[CLUE-Talk] Fourth Amendment? Anyone? [OT]

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 01-03 13:28, Matt Gushee wrote:
> Jeffery Cann writes:
> 
>  > For my fellow civil libertarians - a U.S. District Court judge has sided with
>  > the FBI to allow keystroke logging _without_ a court order.
> 
>  > It makes me wonder if the decision by the judge is influenced by the current
>  > terrorist paranoia in our great land.  
> 
> How cautious of you! As congress dishes up heaping platefuls of
> corporate welfare, 

I'm not sure where the platefuls of corp welfare are, unless you mean the
subsidizing of certain airlines (that should be allowed to fail, IMHO). 

> the Attorney General equates critics with terrorists, 

Yeah, that's going a bit far, but that's just rhetoric - it doesn't matter
what he says, it's what he does that matters. I think all the rhetoric about
racial profiling and "shredding the Constitution" from some of the left is a
bit far-fetched, as well. 

When you think about how other countries might react to the world's biggest
terrorist attack, I think the Bush administration(and America in general)
overall has been quite tempered. Imagine if a bunch of cornfed Christian
boys from Idaho commandeered a flight in Saudi Arabia, and crashed it into
Mecca - I doubt many Americans in the Middle East would escape unscathed.
There has been some talk of attacks on Islamic folks and/or Arabs here, but
you are bound to have an occasional ignoramus get out of hand and take
matters into his own hands against an innocent. AFAIK, some of the claims
have even turned out to be fabrications. Ashcroft does tend to make me a bit
nervous, but I can't name one thing he's enacted that I can put my finger on
to say why. 

> and ordinary Americans get booted off of planes for carrying
> the wrong books, all in the name of patriotism, you're wondering? I
> wouldn't.

Yes, that is absolutely ridiculous. I doubt it has anything to do with
patriotism though: it's more about a perceived sense of safety. I can't
believe more attention is not being paid to Israel and where they are now
vs. the mistakes they made in the past. 

One mistake of Israel's that I think we will repeat is gov't control of
airline safety. If you think it's hard now for incompetents to get fired
from private corps, wait until they are gov't employees.  The *perception* of
safety may be there, but I still think much more has to be done - they
reinforced the cabin door, now they have to arm the pilots. 

> P.S.: Maybe we should mark this thread "O.T." before the
> all-Linux-all-the-time faction starts complaining ;-)

Done. :)

-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at attbi.com Yahoo:seanleblancathome 
ICQ:138565743 MSN:seanleblancathome AIM:sleblancathome 
Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is matter of choice. It is not something 
to be waited for; but rather something to be achieved. 
-William Jennings Bryan