Priorities
Folks, I'm not a smoker ... but I think that they should be worrying about more important things in New Jersey.
The Patriot Act does infringe on your civil liberties, and frankly I don't care what you do in your own car, so long as it's not getting drunk and plowing into a school bus.
Flex Your Rights Foundation has an excellent Citizen's Guide to Refusing New York Subway Searches detailing how to reject a potential search while entering the subway. Thought you might be interested.
Do you want to be 100% free to do any asinine thing that you want or do you want to be SAFE as possible from being blown to bits by some asshole in search of 72 virgins? You can't have it both ways. I'm for the government doing EVERYTHING they can to insure that myself and my family ... and everyone else ... is safe.
Look, I'm a New Yorker. I lived there my whole life until moving to Denver just 4 years ago. I love the city. But if they want to search my bag before I get on the subway, I'll let them. Hell, I'll offer them my bag as I buy my token or swipe my MetroCard.
Yes, you have the right to refuse to be searched. Of course you do ... we all do ... but then the cops have the right to tell you to walk or take a bus.
Once again ... YOU CAN'T HAVE 100% FREEDOM AND EXPECT TO BE SAFE FROM THE PLANS OF SOME JIHADISTS!
Thanks for the links, though. I'm a big fan of situational comedy.
Or maybe the converse is true:
You can't have 100% safety and expect to retain any freedom whatsoever. The fact of the matter is that there is no way they can search anywhere near 100% of people or their bags. Anybody is free to turn around and leave, but they can walk up a block to the next station, or come back 20 minutes later, or any number of possibilities.
Subway searches are a feel-good measure. Wouldn't you rather have those cops out on the street preventing/solving crime instead of conducting feel-good exercises at subway enterances?
Benjamin Franklin said it very well. "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Please don't submit to this blatant violation of your constitutional rights, especially for something that won't increase your safety one iota.
Thanks for the blog, I'm a big fan of obstinate patriotism.
Obstinate patriotism? Good one. You obviously don't know me ...
And you're wrong. There IS a way to search everyone ... but then people like you and the ACLU and other assorted nuts will bitch and moan as well.
No, we can't ever be 100% safe. Of course not ... but I'd rather have those cops searching every fifth person than chasing down someone that just jumped a turnstile. I'd rather be protected (as much as possible) from a terror attack than from a mugging. "You want my money? Here ... Take it" ... at least I have a choice in the matter. When a plane hits my office building that sort of takes any choice on my part away, doesn't it?
Searches are a feel good measure? Maybe ... but are you going to deny that they just MIGHT actually catch someone ... or that it MIGHT make someone think twice about trying something?
Hell ... then you can say that just about ANY law is a feel-good measure. What ... you want ANARCHY? Is that it?
How do YOU suggest that we protect ourselves and our cities from terrorist attacks? What ... "try to understand" the terrorists? Do you seriously think that they're going to STOP blowing innocent people up just because you understand their so-called plight? Osama doesn't give a rat's ass whether you're a Liberal or a Conservative ... if you're not an Islamic extremist you are an INFIDEL and will die. Understand that?
Tell me Matt ... were you one of those "human shields" that went to Iraq in protest of the war? Probably not ... but those people should have done something a bit more productive, don't you think? Wasn't that a feel-good measure? Aren't all of the war protests feel-good measures?
That's right ... always blame America first.