6.08.2005
Patriot Act : An incredibly significant piece of legislation that every American citizen has a duty to be informed about
EDIT: It looks like the Patriot Act is going to be expanded. Please make yourself aware of this important piece of legislation. (latest update)
It's 2005 and many of the most debatable provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire. At issue are fundamental changes to the way investigators' search and seize personal records of citizens, and non-citizens, as well as citizens and non-citizens themselves.
Here is a quick link to a four-part summary that, imho, treats the issues in a fashion that cannot be denied or said to contain unfactual bias. ( here )
I personally would take the time to read the text of the bill, which is over 300 pages.
I particularly urge you to read those sections that are mentioned in the above article and see them for yourself, because the text of the bill is plain fact and is all that the bill has to say about limitations on its own provisions. If a statement saying "US citizens may not be subject to this" or somesuch is not in that section, it is not law. (here or here , which is the Library of Congress's copy if you are somehow paranoid )
For writings on this bill and its use, see the ACLU's page on it at http://action.aclu.org/reformthepatriotact/ for one side of the debate or the Department of Justice's page at http://www.lifeandliberty.gov/ for the other side.
I personally find it interesting that the DOJ, on the home section of that website, says The Department of Justice's first priority is to prevent future terrorist attacks. I'd have to say that, given the number of lives lost from 1994-2003 from terrorism ( 9/11 - 2,752 (source ), found a summary from State Department gathered statistics for the entire world from 1996-2003 - 6,943 , and let's add 5 more 9/11's for a total of 20,703 ) vs. drunk driving ( 172,062 ) ( source ) , or ~4,277 under the age of 65 killed by influenza and pneumonia per year (times 9 is ~38,493) ( source) (I admit that combatting the flu and educating people to take people to doctors for early treatment is not what the DOJ should be doing, but it helps show something that is clearly preventable if money is spent on it (e.g. nation-wide flu vaccine), it seems to me that there are better ways for them to spend at least some of the massive amounts of time and resources looking for terrorist threats on threats which are unequivocally going to strike again if we don't do something about it.
Another interesting article written by the people who try to protect us against an attack from alien terrorists (read: a meteor crashing into the earth and annhilating human civilization) about all this stuff is here.
Personally, I do not know why the government has not acted against arguably the most costly and wide reaching terrorist attack against our nation's children every year - not only killing 121 of the most defenseless of our country in one year alone but also costing us at least $94.9 billion (source) annually treating viticms of these attacks, which numbered 2.3 million who were injured enough to need hospital emergency room treatment under the age of 14 - not counting the immeasurable contributions that those who died could have made to our society; who knows how many Einsteins and Edisons have been smothered out by the subversive infiltration of our window, stair, and baby walker industries to subtly increase their chance of falling. They have even used their wide influence in the liberal media to stop coverage of window guards. Window guards are effective at preventing falls. In New York City, an education and window guard distribution program, combined with window guard legislation, demonstrated a 35 percent reduction in window fall-related fatalities after two years. How many lives have been lost from not focusing on implementing these methods to protect our national security throughout the country?
If we truly believe in "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and that each life is precious, we must resist selfish forces that would take advantage of our fears and squander our energies and fiscal resources on overblown security enhancements. (here , from people protecting us against the alien threat )
It's 2005 and many of the most debatable provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire. At issue are fundamental changes to the way investigators' search and seize personal records of citizens, and non-citizens, as well as citizens and non-citizens themselves.
Here is a quick link to a four-part summary that, imho, treats the issues in a fashion that cannot be denied or said to contain unfactual bias. ( here )
I personally would take the time to read the text of the bill, which is over 300 pages.
I particularly urge you to read those sections that are mentioned in the above article and see them for yourself, because the text of the bill is plain fact and is all that the bill has to say about limitations on its own provisions. If a statement saying "US citizens may not be subject to this" or somesuch is not in that section, it is not law. (here or here , which is the Library of Congress's copy if you are somehow paranoid )
For writings on this bill and its use, see the ACLU's page on it at http://action.aclu.org/reformthepatriotact/ for one side of the debate or the Department of Justice's page at http://www.lifeandliberty.gov/ for the other side.
I personally find it interesting that the DOJ, on the home section of that website, says The Department of Justice's first priority is to prevent future terrorist attacks. I'd have to say that, given the number of lives lost from 1994-2003 from terrorism ( 9/11 - 2,752 (source ), found a summary from State Department gathered statistics for the entire world from 1996-2003 - 6,943 , and let's add 5 more 9/11's for a total of 20,703 ) vs. drunk driving ( 172,062 ) ( source ) , or ~4,277 under the age of 65 killed by influenza and pneumonia per year (times 9 is ~38,493) ( source) (I admit that combatting the flu and educating people to take people to doctors for early treatment is not what the DOJ should be doing, but it helps show something that is clearly preventable if money is spent on it (e.g. nation-wide flu vaccine), it seems to me that there are better ways for them to spend at least some of the massive amounts of time and resources looking for terrorist threats on threats which are unequivocally going to strike again if we don't do something about it.
Another interesting article written by the people who try to protect us against an attack from alien terrorists (read: a meteor crashing into the earth and annhilating human civilization) about all this stuff is here.
Personally, I do not know why the government has not acted against arguably the most costly and wide reaching terrorist attack against our nation's children every year - not only killing 121 of the most defenseless of our country in one year alone but also costing us at least $94.9 billion (source) annually treating viticms of these attacks, which numbered 2.3 million who were injured enough to need hospital emergency room treatment under the age of 14 - not counting the immeasurable contributions that those who died could have made to our society; who knows how many Einsteins and Edisons have been smothered out by the subversive infiltration of our window, stair, and baby walker industries to subtly increase their chance of falling. They have even used their wide influence in the liberal media to stop coverage of window guards. Window guards are effective at preventing falls. In New York City, an education and window guard distribution program, combined with window guard legislation, demonstrated a 35 percent reduction in window fall-related fatalities after two years. How many lives have been lost from not focusing on implementing these methods to protect our national security throughout the country?
If we truly believe in "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and that each life is precious, we must resist selfish forces that would take advantage of our fears and squander our energies and fiscal resources on overblown security enhancements. (here , from people protecting us against the alien threat )
# posted by Greg @ 7:19 PM 
