Archive for the ‘The Patriot Act’ tag
It is many things Senator, But it isn’t Patriotism
What is a patriot? Wikipedia tells us that “Patriotism is commonly defined as love of and/or devotion to one’s country”. This is still somewhat vague - is it necessary for one, in order to be considered as patriot, to served in the armed forces and put his life at risk to defend one’s country? Or is it enough to support the national team in the Olympic games? Or maybe in order to be a patriot one have to support measures that limits one’s civil liberties? The answer is simple - Patriot is one who is willing to give up his liberty, property and life so politician, very much like Joe Biden, can trade it for power.
It never cease to shock me - the gall of those politician, the cynicism deceiving other people to harness their ideal, their values and they willingness to do the right things. You can call Joe Biden’s plan in many names - armed robbery come to mind - but they have nothing to do with patriotism.
War as the ultimate justifier
It is common knowledge that government use the fear to promote problematic regulations. It is easier to limits one’s freedom when warning about the “enemy in the gates”. It is much easier to pass laws such as the Patriot Act, or to suspend the Habeas Corpus when the government argue that these are necessary measure to prevent terror attacks. But since it is such an efficient tool to pass legislation it is being used to pass any kind of legislation:
The U.S. Justice Department seems to believe that if you tell a big enough lie, people will listen. Here’s the latest: Attorney General Michael Mukasey claims that terrorists sell pirated software as a way to finance their operations, without presenting a shred of evidence for his case. He’s doing it to push through a controversial piece of legislation that’s bad for you.
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So why is Mukasey trying to convince people there’s a link between software piracy and terrorism, even though one doesn’t exist? To force Congress to pass controversial intellectual property (IP) legislation that would increase IP penalties, increase police power, set up a new agency to investigate IP theft, and more.
This yet another, small, example why War is the Health of the State