OT: Some funny political stuff at last... was Moving from SCO to Linux

[Fairlight]

Only Joe Acquisto would say something like:
> 
> Sure.  Fight fire with fire.

I personally find water to be more effective in fighting fire.  Or perhaps
dry chemical extinguishers.

> Well, not to worry.  With the 9/11 report out, and the various pundits
> beating the drum for implimentation of it's most Big Brother-ish aspects,
> we will all soon be safe in Mother Liberty's arms.  Hmm, guess that would
> be Big Sister, then, huh?

Ah, but the utter irony is that we won't be really any safer in the grand
scheme of things.  I would take issue with a contrary assertion coming from
anyone.

As I see it, the truth is that they -cannot- make us safe.  What we saw on
that day, tragic though it was, -was- symbolic.  I do -not- mean to
belittle the lives of anyone lost, the pain of any relatives or friends (I,
too, had friends whose family was in peril there, although not lost
thankfully), or condone what happened in -any- way.  I think it was
deplorable, to say the least.  Inhuman is closer.

However, if the terrorists were -serious- about it, we'd need police on
every street corner, guards at every aisle of every Wal*Mart, K-Mart,
grocery store, corner gas station, etc., to protect against all manner of
attacks.  You think the USPS anthrax scare was big?  Imagine what would
happen if someone started targetting random malls, shopping outlets,
grocery stores, etc., with varieties of attacks.  The National Guard isn't
up to it, our domestic local agencies aren't up to it.  It is -not
possible- without turning us entirely into a police state.

And that's if they got even halfway serious about terrorising us.  As
it is, they basically rented us cheap.  They spent under half a million
dollars to fund an attack that killed less people than die on our own
highways in a few months as a matter of course during any normal year, and
have already -won- because we have our tail tucked between our legs enough
to let our own government trample our civil liberties in the name of the
LIE that they can provide security and safety for us.  The Patriot Act,
which our emminently "sage" (</sarcasm>) electorate refuses to repeal, is
an absolute travesty, based on a series of fallacies that are practically
immeasurable in their breadth and scope.

Their platitudes and promises under the guise of which they legislate all
this rubbish into law are a -joke-.  They can't guarantee our safety.  It's
not even technically feasible, and I would be extremely hard-pressed to
believe anyone that says it is.

I'm really not up for a huge political debate.  This isn't the place,
honestly.  And I'm -hoping- to stay out of future debate, but I felt
the need to chime in on exactly how ludicrous I think it is that we're
letting ourselves basically be oppressed bit by bit in the name of a
series of fallacies based on one half-hearted symbolic attempt that, while
tragic and deplorable, was nowhere near what -real- full-scale terrorism
would actually represent.  If they got -really- serious, may God help us.
Because as far as I'm concerned, that was a token gesture.

They're right to be concerned.  But they're reacting entirely incorrectly,
IMHO.  It's turned into a farce of tragic proportions.

And when I say symbollic, I do not mean that the deaths and injuries to
those affected were not real or tangible.  I'm saying that as far as -real-
terrorism goes, it was symbollic, and not by any means the extent to which
they could take it.  Dramatic, yes.  Greatly impressive on TV for three
years, yes.  A measure of the comprehensiveness of the threat, no.  And as
our own Kentucky governor's mishap flying into DC proved, they haven't even
fixed what they set out to fix in the first place, much less addressed
anything on a grander scale.  And I don't want them to, either.  Because if
they do, the next words we'll be hearing are, "Papers, please!"  Oh, but
wait, they've already been considering a National ID for a long time.  It's
already been considered for quite a while, and it wouldn't surprise me if
it comes up again very soon on the hill.

Yes, I'm fully aware I've probably offended -someone- with this post.
Hopefully not seriously.  I just wish people would stop relying soley
on the news and actually -think- about the -full- scale of what's all
involved that they're not even mentioning, and realise the scale on which
we're effectively being lied to in the name of furthering agendas that
don't serve the public at all, at least in the name of what this country
supposedly stands for.

Of -course- terrorism should be stopped if possible, within reasonable
means.  I don't consider an emerging police state reasonable.  And anything
short of that will be insufficient to their stated goals.  Feels to me like
we're on the precipice of a very, very deep chasm.

I apologise for any offense I may have caused with this post.

mark->
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