quote:By Paul (psudy) on Friday, February 19, 2010 - 12:44 pm:
Thats a little different than having a camera snuck into your home. I can't see them getting away with putting them in apartments, but in the parking lots of high crime areas I really don't see the big deal.
Yup, that's what they said in Europe too...
and so it goes...
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
I carry a gun everyday, everywhere, because I can not carry a police officer...
From my NEW favorite book Unintended Consequences by John Ross
May 7,1973 "And so, Hobbes said that our lives are 'nasty, brutish, and short', and he used that as justification for the
dictatorial powers of the monarch. Only by granting the State total power will we ever overcome our
natural condition, which is to be perpetually at war with one another." The Political Science course the
professor was teaching was listed in the course catalog with a dry-sounding title that no one remembered.
Throughout the Amherst campus it was referred to as 'Right and Wrong'. Henry Bowman liked the class,
mainly because the professor who taught it had a very sharp mind.
"Hobbes is just talking about our old friend, the..." and with this, the lecturer gestured with his arm to show
the class he wanted someone to finish the sentence for him.
"Benevolent dictatorship," a Senior in the second row said quickly.
"Exactly, Mr. Hagner. Hobbes' Leviathan is just one more scholarly justification for forfeiting your rights
and allowing yourself to be subjugated by the State. Learned, reasoned, articulate, and wrong. Thomas
Hobbes has merely—Mr. Bowman," the professor said suddenly, "you are shaking your head. That usually
means you disagree with something that's been said. What is it?"
"Professor Arkes, I don't disagree with the basic principle, but it's not enough just to say, Totalitarian
regimes are wrong, so don't let the State enslave you'. That's like saying, 'Don't get sick'. The important
question is, when do you know it's going to become enslavement? When is the proper time to resist with
force?"
"Please elaborate, Mr. Bowman." Henry took a deep breath.
"The end result, which we want to avoid, is the concentration camp. The gulag. The gas chamber. The
Spanish Inquisition. All of those things. If you are in a death camp, no one would fault you for resisting.
But when you're being herded towards the gas chamber, naked and seventy pounds below your healthy
weight, it's too late. You have no chance. On the other hand, no one would support you if you started an
armed rebellion because the government posts speed limits on open roads and arrests people for speeding.
So when was it not too late, but also not too early?"
BTW, if anyone wants the book I have it on PDF...