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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Are you saying her actions are a threat to liberty?

In a sense. A million Eunice Stones playing spy, reporting every imagined "suspicious" activity or conversation or joke to the State, is fertilizer for the police state.

I'd wager a good majority of FReepers (and other Americans) engage in activity that's "suspisious" to some people. Merely carrying a gun, or reading a book that's "far Right" or "far Left" or the Koran, or renting a horror or porn film, or taking a late night walk, is "suspicious" to some people.

Read Ray Bradbury's "The Pedestrian," in which a late night walk is deemed "suspiscious" enough to cart people off.

Police states grow by restricting freedom in order to fight unpopular groups (criminals, child molesters, hate groups, terrorists, "gun nuts"). Then the good citizens are surprised when the laws' unintended consequences are turned against them.

It is simply not healthy to encourage people to report minor personal offenses, or joking. Snitches are usually attention-seekers with empty lives, eager to find trouble where there is none.

You imagine that you're a good guy, and hence have nothing to fear from the state, or its snitches. But as a conservative, you're an evil villain to many who are just waiting for an excuse to report you for some imagine offense.

Q: What's the definition of a liberal?

A: A conservative who's been arrested.

113 posted on 09/20/2002 11:48:12 AM PDT by Commie Basher
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To: Commie Basher
A million Eunice Stones playing spy, reporting every imagined "suspicious" activity or conversation or joke to the State, is fertilizer for the police state.

I don't really think that is what happened here.

So I take it that you don't believe, despite the fact that 99% of all suicide terrorists are Islamists, that Islamists deserve any special scrutiny if they make public references to "America mourning on September 13th?"

126 posted on 09/20/2002 11:56:07 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: Commie Basher
I have to agree with you. What happens when your neighbor calls police because he hears screaming and crying kids from your house...must be abuse going on there!

Then you find yourself in a heap of trouble, defending yourself, all because someone called police on what was thought to be abuse. Come to find out after all is said and done, not to mention your image in the neighborhood, little Johnny and little Jill were fighting over who gets to see what program on TV, so the parent turns it off for no one to see!

That's what it's coming to folks...
129 posted on 09/20/2002 11:57:34 AM PDT by spokanite
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To: Commie Basher
"Police states grow by restricting freedom in order to fight unpopular groups (criminals, child molesters, hate groups, terrorists, "gun nuts"). "

All of the activities that you list as "unpopular" are in fact illegal, except the gun-nuts. If the country is on a high state of terror alert, and I hear men of middle-eastern descent discussing dates and such as these men were, (I believe Eunice) I would report it. If I see someone beating the life out of a child, I will report it. This is not in deference to the state, but out of the valuation of the innocents that could be harmed if the activities go unreported.
143 posted on 09/20/2002 12:06:13 PM PDT by ThinkingMan
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To: Commie Basher
I'd wager a good majority of FReepers (and other Americans) engage in activity that's "suspisious" to some people. Merely carrying a gun, or reading a book that's "far Right" or "far Left" or the Koran, or renting a horror or porn film, or taking a late night walk, is "suspicious" to some people.

I promise you, if you call the police or FBI and report that your neighbor is suspicous because reads the Koran, they'll be polite to you, hang up the phone, and do nothing more about it but possibly get a chuckle out of the lunatic who just called.

157 posted on 09/20/2002 12:25:27 PM PDT by alnick
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To: Commie Basher
Q: What's the definition of a liberal?

A: A conservative who's been arrested.

While i agree with your sentiments, I must confess that your above description didn't work for me personally.

179 posted on 09/20/2002 12:55:30 PM PDT by wardaddy
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