From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Wed Mar 12 2003 - 21:03:30 MST
Mike Lorrey explains
> Just a few years ago, the wife of the President of the US, and her
> liberal cronies in and out of congress, had publicly labeled me and
> millions of other law abiding Americans as terrorists and threats to
> national security....
> I don't like the Patriot Act....[but] The only concerns I have
> about the Patriot Act are that it will survive the GOP hold on
> the White House and the DNC will use it to launch an inquisition
> against law abiding American citizens like myself who don't fit
> their politically correct view of the world.
My left hemisphere thanks you. If I can remember this
logic, what my intuitions and my emotions contribute
can be kept under control.
> > So forgetting about [the extreme loony left], who
> > else thinks that there is a significant chance that
> > the U.S. will become as repressive as China currently
> > is, or Spain under Franco was?
>
> Depends on which party is in power. The GOP can never
> accomplish this, specifically because their members are
> a minority in the US while Democrats are a majority.
I did not copy the whole of your initial paragraph, where you
continued from "Just a few years ago" above. In it you
shouted at the liberals on this list and elsewhere that
their inconsistency stank. They had no trouble with Hillary
labeling as terrorists people like you.
I deeply fear that these same people, right here on this list,
might be the very first to confiscate our freedoms were it
only done by the right people, and for the benefit of "the
people". This is because we all have our political blinders,
and can't see except when it's our ox that's being gored.
But you have come out dead against the so-called Patriot Act,
proving that you are clinging tightly to the logic of the
issue, independent of which political party is in power, and
independent of who's being gored.
As for me, in times of national peril, such as those we've
been in since 9-11, I don't mind the freedoms of certain
minorities being compromised. There, I've said it.
For example, the internment of the Japanese during WWII was
the only prudent course of action, given the real presence
of sabotage outfits like the Black Dragon, and the real
human nature of certain disaffected people within any
demographic profile. It wouldn't bother me a bit if tens
of thousands of Iraqis living in the U.S. were interned during
the coming short war, if coldly rational people in Washington
thought it would do good.
> > Do you expect things to get worse and worse and worse? Do you
> > foresee Ashcroft and those like him arresting people for political
> > dissent, censoring radio and television?
>
> I don't think so. We've already had treasonous behavior from the likes
> of Sean Penn, who has repeated the acts of Hanoi Jane from a generation
> ago. He is still walking around and casting for movies. Reps Baghdad
> Bonoir and Jim McDermott, ditto, and they are still congressmen.
I will be on Samantha's side in an instant as soon as the likes
of Sean Penn and messieurs Bonoir & McDermott are in any way
persecuted by the government. Their behavior is treasonous in
spirit, I'll grant, but not by the letter of the law. Meanwhile,
it's a free country and they can say what they will.
What I have learned:
(i) Any measure such as the Patriot Act can cut both
ways, and one must always imagine how one would
feel if the opposite party were in power
(ii) It's not probable that the likes of Sean Penn (who
is not half as bad as Jane Fonda was), or any others
will be persecuted by the U.S. government for their
political beliefs. I could be wrong.
Lee
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