19-06-2003 07:56									#1
	Leftist protesters go home! Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Later this week Agricultural Ministers from around the world will be converging on California's capital city of Sacramento in order to take part in an international conference on crops & agricultural technology. Sounds like rather boring and run of the mill sort of stuff doesn't it?

Not to the anti-GM crops folks. They've gotten their collective panties in a bunch and have become convinced that this meeting is a secret attempt by multinational corporations to poison the world's food supply. Further, several leftist organizations (mostly from the San Francisco area) have vowed to come to Sacramento and "shut the city down" (at least that's what they were saying they wanted to do on Pacifica radio; a far left of center broadcaster) with the goal of disrupting the meeting and preventing ministers from being able to reach the convention center. Some have said they expect five days of roving street protests which they hope to be larger then the anti-WTO/World Bank protests in Seattle three years ago. The Governor and the mayor are both saying they’ll bring out extra police to help keep the protests from getting out of hand but several of the local TV stations are saying they think it might not be enough.

Of course these whiny leftists never asked those of us who live in Sacramento whither we want them to come here and shut our city down. Nope, though I suspect most of my neighbors would rather prefer they take their protests and road blocks some where else. We just want to be able to get to work in the morning and maybe go to a restaurant in the evening without a bunch of non-bathing hippie leftists causing problems and taking a proverbial **** upon our city.

I’m thinking of starting my own protest rally where I can hold a big sign saying “Leftist protesters GO HOME!!”. Ah, heck. Who am I kidding? I’m going to be a work. To bad these protesters can’t just go get jobs as well then maybe they wouldn’t have the time to pull this stupid crap.

	19-06-2003 07:59									#2
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Do they have them confined to a certain area of the city or is your commute going to be Hell during this conference?

	19-06-2003 08:06									#3
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Luckily, I live only a few miles away from work so my communte shouldn't be that bad. I'm still hoping these protesters will turn out to be all talk and no action. With luck the police will crack down hard on them the first day and put all of the ring leaders in jail right off of the bat. Those of us who live here don't want our lives totally disrupted by people who have no idea what they're talking about.

	19-06-2003 08:08									#4
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DEATH TO THEM!!!

	19-06-2003 08:08									#5
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hahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaa

	19-06-2003 08:13									#6
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Oh let them have their fun.

Then fire rubber bullets into the crowd.

	19-06-2003 08:16									#7
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like on Jackass the Movie.... OUCH!

	19-06-2003 08:17									#8
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Yeah rubber bullets are fine... but whose wise idea are those ****ing wooden bullets? Those things hurt like hell!

	19-06-2003 08:18									#9
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quote: Originally posted by Thorn Yeah rubber bullets are fine... but whose wise idea are those ****ing wooden bullets? Those things hurt like hell!

Sounds like the voice of experience.

	19-06-2003 08:42									#10
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Supposedly there will be a designated protest area but several people on Pacifica (the major leftist radio station in Northern California) are saying they won't respect it. I'm hoping these losers are just talking big because they're on the radio.

The thing is most Americans understand how GM crops work and they know that 99% of it is totally safe and effective and that the government screens/tests all of the crops before they're released on the market. I can't for the life of me understand why these people are so against human selection (as opposed to natural selection) of crop gene frequencies, especially since GM is just a speed up version of the process human farmers have been doing for thousands of years.

	19-06-2003 08:54									#11
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I pity the fool who tries to stop us!

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	19-06-2003 09:07									#12
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Hmmm....Btw, I wonder how Mr T. would react if you leftists try to take away his precious chains for the "common good"....

	19-06-2003 09:08									#13
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He'd probably pity the fool.

	19-06-2003 09:11									#14
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quote: Hmmm....Btw, I wonder how Mr T. would react if you leftists try to take away his precious chains for the "common good"....

Yeah, I'm sure Mr. T votes Republican considering their stellar record on civil rights.

	19-06-2003 09:20									#15
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why are people so against GM foods? anything that gives anti-freeze genes of a pine to orange trees is OK to me (clue: it is too cold for oranges in MN).

GIVE ME A GLOW-IN-THE-DARK SALAD!

	19-06-2003 09:22									#16
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Do you know if they have a real complaint?

	19-06-2003 09:24									#17
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personally, I'm not against genetically altered food... these protestors sound like toothless morons to me

	19-06-2003 09:26									#18
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The real thing is, GM food are almost universally SAFER than "organic" foods, because GM foods are required to go through a whole lot of tests and screening, etc. by the FDA. The stupid thing is most of this is to see if someone could be allergic to it or something similar, yet "herbal remedies" and new "organic" foods are MORE likely to cause allergic reactions, because GM foods are tweaked only in a few, very specific ways.

(btw, why is non-GM food called "organic"? isn't GM food grown from organisms too...?)

	19-06-2003 09:36									#19
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quote: Originally posted by Kidicious Do you know if they have a real complaint?

The main complaints focus on two areas. 1) That humans are messing with nature and might accidently release some form of "Frankenfood" which will cause disease or harm to the enviroment or humanity. 2) That corporations can patient the new strains they develop and people who wish to use these strains will have to pay a higher cost or a royalty.

