From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Mon Mar 17 2003 - 22:38:07 MST
Hubert Mania supplied an URL to an extensive article on the Patriot
Act created by the ACLU, an avowed opponent of that Act.
I list the *four* most troublesome things that I could find in it,
but upon closer examination could not identify anything in particular
to be alarmed about. Consider any country. Were one to read through
the volumes and volumes of German law, wouldn't one find many
potentially troubling items?
I'll give you one. A few years ago our company was working on
a voicemail system that might be used in Germany. We were informed
that we probably were going to have to provide a secret back-door
so that the German Authorities could, if need be, surreptitiously
listen to anyone's voicemail. We refused. As it turned out we
didn't get the contract; a certain other nation's company got the
contract, one for whom this may not have been a problem. Now the
deals were very complicated, and I do not know for sure if this
was really a significant issue or not---all I know is that at one
point this issue came up.
So are we to conclude that Germany is descending into a police
state? Are we to suppose that this incident, and probably many
similar to it in a nation of 84 million people, are something to
become extremely excited about?
I would say no. I would say that German citizens are vastly better
protected than people in most nations. Along with the U.S. and
most other Western nations, the legal rights of Germans are very
good.
So Hubert now writes
> Concerning the draft of Patriot Act Two. Lee said amongst
> other delicately elaborated comments:
>
> > So I delved further into the document where each of these is
> > described in more detail. I found nothing alarming after all.
> > Okay, now I've done my part. You tell me just *where* there
> > is something here that we should discuss!
>
> I have come to know you as a sincere person, Lee, and I am interested in
> further discussion,
Thank you. Same here.
> but if your alarm clocks are NOT ringing when reading
> the draft of Patriot Act II, this probably has to do
> with the shape of your reality tunnel,
That may be so.
> while my tunnel of reality has been shaped into being
> more suspicious of Government plans to deprive their
> citizens of their freedom in exchange for a security
> they cannot provide at all. At the first signs of
> such plans I am up the barricades while you probably
> are still thinking you are on the safe side because
> you are such a good citizen.
There is some truth to this: I would not be the first people
to be taken away to the camps. But I know of hundreds of
people---quite a number of them personally, and they know
thousands of people. Who has anything concrete to report
that they are alarmed about?
But it is *not* my own personal safety that I am concerned
with. Suppose that anyone I knew or had heard of was
being arrested for their opinions. That would be completely
different!
> Just imagine a revengeful neighbor denounces you....
> ... I can't do nothing to convince you.
Hubert, I am very disappointed that you did not choose to discuss
any specific with me. Evidently, you read through the entire
ACLU criticism of the Patriot Act, and you just got a bad "feeling".
Why won't you look through it again, and the first time that
you find something *concrete*, please tell me. (Or, preferably,
why don't you find the most alarming thing?)
Lee
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