Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
That may be, but it doesn't take away the rather serious sociological deterioration which allowed this idea to surface in the first place. The aftermath of 9/11 is far more extensive than people realise... Paradise Lost, anyone?
[ July 20, 2002, 04:48: Message edited by: Cartman ]
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged
1. Certain people would get training to identify what behaviors / signs there are that might indicate terrorist intent (And, presumably, which do not.)
2. These people would call the govt. to reporta what they saw, rather than the local cops, which is what they do nowadays.
I dunno, would you rather the letter carrier ignore it when he notices that Jake's pickup is full of wayyy too much fertilizer and gasoline cans? Or that Jimbo's ordered 350 pounds of rat poison?
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Hey, the idea for an Office of Home LAN Security would actually be a pretty good idea... My family has been running a network between the computers in our home for a couple of years now. Granted, I don't think we're really threatened by hackers, but it still would be nice to have an extra sense of security if the government decided to help keep the hackers out.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by First of Two: I dunno, would you rather the letter carrier ignore it when he notices that Jake's pickup is full of wayyy too much fertilizer and gasoline cans? Or that Jimbo's ordered 350 pounds of rat poison?
Which has always been the argument for infinging upon civil liberties in order to avoid bad things happen. "The Price Of Freedom is Eternal Vigilence". The main worry in peoples mind is the old "Where Do you Draw The Line", and that this could just be the start of a very slippery slope.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
quote:Or that Jimbo's ordered 350 pounds of rat poison?
Or that Rob has a *GUN!!!!*
Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
quote:Surely even Wing Commander IV was dramatic gold compared to Wing Commander the film?
Even?
WC4 would've made a fantastic sci-fi flick. Take some recent pathethic wastes of film (AI, Event Horizon, Sphere, The Fifth Element, Lost In Space, Wild Wild West and Battlefield Earth immediately spring to mind), then tell me how and why IV's story and scenario weren't vastly superior in every imaginable way.
I mean, Ol' Malcolm was cut out for the cuckoo Admiral role! Tolwyn actually possessed three dimensions, unlike Soran who had less depth than a kiddy pool. But alas, the intelligent among the audience were turned down in favor of a rather dumb mass public.
So, uh, yeah. The price of freedom is extremely high, and not everyone is willing to pay up.
Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged
quote: We can't find that page, but here are some tools to find it
SEARCH THE SITE
You can search the previous seven editions of The Washington Times Online for free. For an advanced search with more options, click here.
We post about one-third of the original content from the daily print edition on our Web site. Please search our Long-Term Archives if you can't find what you're looking for. Searching and viewing the article summaries are free, and you can retrieve the full articles for a modest fee.
I don't know what the article said, but TIPS is now real.
First we get kids rteporting on their parentsd with the DARE program, now every USA citizen can report his neighbor through the web site:
posted
I'll take that to mean shot down, which is good.
Here's the next attempt at a Police State.
President Bush ( news - web sites) has called on Congress to thoroughly review the law that bans the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines from participating in arrests, searches, seizure of evidence and other police-type activity on U.S. soil. The Coast Guard and National Guard troops under the control of state governors are excluded from the Reconstruction-era law, known as the "Posse Comitatus Act."
Ridge said Sunday that it "goes against our instincts as a country to empower the military with the ability to arrest," and called the prospect "very unlikely."
But he said the government is wise to examine the law.
"We need to be talking about military assets, in anticipation of a crisis event," Ridge said on "Fox News Sunday." "And clearly, if you're talking about using the military, then you should have a discussion about posse comitatus."
Two influential Democratic senators agreed with Bush and Ridge that the law ought to be reviewed, but expressed no interest in granting the military new powers to arrest American citizens.
Sen. Carl Levin ( news, bio, voting record), chairman Senate Armed Services Committee ( news - web sites), said posse comitatus "has served us well for a long time."
"It's kept the military out of law enforcement, out of arresting people except in the most unusual emergency situations like a riot or after some kind of a disaster where they have to protect against looting," Levin, D-Mich., said on CNN's "Late Edition."
However, he said: "I don't fear looking at it to see whether or not our military can be more helpful in a very supportive and assisting role even than they have been up to now — providing equipment, providing training, those kind of things which do not involve arresting people."
Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he favors expanding the military's role in responding to major catastrophes such as an attack by a weapon of mass destruction.
The law "has to be amended, but we're not talking about general police power," Biden, D-Del., said on "Fox News Sunday."
Air Force Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart, who heads the new military command charged with defending American territory, told The New York Times he favors changing the law to grant greater domestic powers to the military to protect against terror attacks. He offered no specific changes he favored.
Congress is racing to approve legislation by the end of its session this fall that would make Bush's proposed Department of Homeland Security a reality.
In the Senate, a version of the measure by Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., tracks closely with Bush's plan. It also would augment the agency's ability to gather and analyze intelligence from the FBI ( news - web sites), CIA ( news - web sites) and others.
That bill is to be considered by the Senate committee Wednesday.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey said on NBC's "Meet the Press" there was a strong possibility Congress will resolve its differences and send Bush a bill enacting the sweeping government reorganization by Sept. 11.
Some lawmakers have expressed concern about rushing decisions on far-reaching changes in the bureaucracy, but Armey said: "It's time to move forward with this. The president's got a good plan."
Bush planned to give a speech Monday about his proposed new department and view demonstrations of high-technology devices for combatting terrorism that are being developed at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.
-------------------- Sparky:: Think! Question Authority, Authoritatively. “Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.” EMSparks
Shalamar: To save face, keep lower half shut.
Registered: Jun 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
The real question we should be asking is why Fox News broadcasts on a Sunday. I mean, shouldn't their entire broadcast crew be, uh, "resting?"
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
No judgements on my part here, but some wild theorizing: In a world (Pretend I'm the voiceover guy) where war has been recast as policework, and policework as war, does it not behoove every state to become a police state?
At the risk of offending Francis Fukiyama, it seems to me that what we used to consider the bedrock of the political spectrum is turning into clay, and the old rules (Liberal/Conservative, Right/Left, Peace/War) are about to go out of style.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
