Big
Brother says fasten your seatbelts
Jason
Garthoffner
Reading
John McQueen's response to my column on
the Patriot Act (Nov. 12) you would think
I'm confused because I "demonize"
liberals as hypocritical and uninformed.
That's just not true; to demonize someone
is to suggest they are something that they
are not. I'm merely stating with certainty
what they are.
I
wasn't attempting to invalidate liberal
arguments by reminding you that their hero
Franklin Roosevelt imprisoned Japanese people
during World War II. They invalidated themselves
when they locked up the Japanese; I was
merely pointing it out.
In
general, it is probably good practice to
not criticize the Bush administration's
capture of a few hundred people guilty of
something when your side has a track record
of detaining more than 100,000 people for
nothing. That's being hypocritical.
My
"outrageous" claim that the American
Civil Liberties Union wasn't there for the
Japanese when they were imprisoned puts
McQueen at odds with me. It also puts him
at odds with the Institute for Historical
Review (which is just one of several sources
on this). That's being uninformed.
He
can check out www.ihr.org/jhr/v02/v02p-45_Weber.html,
and admit he was wrong. On the other hand,
he can continue to call me revisionist and
remain quiet while history majors write
diatribes on how imperialism means being
American, and not having guilty suicidal
hatred about it.
The
one thing I could concede to McQueen is
my calling the anti-Patriot Act movement
run by the liberals a "Big Brother"
campaign. The more appropriate term for
them from George Orwell's "1984"
would be "Ministry of Truth."
This worked for the party to rewrite history
to fit their needs, which was controlled
by "Big Brother." I would thank
McQueen for clearing that up, but it's inconsequential
to the point.
I
am also accused of being flippant with liberal
rhetoric on this. Disrespectful disagreement
is a better term. How can I be respectful
when it is manifestly true that many of
them have not read the Patriot Act? If they
did they would know that what it basically
does is take laws that are used to combat
other criminal activities, and apply them
to terrorism. Their uninformed response
to this is "Big Brother is watching
you," and I'm the one being flippant?
For
their incessant carping about it, the ACLU
admits they cannot find one instance of
civil rights abuse in its two years of existence.
Instead they complain the law is being used
to catch criminals committing crimes that
aren't terror related. Such as: child pornography,
drug trafficking, money laundering and blackmail,
which apparently are all now civil liberties.
Perhaps liberals would prefer the United
States be called Neverland Ranch.
Maybe
using the Patriot Act to catch criminals
who aren't terrorists is abusive. If so,
then let it be known that the liberals'
idea of Republican abuse is fighting crime.
While Republicans are catching criminals,
Democrats are creating crimes where none
should exist.
In
California, it was Democratic assemblymen
that created the laws requiring us to wear
seatbelts in our cars, and put motorcycle
helmets on our heads. In the last year Democrats
in the legislature have introduced bills
that would do the following: ban soda in
schools (SB 667), ban smoking in condominiums
(AB 210), ban cell phone use in cars (AB
45), ban the sale of alcoholic Jell-O shots
(AB 1657), make school mascot names like
"Warrior" and "Braves"
illegal (AB 858), and AB 732 makes it illegal
to raise calves for veal production (hooray
for the baby cows, how about that abortion?).
Such
intrusion by the hypocritical party of "choice"
into normal aspects of everyday life is
exactly what "Big Brother" was
doing in Orwell's "1984." Liberals
will tell you saying this is inflammatory,
and then their Ministry of Truth will call
President Bush "Hitler without the
mustache."
In
their Neverland Ranch such talk is considered
"progressive." Don't get it confused
with hyperbole; apparently I am the only
one capable of that (since when did truth
become hyperbole?).
Then
the liberal chicken-littles have the nerve
to say that the Republicans are the ones
Orwell was warning us about.
Jason
Garthoffner is an art major at Cal State
Long Beach and can be reached at JasD1899@aol.com.
|
