Mel's Poly-tics Corner Poly (many) + Tics (bloodsucking parisites) = Politics |
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New story from Talk Left: (find it verbatim here.) (even though I seem to agree with some of their articles... this one got me thinking) June 5, 2003 California Expands 24 Hour Lockdowns We find this reprehensible. California is expanding the use of 24 hour lockdowns in prisons--as a cost-cutting measure. The state's financially strapped corrections department is prohibiting inmates from leaving their cells at three prisons in an attempt to reduce overtime pay for guards and is considering further cost-saving restrictions at most of the system's 32 institutions, according to the chairwoman of the state Senate committee that oversees prisons. The ACLU says the policy is unconstitutional but has no plans to sue. Too bad. ok... some convicts can't leave their cells for 24 hours... is that really so bad? what would be better... raising everybody's taxes (including the victim's!) to raise funds to pay the security guards? i thought people go to prisons to learn and change from their mistakes-- so put em in their cells for a day and give em time to think! my- how cruel!!! the next two pieces are from the Washington Post June 8, 2003: Liberating Iraq American authorities say they are working on a directive that would ban hate speech and incitements to violence and create a system for registering publications to lend some order to the media landscape... L. Paul Bremer III, the top US administrator in Iraq... said it was not a matter of trying to control the media but more "a question of having some orderly process by which one registers newspaper or magazine, as you'd have in any other country." Come on. I could sum up "some orderly process by which one registers newspaper or magazine" in one word: censorship. But we're liberating Iraq, right? Profiles in Incoherence [Sen. John Edwards] tells receptive Democratic audiences that one major motivation for his running is to safeguard civil rights and other values he cherishes against the "right wing" judges Bush is picking. That segues into the biggest applause line in his speech, a vow that he will do all in his power to assure that "we do not in the name of the war on terrorism and the need for homeland security let people like John Ashcroft take away our lives, our liberties, our freedom." (Edwards opposed Ashcroft's confirmation but voted for the USA Patriot Act, expanding the surveillance powers of the Justice Department.) JFK once said something like "A country which values its privileges over its principles soon loses both." Harry Browne made a fitting modification: "A country which values its security over its principles soon loses both." |
SO usually when something happens that Americans don't like, we say "oh ya... that really sucks, man... there should be a law against it or something". In April 2003, a statewide smoking ban was passed in Connecticut because 2/3 of voters agree "second hand smoke is bad". now i'm not saying that i like sitting in smokey restaurants or anything, but i don't like the fact that we've given our government the power to determine what goes on in privately-owned businesses. does this mean the OWNER of the restaurant can't even smoke in his/her own establishment anymore? come on- these battles need to be won in a court of public opinion- not with meddling new policies and laws. Below are some more articles which i think you'll find interesting-- even if you don't agree with the views expressed |
"To be governed is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censored, checked, valued, enrolled, by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so." -Pierre-Joseph Proudhon |
HEY EVERYBODY! I know why schools are failing! It's because in 9 states, welfare recipients make more money than entry-level teachers! |
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