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[Phys-L] Re: OT: Re: Warning: Don't ask for Library loans on Political Topics



Hugh Haskell wrote:

"Having said that, I, along with John M. am of the opinion, based on
my observations, that the liberals have a much better record on both
actions than the "other side."


I guess this conclusion is probably based on one's political
inclinations (your mileage may vary!). With the exception of FOX news
network, the ability to present liberal viewpoints on national networks,
NBC, CBS, etc. is much higher than conservative viewpoints (or horrors!
any idea that Republican Demon Bush is doing what he thinks is best for
the US, even if mistaken in the judgement of some).
Please note that I am very sceptical about installing parts of the
Patriot act as permanent laws, simply because I have never seen
governments (Republican or Democrat) including Congress very quick to
give up powers they have obtained. If parts of this act are necessary
for the current crisis (and I do not know whether they really are or
not), then make these with a sunset provision that they expire in 2 years.

David and Bruce have seen fit to trash anyone they choose to call
"liberal" over the story of the guy who made up a tale about being
investigated by Homeland Security Agents.

Did I miss something when I read the emails. I didn't notice them
trashing anyone in particular. In fact it seems as if they are being
trashed.
James Mackey


Unfortunately, these are
tactics resorted to by zealots of both sides of the political
spectrum (that is, making up stories to discredit the other side, and
making hay over it if the truth eventually comes out). Too many on
both sides are too willing to believe any story that makes their side
look good and disbelieve any one that doesn't make their side look
good. Either choice is usually pretty random in its accuracy. It
doesn't make the side that gets it wrong look any better for that. It
does work out that telling the truth is more often than not the best
policy.

Having said that, I, along with John M. am of the opinion, based on
my observations, that the liberals have a much better record on both
actions than the "other side." That may be just because we don't get
as much attention paid to our claims as the other side does, or may
not be as well-financed so that refuting the other side's bogus
claims is more difficult. But what I have observed is that the
so-called "liberal" media are much more likely to pick up calumnies
leveled by the right on the left than vice versa, and much slower to
pick up the refutations of them when they are put forth. As an
example, I would cite the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's" slimy
campaign against John Kerry's military record during the last
campaign, and how little coverage was given to the untruth of their
claims and the connections between the group and the Bush Campaign
office, while the equally reprehensible claim that the records that
show Bush's Air National Guard Service was falsified had been found
was given little coverage until it was shown that the documents were
forgeries, at which point it was picked up by almost everyone.

With regard to the concerns that many of us have that the access that
the Prez claims to have to unauthorized international wire-taps, and
the unfettered access that Homeland Security has to our records of
library loans, book purchases, and other such, it is not the
probability that no one of us, at least, has yet been targeted for
surveillance or persecution by virtue of our political beliefs, but
the probability that, if this ability by the government becomes
ensconced in permanent law, it *will* be abused in the future. All we
have to do is read about the abuses of the fifties to know that could
easily happen again. I suggest two physics-related books to back up
that assertion. First is Fred Jerome's "The Einstein File: J. Edgar
Hoover's Secret War Against the World's Most Famous Scientist" (St.
Martin's Press, 2002), and the latest biography of Oppenheimer, Bird
and Sherwin's "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J.
Robert Oppenheimer" (Knopf, 2005). These two books show the lengths
to which overzealous law enforcement agencies went in their attempts
to destroy the lives and reputations of those they saw as "enemies,"
not in the geographical sense, but in the political sense.

Scientists have not been immune to attacks on their integrity, both
from the left and the right, and they are quite correct to be leery
of any action that gives the government too much authority to poke
into affairs that are really none of their business, no matter what
justification du jour is offered to excuse it.

I think that the authority that the government had in the Patriot Act
to subpoena the borrowing record or purchase record of anyone they
want to from libraries or bookstores without telling the subject of
the investigation that this is being done, and furthermore
prohibiting the library or store from with the information is being
gathered from telling anyone that it is happening is about as
unconstitutional as something can get, and that there was even one
Democrat who voted for that reprehensible document is a stain on
their record that will take years for them to live down.

I rather doubt that the silly story about a student being
investigated had any significant effect on the renewal of the Patriot
Act for 5 weeks instead of forever. The renewal was in trouble long
before that, the Senate only gave it three months, and then went
along with the house in order to be able to get out of town for
Christmas. And both houses are firmly in control of the Republicans,
which have a record of much better party discipline than do the
Democrats, so the fact that these solid majorities could not push
through the permanent renewal is a clear indication that more and
more people are starting to see the Patriot Act as the severely
flawed document that it is.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

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