I usually try to ignore what Congress does or contemplates doing. Not because what they’re up to isn’t dangerous. Ha! Dangerous to liberty defines the very existence of those &^%$#@!s.<\/p>\n
But because we shouldn’t have to spend our lives in desperate, hysterical reaction to a bunch of scoundrels, criminals, and tyrants. It demeans us to “WRITE YOUR CONGRESSTHING NOW<\/I><\/B> AND TELL IT TO V*TE AGAINST THE LATEST BILL OF RIGHTS DESTROYING MONSTROSITY BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!!!!!”<\/p>\n
No, if they’re even thinking<\/i> about voting against our inborn liberties, then our proper response is … well, never mind.<\/p>\n
Still, this week there are two abominations out there, both so bad that only a 1. Giving the death cut to Posse comitatus<\/i>, sneakily, of course: Read it<\/a> and weep<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2. And the infamous SOPA<\/a>. (Tip o’ hat to DA.)<\/p>\n The first wouldn’t just unleash the military upon you and me; If everything I’ve read is true<\/a> it could lock us up forever with no more hope than a Medieval serf rotting in a feudal lord’s dungeon. They could “disappear” you, and your friends and family might never even learn where or why you’d gone because your “detention” would be a matter of “national security.”<\/p>\n The second … well, you know. The usual stuff of criminalizing us to make the political donors happy.<\/p>\n Talk nicely to creatures who would impose this on you? Nooooo, I don’t think so.<\/p>\n But do as you see fit, as always. Last I heard, the Senate was scheduled to vote today on an amendment that would wipe out the disappear-you provisions (hidden — or so its masterminds Carl Levin (D) and John McCain (R) hoped — in a Defense appropriations bill). Here’s the ACLU’s form-letter form<\/a>.* <\/p>\n Even if the damnable provision has already weaseled its way through the Senate when you read this, the bill still has to go into conference committee and the eventually be voted on again in both the House and Senate.<\/p>\nmoron<\/del> evil puppet<\/del> fascist<\/del> senator (same root word as senile) or “representative” (you’ll pardon the euphemism) would even consider voting for them. And so we must at least note what they’re trying to do this time:<\/p>\n