Terror! Terror! (in the Sunshine State)

Tell an objector from a traitor?

Not buying it. Mike is right. Tyrannical regimes are a good metaphor--but if that was here truly, I wouldn't be able to type these words; my fate would have been like that of the Chilean students after their 9/11.

I think what bothers me most about the overstatement, is that it's defeatist: It's 'all bad and totalitarian already', so what's the point? We all work on this in our own ways, in our own ways of seeing the problem. Myself, I think we can have something shy of total states' rights and repeal of all administrative law, and still look to keep the TSA from trashing our democracy further. However you look at it, it's going to be a lot of work.

 

Agreed, but I think there is a change now in the air, something is different in our society, I cannot say just what it is, perhaps it is simply fear. Every day TSA commits what would generally be regarded as serious crimes, yet these go on and are even approved, not just by the government but by a large portion of the public. This is the product of mass fear.

 

The Washington Post did a comprehensive report on this called "Monitoring America." I wrote about it at the Cogblog last year. Some excerpts:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/monitoring-america/1/

There's also a Frontline (PBS) coming up based on this report. Check your local listings.

 

Oh, and re the discussion of "police state" in general, there are, obviously, a lot of nuances. Not all police states are the same. And they don't have to spring fully formed like Athena from the head of Zeus. They can develop over time. In sum, a police state doesn't exist when the government arrests everybody; it exists when the government can arrest everybody.

 

I saw some guy named Pistole making un-American statements, so I reported him.

 

Love it!!!