I heard several of them claim poor third world farmers won't be able to afford the high costs and so GM should be outlawed (a nonsensical arguement as these poor farmers could always continue using their current verieties) and that the GM genes might cross breed with wild plants those creating new mutant species. The funny thing is hybreeds have been used for over 100 years and so far no super desease has developed.

The only semi-intelligent arguement I heard out of them was how corporations determined if royalties were due. Currently, a company which has a patient on their new verity of a crop can test the DNA of a crop and force the farmer to pay a royalty if the DNA matches their patiented DNA. This sounds fair but what happens when farmer A uses the GM corn and farmer B doesn't but the two crops cross pollinate each other. The next generation will have the genes from both parents and, theoretically, the corporation could demand both farmers pay a royalty. I doubt this would happen but putting a law in place to limit this would make sense.

	19-06-2003 09:41									#20
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quote: Originally posted by DinoDoc Do they have them confined to a certain area of the city or is your commute going to be Hell during this conference?

Gee, if you had and used mass transit this wouldn't really be a problem would it?

Besides, what about letting the people exercise their right to assemble and petition the government for a redress? Those are constitutional - your "right" to a convenient commute is not guaranteed. So suck it up.

	19-06-2003 09:45									#21
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I have a rebuttal of the "semi-intelligent" argument. Around 98-99, some GM crop manufacturers proposed that all GM foods have genes inserted that made them sterile. Greenpeace et al raised a huge stink, saying poor farmers couldn't afford it, etc. because they would have to buy new seeds every year (stupid argument you already rebutted). However, this would solve the problem presented by royalties.

	19-06-2003 09:47									#22
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quote: Originally posted by The Templar Gee, if you had and used mass transit this wouldn't really be a problem would it?

That depends. Such protests have managed to shut down a mass transit station in California before so it isn't a guarentee.

quote: Besides, what about letting the people exercise their right to assemble and petition the government for a redress?

I'm a big believer in the Time, Place, & Manner doctrine. Shutting down a city doesn't fall within those confines.

	19-06-2003 09:47									#23
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quote: Originally posted by The Templar Gee, if you had and used mass transit this wouldn't really be a problem would it? Besides, what about letting the people exercise their right to assemble and petition the government for a redress? Those are constitutional - your "right" to a convenient commute is not guaranteed. So suck it up.

If there was mass transit, it would be clogged up too. They have a constitutional right to assemble PEACEFULLY - they do not have a right to completely disrupt the functioning of the city (or a right to be heard), especially not vital city functions such as emergency services. YOU suck it up.

	19-06-2003 09:50									#24
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quote: Originally posted by The Templar Gee, if you had and used mass transit this wouldn't really be a problem would it? Besides, what about letting the people exercise their right to assemble and petition the government for a redress? Those are constitutional - your "right" to a convenient commute is not guaranteed. So suck it up.

All using mass transite would do would be to concentrate people into bottle necks thus making it even easier for these a-holes to "shut the city down". Remember that was their goal. As for the right to {i]peacably[/i] (you forgot that word) assemble and petition their government... We have both rights and responsabilities. Your rights end when they begin to cause public danger. By attempting to block streets and snarl traffic they aren't just being annoying; they're also creating a public danger by blocking emergency vehicle access. If these a-holes succeed in "shuting the city down" then how will fire trucks or paramedics get to where they need to be? What happens if other people die because a fire can't be put out or hurt people can't get to the hospital?

You need to understand the difference between responsibly excersizing your rights and simply being an arrogant ***** who harms other people.

	19-06-2003 09:51									#25
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quote: Originally posted by Sava Yeah, I'm sure Mr. T votes Republican considering their stellar record on civil rights.

Don't be ridiculous.

Lincoln? A Republican elected by people in states that had outlawed slavery. It was the Democrats who fought to keep it in place.

Civil Rights Act of 1964 - written by Republicans and a greater majority of Republicans voted for the act than Democrats.

Don't forget that a current serving senator actually had filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act...and that senator is former Ku Klux Klan member Robert Byrd, a Democrat from West Virginia.

Hmm...

	19-06-2003 09:54									#26
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ahh yes... Republicans, the party of Lincoln... seek help NOW if you believe that

	19-06-2003 09:55									#27
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I agree with Sava again!

The Republicans and Democrats of the Civil War era have taken a full 180-degree shift.

	19-06-2003 09:57									#28
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Sava: I don't see you refuting any of my points, all I see is a mocking and condescending tone. I guess that means I win.

	19-06-2003 10:01									#29
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No, it doesn't.

However, the Republicans of the Civil War era were liberals, and the Democrats conservatives. In fact, the reversal of roles, which happened in the North a long time ago, happened in the South only within the last decade (in some places it's still happening). Tennessee, for example, until recently consistantly elected a Democrat for governor, despite being a conservative state, because in Tennessee the Democrats were the conservatives.

EDIT: I see the "Sava" you added now

	19-06-2003 10:02									#30
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Even if what you say is true, what do you say about the Civil Rights Act?