From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 06:53:09 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: BAA, BAA, SAY THE SHEEPLE
Message-ID: <v0300782bae6c625c4ebd@[206.119.69.46]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 08:24:36 -0700
To: <other people>, rah@shipwright.com
From: <somebody>
Subject: BAA, BAA, SAY THE SHEEPLE


      COLORADO SENATOR CHARLES DUKE ON THE LOSS OF LIBERTY
         By Senator Charles R. Duke, September 16, 1996
              Colorado District 9,  (719) 481-9289


BAA, BAA, SAY THE SHEEPLE

     Who would have thought America would be where it  is  today?
Earlier  in  the  week,  news  stories appeared announcing that a
proposal to do background checks on regular passengers came  from
a commission studying terrorism.

     This,  of  course,  would  do  absolutely  nothing  to  stop
terrorism.  Any decent terrorist knows enough to not travel under
a real name.  In any case, most airline terrorist incidents  will
likely be caused by someone who doesn't fly on the same plane for
which the incident is planned.

     Since these ideas are patently obvious to  the  most  casual
observers,  what,  then,  is  the purpose of this tyranny?  Is it
simply to get the American sheeple so  accustomed  to  government
spying that we don't mind?

     To do this would require some sort of identification  number
and  what  better  number to use than the Social Security number?
Having the SSN flying around all these databases would also allow
those who have access to such numbers to examine our bank records
and credit history, along with many other records.

     Oh, nuts, I say.  This proposal is just too depressing.   So
I  pick  up  the Wall Street Journal for Friday the Thirteenth of
September.  Might as well read a little financial news to get  in
a  better  mood.  I mean, our economy is really doing okay, or at
least so the government would have us believe.

     I never got to the stock tables.  There, on the front  page,
is  a  story  from  San  Mateo,  California,  where  den mothers,
coaches, and other volunteers who work with children will now  be
subjected to fingerprinting and background checks.  The idea, you
see, is to keep our children safe from child abuse.   Don't  look
now, Toto, but this doesn't feel like Kansas, anymore.

     This will be totally ineffective at curbing child abuse, but
you  probably  already  knew  that.   This writer knows something
about child abuse and can assure everyone that  the  overwhelming
majority  of  child  molesters  become  neither  den  mothers nor
coaches.

     We have a Fourth Amendment to  our  U.S.  Constitution  that
flatly   prohibits  these  unreasonable  searches  and  seizures.
Specifically, the Amendment states, "The right of the  people  to
be  secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no
Warrants  shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath
or affirmation, and  particularly  describing  the  place  to  be
searched and the persons or things to be seized."

     It means that our private effects and our private lives  are
none of any civil authority's business, unless they have probable
cause, and  can  obtain  a  warrant,  sworn  to  by  an  oath  or
affirmation  before  a  judge.   The only way any nosy government
gets away with this open and flagrant violation of constitutional
rights is if the sheeple allow it.

     Where is the hue and cry from everyone about these measures?
Have  we  become  so  conditioned  to  prying  eyes  that we have
forgotten what privacy is about?   Why  are  you,  who  have  the
courage  to  read  this column, just standing idly by and letting
our God-given rights be stripped from us on a daily basis?  Where
are the letters to the editor and civil demonstrations about this
blatant tyranny?

     Our forefathers paid for these rights with their  lives  and
their  blood.   They  must  be  churning in their graves with the
lackadaisical attitude we have today about our Constitution. They
fought  a  War  for Independence because King George was allowing
warrantless searches and incarcerations.  It  was  considered  by
our  Founding  Fathers  to  be a sacrilegious violation of rights
granted to us by our Creator and not subject to the rule of Man.

     Somehow, in 1996, we have been lulled into  complacency  and
apathy   by  a  government  totally  dedicated  to  the  absolute
subjugation of our free will.  Most of us have never really  been
free.   We  have  been  enslaved so long it is not clear we would
know how to behave if by some process we  had  our  real  freedom
restored.

     It is possible the American people actually deserve what  is
about  to  happen to us.  We deserve it because of our collective
inaction, our collective morals, our collective  set  of  values,
and our collective embrace of a failed political process.

     There are many examples in history where  societies  created
and  led  by  moral and just people have lasted for long periods.
Almost without exception, the collapse of  these  societies  were
preceded  by  a  loss of character in the people governed.  Where
would you put America today?






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-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"'Bart Bucks' are not legal tender."
                -- Punishment, 100 times on a chalkboard,
                       for Bart Simpson
The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/