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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (8965)	1/13/2006 8:48:35 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541376

I think "innocent" is whoever the government decides it is- and has nothing to do with what most of us here would think of as innocence- because free speech, to this administration, is not "innocent". Since the government is spying on anti-war groups, I think my chances of being snooped on are fairly high. What other people's chances are, I do not know- since I don't know what their activities are- but I know what I do, and I think I'm at risk.

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (8965)	1/13/2006 1:47:50 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 541376

1. Why pass a law if most people are going to do it anyway? People break laws all the time. I broke two today. We pass laws to set a standard for what we consider unacceptable and to provide impetus and a vehicle to punish those who break it. People are free to break laws and we can't stop them. We can only express our standards to dissuade them, try to catch them if they violate laws, and punish them if we can catch them. You could go out an murder someone right now if you really wanted to. Who or what would stop you? Nothing. We rely on the good will of our citizenry for civilization and recognize that aberrant events will happen. 2. How can you be sure they are not going to target you and/or E? I can't be sure. You and I can't be sure of much of anything. We play the odds. The probability that they will go after the likes of e or me is infinitesimal. We can hide in the herd. They won't get to us until they finish off the low hanging fruit, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor. They simply don't have the resources to go after everyone and they are rational enough to set priorities. That's not to say that they would never, ever target e or me, but it would be a waste to devote much of your life energy worrying about it. There's a better chance we will be hit by lightning.