Posted on 07/12/2005 7:37:41 PM PDT by freedrudge
AN OVERWHELMING majority of the public would back tough new measures to try to reduce the threat of terrorist attacks following last Thursday’s bombings.
A Populus poll for The Times, undertaken between Friday and Sunday, highlighted stark divisions in attitudes between people living in London and the South East, and those in the rest of the country. The further away from London respondents lived, the stronger their support for tough new measures.
....More than two thirds of the public (70 per cent) backed an increase in police powers to stop and search people on the street, while three fifths (61 per cent) said that they supported the introduction of ID cards. There are were marked regional variations.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
"Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither"
Made sense two hundred years ago, makes sense today.
Meanwhile, back at the Guardian etal, the spitting on USA continues. Notice???
and wehre are the enclaves that the "Bloody tossers" came from? And where is Galloway from?
Sort of explains why inside London they don't want to stand up doesn't it.
Several days late and several Pounds short?
Sometimes people make absolutely NO SENSE! The whole purpose of the federal government is to defend the citizens. How exactly do you expect them to do that unless they are given the tools to do that?
The Bill Of Rights has a sole purpose to blunt those tools. Talk about not making sense! (Not that the Brits have a Bill Of Rights, however.)
Harry Reid is disappointed.
Nancy Pelosi is disappointed.
Ted Kennedy is disappointed.
Howard Dean is disappointed.
Al Quaida is disappointed.
(see the pattern?)
I know you also said that Britain doesn't have a 'bill of rights', so you must have been referring to America. If so, I hope you consider the fact that we are at war with a highly destructive enemy and this enemy has infiltrated our cities and towns. They know how to kill us en mass with just a few 'holy warriors', and know how to wreak mass havoc on our economy. Through our own lack of gumption they can live among us, build 'holy' mosques in our cities and use them to preach hatred of 'infidels'.
We don't live in times when George Washington ran around with an ax and chopped down cherry trees. When our great forefathers wrote the Bill of Rights they never dreamed we'd be afraid to name the enemy in our midst and go after them with every weapon and power at our disposal. And they certainly never imagined that people would one day use the Bill of Rights to hamper our ability to effectively fight our mortal enemies.
Even the liberal FDR understood that when our safety and our very existence is threatened, this is no time for political correctness. He interned Japanese citizens, (many of them spies), and had no regrets. Many freedoms and priviledges we enjoy today were suspended for ALL Americans during WWII, as taxes were increased to finance the war, government enforced food and gas rationing was instituted, food stamps were issued, blackouts and air raid drills were ordered, and men were conscripted into the military. Nobody whined and complained about "losing freedoms", they accepted everything and happily did their part to defeat the enemy. There was no narcissistic sense of 'entitlement' amongst Americans.
I'd never want to see the Bill of Rights violated, but as I recall, the early Americans had no problem whatsoever with "profiling" and dealing with the agents of King George; or for that matter, profiling and dealing with hostile indigenous tribes, or any other threat to life and limb, whether a dangerous animal or cattle farm predator. We live in times when young men are too preoccupied with sports, sex, Budweiser and pot to see the threat that Islam poses in our midst, and young women are more concerned with their plastic boobs and crotch-baring low riders than with our children and our country's future. Our ability to think, reason and do the right thing at the right time is all but lost on "personal freedoms" and political correctness.
I am about an inch from deciding that Islam isn't a "religion" protected by the First Amendment, but rather a criminal conspiracy to kill everybody else. What frightens me is the massive expansion of the survellience society brought about by the PATRIOT act and its potential for abuse in dealing with non-terrorist threats. In fact, "terrorism" charges have already been pressed against clearly non-terrorist criminals. Until and unless government powers convincingly confine their anti-terrorist powers to terrorists only, I will continue to object to present and further expansions of that power, and view attempts at such expansion suspiciously.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.