> Do any of you want to: jeopardizes national security; harms the
> prosperity and interests of the state; arouse ethnic
> animosities, ethnic
> discrimination, or undermine ethnic solidarity; promotes cults (well,
> the MG cult, maybe); disturbs social order, or undermine social
> stability; spread obscenities, pornography, gambling,
> violence, murder,
> terror, or instigate crime; insult or slander others or violate the
> legal rights and interest of others?????
You've been very selective in the portions you put together there. And
unfortunately, it's all too easy to think that by implementing rules like
this, all of our problems can be solved. And even more unfortunate is that
in the last few years far too many people in power in the U.S. have felt
that our freedoms should be dismissed, or shouldn't apply. Whether it's for
'homeland security' or 'protecting our children'. All carefully done so
that anyone who objects is made to appear to be in favor of the enemy,
whether that's a terrorist or a child molester. "So when did you stop
beating your wife?"
Don't forget that the founders of the U.S. were doing things like disturbing
social order, undermining state religious policies, harming the interests of
the state, subverting state power, etc.
They had witnessed vast abuses of power by the state and dominant religious
authorities. While the witch trial portion in Monty Python's Holy Grail
movie is comical, it's not far from the way thousands of innocent people
were determined to be guilty and put to death. All of those rights that
sometimes seem to get in the way of punishing the criminals were put there
to protect us from the rampant abuse of power of the government and the mob
mentality that can arise in the general population.
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