Members BoundandBlocked Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 (Where does that term come from.) Dred Scott was a black slave born in Virginia, USA in 1799. In several celebrated court cases, right up to the USA Supreme Court in 1857, he attempted to gain his freedom. These cases all failed but Scott was later made a free man by his 'owners', the Blow family. Knowing this, we might feel that we don't need to look further for the origin of scott free. Many people, especially in the USA, are convinced that the phrase originated with the story of Dred Scott. The etymology of this phrase shows the danger of trying to prove a case on circumstantial evidence alone. In fact the phrase 'scot free' has nothing to do with Dred Scott. Given the reputation of Scotsmen to be careful with their money we might look to Scotland for the origin of 'scot free'. Wrong again, but at least we are in the right part of the world now. A scot is a Scandinavian word for tax or payment. It came to the UK as a form of redistributive taxation which was levied as early the 13th century as a form of municipal poor relief. The term is a contraction of 'scot and lot'. Scot was the tax and lot, or allotment, was the share given to the poor. Scot as a term for tax has been used since then to mean many different types of tax. Whatever the tax, the phrase 'scot free' just refers to not paying one's taxes. No one likes paying tax and people have been getting off scot free since at least the 16th century. This reference from Vincent Skinner's translation of Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus's A discovery and playne declaration of sundry subtill practises of the holy inquisition of Spayne dates from 1598: "Escape scotte free." http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/scot%20free.htmlI'm really bored today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fretless Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 [YOUTUBE]oNppqUotW94[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hawkeye Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Bull{censored}!If you aren't engaged in any illegal activity, you have nothing to fear.Seriously. This is an often-used argument in favour of surveillance. You must be very trusting of government to allow these incursions on your privacy and not be worried. What is legal today may be easily declared illegal tomorrow. Where there is power there is abuse of power. For millenia now, these two things have always gone together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members toolbar Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Bull{censored}!If you aren't engaged in any illegal activity, you have nothing to fear.Seriously. I don't have anything to fear, it just pisses me off royally. It pisses me off for someone to read my newspaper over my shoulder - they have no business doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 privacy is important. The phone companies shouldn't get off scott-free (Where does that term come from.) when responding to requests that are not court ordered. As to if you're not doing anything illegal, what ever happened to presumed innocent until proven guilty? No one wants to know about your sex life anyway.Dude, total bull{censored}e.Everyone is interested in my sex life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Les_Izzmor Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Everyone is interested in my sex life. Not everyone. I'm pretty sure Mrs. lug could do with a break every now and then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mmb Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Not everyone. I'm pretty sure Mrs. lug could do with a break every now and then. "Behind every great man, there is a great woman."Since Lug sucks as much as he does, doesn't that mean...... ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Not everyone. I'm pretty sure Mrs. lug could do with a break every now and then. ....checks over shoulder to make sure she's not watching me type....That woman is addicted to lug! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Robin Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 *tries to think how many terabytes you'd need for just the word "like"* *dies* :mad:If I like... hear some teen-age {censored} use that again ....I just might like KILL some {censored}in' body! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members garytees Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Geez, if they're tappin' our phones, are they doin' the same with our posts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jackcheez Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Modern day phone tapping techniques are virtually undetectable. If there is any reason to suspect you are being tapped, assume you are being tapped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Geez, if they're tappin' our phones, are they doin' the same with our posts? Carnivore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivore_(FBI) Makes me laugh when I hear someone beotching about how our rights have been sacrificed by Bush with the wire tapping of foriegn incoming telephone calls from suspected terrorists whilst the gov still runs this (changed to DCS1000 and then on to Dragonware). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Renfield Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 :mad: If I like... hear some teen-age {censored} use that again ....I just might like KILL some {censored}in' body! Tell us how you really feel. Don't hold back, we're all friends here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NeonVomit Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 ever hear of ECHELON? everyone's phones, cells, email, text etc is tapped all the time A massive listening station which is a hub for it is built on the highest mountain on this island. They can hear everything if they want to. Wiki article doesn't have many details, I wonder why Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jugghaid Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 I posted about Echelon a while back and was accused of it being tin-foil hat stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Renfield Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 I posted about Echelon a while back and was accused of it being tin-foil hat stuff. Why don't you call a friend and tell them all about the Gov't oppression through Echelon. Then mention some things about your recent terrorist activity chasing your dog around the yard and see if the feds show up or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Psilocybin Posted March 11, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 I posted about Echelon a while back and was accused of it being tin-foil hat stuff. There we go. I will wear a tin foil hat whenever I talk on the phone at my house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 I posted about Echelon a while back and was accused of it being tin-foil hat stuff. I still think Carnivore and it's follw-up are far more invasive. I mean all you have to do is type "bomb" or "hyjack" in your emails or on the interwebs and out come the guys in the black suits to ques................................internet line goes dead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NeonVomit Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 I posted about Echelon a while back and was accused of it being tin-foil hat stuff. It's basically common knowledge here. They used to use it to spy on Soviet fleets in the Mediterranean, now they use it to spy on the middle east. It's kinda hard to call it tinfoil hat stuff when there's A MASSIVE LISTENING STATION on the top of the highest mountain around Edit: Oh, and there's a mysterious compound in a pretty deserted part of town, overlooking the rest of the city. Like, everyone 'knows' it's run by the US military, and there's lots of antennas sticking out of it and a pretty creepy wall with some rather stern warnings on it. But no flags or any markings of any sort. Definately isn't part of our military, or the British (the listening station on the mountain is theirs, though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Super Bass Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 It's basically common knowledge here. They used to use it to spy on Soviet fleets in the Mediterranean, now they use it to spy on the middle east. It's kinda hard to call it tinfoil hat stuff when there's A MASSIVE LISTENING STATION on the top of the highest mountain around Does it say "Secret U.S. Spy Listening Station" on the wall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Renfield Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Does it say "Secret U.S. Spy Listening Station" on the wall? Yes. Well, less the word "secret" anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NeonVomit Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Does it say "Secret U.S. Spy Listening Station" on the wall? Well, I'd take pictures of it for you next time I head up there but that would get me arrested.Yes, one of my friends tried Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jugghaid Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 oops......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members toolbar Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 can you type in b0mb (b zero mb)? I guess so - nothing happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Bull{censored}!There is simply not enough computer power or humans to monitor every telephone call. No one said "monitor" - they said "record". Echelon is a data capture program, overseen by the NSA. You'd better be pretty damn high on the FEDS list before you've got to worry about that - I doubt they even deploy it even against child porn and other Federal crimes (if so, they would go to great pains to keep its usage secret) Now a wiretap - that's monitoring, and if you're getting those odd crackles and such on your line it's almost certainly tapped, by the investigating authorities. Someone else said something about modern techniques: actually, when my dad was in service over 25 years ago, inductive couplers were certainly used then, in the field even. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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