Mark Steyn: 'Long war' is breaking down into tedium

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 03/05/06 | Mark Steyn

[Dog Gone]

Anyone know what having to take laptops and cameras out of their cases does to help homeland security?

I think it does the same thing that forcing someone to walk barefoot through the metal detectors does.

[hattend]

BTTT

[Clock King]

You missed Steyn's point. They use the Patriot Act as an excuse to request a finger print. If it their own policy to require a fingerprint to cash a check, then let them be up front and state so, but don't lie.

[varon]

BTTT

[jiggyboy]

He's writing it though, not cashing it.

[Chgogal]

"Even the "friendliest" Arab regimes tend to be a bunch of duplicitous shysters: King Hussein sided with Saddam in the Gulf war, Mubarak and the House of Saud are the cause of much of our present woes."

Yes!!!! Down with ROP and up with ROJ!

Please put me on the Steyn Ping List. Thank you! :)

[bboop]

We're in Los Angeles. I know what you mean. Some people, many people, just cannot stand to face Reality head-on. Nevertheless, it continues to exist. Look at the numbers of 9/11 Democrats who call Rush. I think people are starting to get it. Except in San Fran, where they believe the bad guys would never hurt THEM.

I see that Cindy Sheehan was in our neck of the woods last week. Too bad I didn't know ... I could be in jail today, celebrating having annoyed her.

[Huck]

Most sentient beings have been aware that there is, to put it mildly, a large element of evasion about this basic narrative, but only now is it being explicitly rejected by all sides. William F. Buckley and George Will have more or less respectfully detached themselves from the insane idealism of shoving liberty and democracy down people's throats whether they want it or not.

That's the most antiwar I've heard Steyn sound.

[livius]

LOL! It might almost be worth it...

[ClaireSolt]

I imagine it helps when people say no. A lot of this stuff is unconscious. People make up forms and ask a lot of stuff they don't need. I think that is often very true of new patient forms at the doctor.

[SunTzuWu]

Steyn never mentions fingerprints for your bank. That was another Freeper.

[Valin]

So what? There were millions of "moderate" Germans in the 1930s, and a fat lot of good they did us or them.

Apples & oranges,

[nothingnew]

Thanks Pokey.

The quagmire isn't in Iraq but at home.

'nuff said.

FMCDH(BITS)

[King Prout]

businesses have been getting progressively more and more nosy over the last 15 years or so.

for cash transactions, it is now not uncommon for clerks to ask for personal information to add to the database.

screw that.

I used to argue about policy and law with them, but have instead started simply answering with "My name? Johnny Cash. My phone number? (areacode)382-5968." (look at the buttons, think rude, and figure it out)

[alwaysconservative]

Thanks for the ping!!!

[Revolting cat!]

My phone number? (areacode)382-5968." (look at the buttons, think rude, and figure it out)

What? R-I-N-G-O-F-F-I-R-E?

[Billthedrill]

I have shared the frustration with Bush's maddening locution "religion of peace" but let's remember a couple of facts - we have 160,000 servicepeople in a Moslem country and we don't need to have the terror war expanded into a war of religion with them in place. We all saw how some silly cartoons were ramped up by the unscrupulous to inflame a good part of the world. If we have to pretend in public that there are millions of moderate Moslems out there then so be it. George Will doesn't have responsibility for the troops' safety - but George Bush does.

[King Prout]

naw... though if I felt like spoofing the area code as well as the number that'd work... but would not be satisfactorily rude.

[caveat emptor]

You missed Steyn's point.

You both seemed to have missed my point. Bureaucrats are ubiquitous these days, as is their, ahh, abuse of power. Steyn took what are commonplace occurrences in dealing with just about any bureaucracy, and used them to argue against the Patriot Act.

Annoy a nurse when asking about the condition of a close relative in hospital and you may get stiff-armed with patient confidentiality yada yada yada. Rub a cop the wrong way while getting a simple traffic ticket and you never know where it may end up. Catch an examiner for a driver's license on a bad hair day and you may be back again the next day hoping to get a different examiner.

Check out these two guys if you still don't understand what I'm talking about.

[pollyannaish]

This is a great article.

The Patriot Act is not alarming in and of itself, and not alarming from a law enforcement or governmental perspective. It is, however, alarming how much credence we give to people who manipulate breathless press reports and leftist shrills to further their own quest for information. What's worse, that we let them. That should be flat out illegal if it isn't already.

I think ALL of us need to be more vigilant in making sure that we don't allow people to do all sorts of things under the guise of "It's in the Patriot Act, don't you just hate it! Now, sign here."