the real danger from terrorism
I live in Britain, and what scares me about the recent bombings is that it helps the government gain more power over the people.
There are hundreds of millions of people in western Europe and north America. Tens of thousand, probably millions, have been in trouble with the police at some time. Unless the police are perfect, a percentage will be falsely imprisoned, falsely beaten up, or even wrongly executed. Given the number involved, a small percentage change in police powers will hurt far more innocent people than bombers could ever reach.
posted by Chris Tolworthy at 5:52 PM
6 Comments:
Watch out for a "patriot act." It's a clever disguise for "find out what books you read" or "monitor your phone calls if you are Arabic" or "hold you without charge for months on end with no access to a lawyer."
OK, maybe not so clever.
I just read a funny article in Utne Reader about a Brit in the U.S. who is diagnosed as having depression.
His accounts of his childhood in a city with closely packed brick buildings where it constantly rained, along with his persistent pessimism (the trains will always be late) and his insistence on cheering for football teams that never win led the medical team to diagnose his depression as severe. They tried talk therapy, they tried drugs. He told them it was pointless, but they just replied "It's that attitude that got you to this point in the first place." In six months of therapy, all he ever wanted to talk about was the weather. The psychiatrist was concerned that he wasn't making any progress at all.
The patient was strapped to a gurney, ready to receive electroconvulsive therapy, when the psychiatric nurse noticed his accent and said, "Wait! This man isn't depressed! He's British!"
The team immediately decided that rather than being depressed, he was quaint and charming. They gave him an I Heart NY t-shirt and a handful of colorful brochures and sent him on his way.
Of course, when I read this, I thought of my favorite Brit.
re: depressed or British? LOL! That's how I felt when the Foyer had that thread on having a cinema night. A couple of the contributers mentioned their gigantic home cinema systems, and it sounded like this was quite normal. One of them mentioned that when they were watching their modest thousand inch plasma TV (or something like that) the kids could watch the little fifty inch set in the other room. Meanwhile, on another blog, someone mentioned the danger of falling into their swimming pool. Suddenly my twenty inch TV didn't look so huge any more. And I have since filled in the old scum filled pond and planted grass over it. *Sigh.* :)
re: patriot act
Yeah. A few weeks ago the government was talking about setting up a homeland security department. And yesterday they were making the usual "we will do whatever it takes" noises. Meaning "if we have to destroy our country to save it, we will do so."
"Where have all the flowers gone? .. When will they ever learn?"
If it makes you feel any better, not ALL Unistations have such palatial digs nor such excellent home electronics. My TV IS 27", but I bought it used for $50 (it's a floor model, and at the time I was worried about a climbing baby pulling a TV over on his head). It has a hairline crack in the front glass. My college age son and his roommate had a better TV than we did. And even though I live in southeast LA, we don't have a pool. But I'd really like one. And our neighbors do.
There's nothing wrong with being safe. But if we want perfect order, the model is Singapore. Not Good.
But, Chris, you will be so much safer when you fly because you had to take off your shoes and stick them in the bucket with your wallet and keys going through security.
I am deeply saddened by the bombings in London and truly worried about the response to these events.
I also live a very modest life. We just aren't into "stuff," in my family. Not even the kids.
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