"Our country has paid dearly in terms of lives lost (both at the Twin Towers and on the fields of battle since then) and in terms of monetary treasure, but the greatest cost or 'Loss' actually has been to our ideals.The War on (Some) Drugs started it, but the War on A Noun bolted on a turbocharger. Anyhow, you should go read his whole post.
...
We, as citizens, have lost the virtue of "Privacy". When asked what we are carrying in our personal clothing or an accompanying bag, "NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS" is no longer a legal or acceptable response. Worse still a large percentage of the population believes you have no right to issue such a response."
Books. Bikes. Boomsticks.
“I only regret that I have but one face to palm for my country.”
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Friendly KIA.
Farmer Frank's post from yesterday is worth a read in its entirety, but the money quotes are:
An ever braver New World.
ReplyDelete"...citizens, have lost the virtue of "Privacy". When asked what (you) are carrying in (y)our personal clothing or an accompanying bag, "NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS" is no longer a legal or acceptable response. Worse still a large percentage of the population believes *you* have no right to issue such a response."
ReplyDeleteFixed it for ya, Frank.
AT
Implicit if unstated in the above is the simple truth: politicians of any stripe and regardless of underlying intent, are by definition "governors"...and as Mr. Webster said so well, they (mostly) "mean to govern well, but they mean to govern."
ReplyDeleteDope, terrorism, immigration, entitlements, monetary policy...all pretexts for what (all) governors and government are really all about: the completely interchangeable terms of money/power/control.
AT
I've long believed that the founders screwed the pooch when they didn't include an explicit and fundamental right to privacy in the bill of rights.
ReplyDeleteToday's work follies must have scrambled my brain even more than usual, because I was wondering when someone had declared war on turbochargers with nouns attached to them with bolts. And just what nouns were involved.
ReplyDeleteMomentarily, this seemed almost plausible, because anything that results in burning more air-fuel mixture must be bad for mother Gaia. (Unlike those remote-exhaust coal-fired electric cars.)
I believe the rot set in some time around 1760. Up until then, I believe, there was no way to get a search warrant, except to look for stolen goods.
ReplyDeleteAs many have written, and I concur with them, a later event was also bad for our society. The German silly idealistic refugees from the failed Revolution of 1848 came over here en masse, settled in the Midwest, then helped found the Republican party, the original bullying nationalizing centralizing party.
I am somewhat ambivalent about the Irish. Many of them served honorably on both sides in The War, and helped to run up the butcher's bill. You know how those guys are.