft to fully staff the nation's military in a time of global instability. |
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David Floyd
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The bottom of a large bottle of beer
Jan 1970
time: 05:31
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Looks like I'll be going to Canada...
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David Floyd
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The bottom of a large bottle of beer
Jan 1970
time: 05:31
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OTOH, maybe it's just time for a revolution, if they start the draft up.
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David Floyd
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The bottom of a large bottle of beer
Jan 1970
time: 05:31
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Quite true, quite true.
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Capt Dizle
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Things have changed in this county. There will be no draft.
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David Floyd
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The bottom of a large bottle of beer
Jan 1970
time: 05:31
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And why would I care about "free" health care or education? I'm hardly ever sick, and if I went to Canada to escape the draft I doubt I'd be in school (even assuming universities are free, which I doubt).
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David Floyd
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The bottom of a large bottle of beer
Jan 1970
time: 05:31
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quote:
Sure they do... because Canada doesn't allow pharmaceutical companies to fleece its people... for instance. |
Oh, because the tyrants in the Canadian government don't allow people to contract freely with others, and to dispose of their own property as they see fit?
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David Floyd
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The bottom of a large bottle of beer
Jan 1970
time: 05:31
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quote:
That's right... excessive corporate profits is more important than senior citizens having lower costing, life saving-extending drugs... |
No, but corporations being able to charge what they want to for their own products is more important than senior citizens being able to afford drugs they have no legal or moral entitlement to.
MikeH,
quote:
You'd think someone would vote them out if they didn't like it. Actually most of us who live in higher tax areas with stuff like free healthcare really like it and don't mind paying. |
Unless the number of supporters is 100%, the system remains unfair and tyrannical.
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David Floyd
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The bottom of a large bottle of beer
Jan 1970
time: 05:31
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quote:
What property? Patented drugs are by definition a State-enforced monopoly. One would think that a libertarian would have problems with this. |
The issue, to me, is not one of intellectual property, but rather one of government intervention. In principle, I have no problem with someone developing a similar, generic drug for half the price, however, it seems rather like stealing when you take something that someone else made, reverse-engineer it, and market it as your own.
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David Floyd
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The bottom of a large bottle of beer
Jan 1970
time: 05:31
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quote:
What makes you think we don't feel the same way about unrestrained latter-day capitalism with all of its little "quirks"? |
I assure you, I'm no fan of capitalism either, as it is practiced today, with all of the government intervention. While it is CERTAINLY far better than pure socialism, it is definitely not as free as a laissez-faire system.
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Apolyton Time is 00:31. |
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03-11-2003 20:14
That's about all I can say to that...
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