Monday, December 12, 2005

Patriot Act: It's Not Just for Patriots Any More!

Patriot Act report targets meth
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051211-110231-2800r.htm


The ultimate test of a scientific theory is its ability to predict the postulated outcome.

If, say, I think 2+2=4, and I test this over and over by adding up two sets of two things and getting four every time, I know my theory - that 2+2=4 - is valid. I feel comfortable that next time I want to add 2+2, I can safely predict I'll get 4. And not get too much egg on my face by it being something other than 4.

If, however, I sometimes get 4, others 5 or 3 or 18, it's time to go back to the drawing board.

In real life you don't always get 100% accuracy, especially in "soft science" fields. That's where a little thing called judgment comes in.

In the soft science of predicting the behavior of politicians, and the outcomes of their actions and/or decisions, I've got a high rate of accuracy. Those who disagreed with my original prediction sometimes come back and play *Apologist,* saying, Well, it only happened like you said it would because...

Or, they'll say, Well, you're only interpreting it that way...

But usually they can't say I'm out and out clearly wrong.

One thing I predicted from the start - along with lots of other people - was that the Patriot Act would not be reserved for antiterrorist functions, as promised by its promoters, but would quickly be applied to law-enforcement activities like the Drug War, and to purely political activities like investigating people who vote for the other side, or disagree with your policies a little too loudly.

Since it's one of the predictions I didn't make in a public forum, I've kept my mouth shut as its powers were quickly put to use for things that have nothing to do with the so-called War on Terror. Personally, I feel I can't blow my own horn on my accuracy unless I wrote down my prediction and posted it or emailed it around. I have lots of witnesses to my early verbal statements, but in this type of endeavor, I take verbal *documentation* as not worth the paper it's not written on.

This one is too blatant for me to just let slide, though. This time the expansion of the Patriot Act to include activities in the War on Drugs is specifically written into its continued use.

Whatever your position on illegal drugs, it seems to me that it's totally improper to include these special powers in an act that was written for antiterrorism use. If you want an anti-meth bill, write an anti-meth bill.

3 comments:

Desert Cat said...

I need to reserve comment momentarily, as I have a feeling it would be expletive laden.

It just frosts me immensely that there are so many blind numbskulls on my side of the aisle that can't see what this Act really is.

Sometimes I don't even know what side of the aisle I'm on. Truth is, I'm a Christian libertarian and there is no aisle for me, nor even a party.

There is but one escape.

k said...

What escape would that be?

Desert Cat said...

"But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

It is my hope in the final arbiter of true justice, my faith that a) nothing can separate me from him, nothing in life, nor even my death, and b) he will, in fact, put an end to man's brutality to man, and reign in peace.

It is because of humankind's long sordid history of human authority being turned to evil against the people that I am convinced God is a libertarian.

Listen to this--this is key:

7 And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do. 10 Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle [b] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles."

21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. 22 The LORD answered, "Listen to them and give them a king."
I Samuel 8:10-21

The heavy hand of human authority was NEVER God's idea! He knew very well the evil that would become of their desire. And the closest we have ever come since then to the ideal of the days of the Israelite Judges (pre-kingdom) was in the founding of this country. Limited, carefully proscribed human government, and every man directly answerable to his God for the rest.

And today it's nearly gone...