antikoan

 |::| Sunday, September 15, 2002

 |::| And while we're revisiting the classics...   2:34:28 PM 

... here's a little number that raped the English language, made George Orwell roll over in his grave, and set back the cause of civil liberties in America by forty years, all at once. From the text [pdf, 622KB] of the "USA Patriot [sic] Act":

(a) SHORT TITLE- This Act may be cited as the `Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001'.

The document is dated October 24, 2001. Is anyone else amazed that they were able to put this together so quickly? It's 342 pages long... (thanks to EPIC.)

 |::| Feeling the Chill (Or: Driving While Black Meets Dining While Arab)  2:11:24 PM 

KENT BROCKMAN: Tell me, Doctor, would this be a good time for our viewers to split open the skulls of their friends and neighbors and feast on the goo within?
EXPERT: Yes it would.
-- The Simpsons

"One woman can make one phone call and say whatever she wants and three men are detained for 17 hours and their cars and persons searched."
-- Orb @ JustOrb.com

It's axiomatic that shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre is a Bad (or even Malicious) Thing. But what about making bad jokes in a diner? Or even just having somebody claim that you did, based on her interpretation of some overheard snippets?

Four young doctors, en route to their first hospital posting -- doubtless feeling the same sense of cameraderie and high-spirits that any group of young friends might feel when they're on a major life adventure, together -- made some cynical, dark-spirited jokes in a Florida diner. Well, that is, they may have -- at least, Eunice Stone says they did.

Even without a fully-implemented TIPS program, these young doctors were soon pulled over, based on the license number provided to Florida police by the alert (paranoid? officious?) Georgia diner patron, and their car searched exhaustively for explosives.

All amidst a media firestorm: Florida television stations went live for hours, running with wild, unfounded (and downright Brockmanesque) speculations of a terror-assault on South Florida.

All the media accounts I've found of this incident seem to indicate that these men will be prosecuted -- but for what, isn't clear. And they've been "traded" by the hospital where they planned to serve. "The safety of the three students, the personnel and patients would be placed in jeopardy if they were to work here, so we have sent them to another hospital out of state." All for having the indiscretion to look suspicious to some paranoid North Georgia woman.

The word "hoax" keeps getting thrown around. I expect that's because a "hoax" would pass the "fire-in-a-theatre" test. I'd hate to be the defense attorney trying to prove that road-trip lunch conversation didn't constitute a "hoax." (But we do know that these guys "had an attitude." Right -- like anyone a highway cop decides to haul in doesn't develop an "attitude" between the stop and the report.)

And with few mainstream exceptions, most people seem happy to jump in and scream for unlimited search-and-seizure on hearsay evidence in pursuit of the illusion of security. I expect as much from piranha like the FReepers [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]; frankly, I wasn't too surprised by the prevailing sentiment at Plastic or MeFi, either.

It looks as though Ari Fleischer is right: Americans need to watch what they say.

 |::| The Wisdom of Ari  12:39:35 PM 

This seems like an opportune time to play a blast from the (recent) past:

I'm aware of the press reports about what he said. I have not seen the actual transcript of the show itself. But assuming the press reports are right, it's a terrible thing to say, and it unfortunate. And that's why -- there was an earlier question about has the President said anything to people in his own party -- they're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is. [emphasis added]
-- White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, regarding talk show host Bill Maher's now-infamous comments on the subject of bravery and cruise-missiles

 |::|   12:38:04 PM 

It's been a busy few days in the War On Terrorism (or "WOT" as an online correspondent likes to call it). So this may be an All Politics day...