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PadawanBater
Guest
Same here Han, I respect your opinions even if we disagree.Yeah no problem man, we can disagree that is why this country is great! I definantly respect peoples opinions, and am willing to change mine because I do like to figure out where the other side of this is.
I used to be VERY opposed to the patriot act.
But at the same time I never really have been upset about profiling and wiretaps, shit like that. Now that does not mean I am cool with people acting on stupid shit, but if it is going to hurt people I am all for intervention.
I used to work at a bar and would always be driving at 3-4 in the morning to go home. And would get pulled over quit often. But I never really got upset about it, because what if I was drunk, then there would be very good reason to do it. If I was not then, no harm no foul, as long as my shit was up to date, I would be on my way.
I have just basically applied this train of thought to what is going on with the patriot act. After reading all the garbage that people where saying about the H1N1 flu shots and quoting the freedoms in the patriot act, I really got a better grasp of this bill, and realize it is all bullshit.
Really the bill is just giving the power to the people on the ground and cutting out all the overhead and redundancy that causes really bad situations to arise.
Like 9-11. They could have possibly shot down a plane (I believe it was the 2nd one) but were paralyzed with red tape. The patriot act just allowed them to circumvent in cases of real emergencies and act on the best judgment. Similar to stopping people from getting off a subway car and leaving even though they may have the plague and killing thousands of people, because they did not get approval from some congressman that needs to be re-elected.
Now that being said, I know that eventually they will start to use it in ways that it was never intended, I know it (even though I have no proof). But at that point we need to be aware and nip it in the butt. Similar to what they did to Oliver North and the rest of the crack dealing CIA people.
But just as I am never going to be paralyzed with fear of terrorists, I am never going to be paralyzed with fear of the american government. As long as I don't have a good reason to, I will not hurt someone on purpose. So there should never be a reason for me to get caught from this, unless it is a bad mistake, and at that point, so be it because I will help them in everything that I can to catch the right person even if that means sitting in a cell for a couple weeks until it is sorted out.
And I think you know I am not for the Iraq war, and do think that was the wrong war for us. Every country at that point was willing to let us set up shop to get the people that did this (with a couple exceptions) and we fucked it up.
The thing about the PA that bothers me is how vague the requirement to be labeled ''terrorist'' is. Like LF mentioned, Malcolm X would be considered a terrorist by the PA's standards, same with MLK.
I don't like the idea that some guy behind a desk has the authority to put a tap on my phone if he decides I'm up to some suspicious behavior. It goes past "well if I'm not doing anything wrong, I shouldn't have anything to worry about". If I'm not doing anything wrong, I shouldn't have to worry about my government spying on me illegally with 'terrorism' as a cover to break the law.
To me, that isn't freedom. To me, the PA restricts our freedoms.
Thanks for the thoughts though, you're better at expressing your opinions and views than ol CrackerJax.