Gautam Mukunda wrote:
1. What _specific_ abuses of the PATRIOT act would you
name?
Do we have to have evidence of actual abuse to believe that it wrongly undermines the 4th Amendment? Are we expected to support such a law without considering how it could be abused, but wait until it actually is abused, and then repeal it? The law itself makes such abuse harder to discover!
2. Same thing with Guantanamo. In fact, we've just found out that people _released_ from Guantanamo have been busily attacking American troops. So maybe the problem isn't that we're holding people for no cause but the opposite. I don't know. But it's not clear or obvious that there are problems there, or that if they are they are the problems you (seem to be) implying.
And criminals who are released from prison often commit more crimes. So is the answer life imprisonment for everything, in order to prevent further crimes? A lot of people, myself included, don't think it's okay to do away with justice in order to achieve a desired outcome.
I hear in these arguments an attitude of "don't worry about how we treat the bad people, since we're the good people," or "ordinary Americans have nothing to fear from the Patriot Act because they aren't terrorists." Very, very disingenous, as it asks us to ignore the vast history of institutions of all sorts misusing their powers.
Just to round up. Non-partisan _cannot_ be defined as
"I agree with David Brin."
David can speak for himself, but I've never seen him as non-partisan. He described himself as bi-partisan. He strikes me as on guard against falling into any one ideology.
Non-partisanship, in the sense of journalistic objectivity, isn't serving anyone well these days, I'd argue. I'll add that it has seemed to me sometimes that you demand partisanship, demanding that I, for example, take a position on an issue where I'm undecided, as a prerequisite to criticizing others' positions.
Nick
-- Nick Arnett Director, Business Intelligence Services LiveWorld Inc. Phone/fax: (408) 551-0427 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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