[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[Federal authorities Tuesday used the Patriot Act to charge a man with pointing a laser beam at an airplane overhead and temporarily blinding the pilot and co-pilot....The FBI acknowledged the incident had no connection to terrorism but called David Banach's actions "foolhardy and negligent." ]

If the Patriot Act is used for any other purpose than providing for national security (against terrorist attack), then the arguments by those opposed to this law (ACLU, other destroyers' claims that the law will be abused) WILL BE VALIDATED.

What could the FBI be thinking? IMO, it is vitally important to use the liberal law enforcement provisions of the Patriot Act with extreme discretion, lest a groundswell of resistance cause it's demise. Idiotic prosecutions like this will lead to exactly that. And thus we all lose -- all for the stupidity of these FBI officials.

Surely there must be other laws which could be invoked to effectively punish this "Hold ma beer and watch this!" moronic stooge. But why jeopardize the Patriot Act over this? F*ing bureaucrats. Damn this pisses me off.

[Doctor Stochastic]

I'm surprised that anyone thought the Patriot Act (co-written by Andrew Young and Gary Hart) was aimed at terrorism.