Subject: Re: Just an item of interest
From: Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Date: Wed Jun 26 2002 - 08:49:25 EDT
On Wed, Jun 26, 2002 at 07:56:41AM +0100, Scottie Bowman wrote:
> There have always been secret policemen (along with their
> secret, Pythonesque balls) & I, as Tim's pop-history reading
> Brit, am really quite glad. Without them, Fawkes would probably
> have blown up our Parliament, the Fenians Queen Victoria &
> their successors an even greater number of my own present day
> countrymen. Anyone living in a state threatened by internal
> enemies (& there always are such people) who thinks it can
> survive without underhand, 'unconstitutional' defences will
> eventually waken up, not in an FBI interrogation room but in
> something rather more reminiscent of the Lubianka.
As I said, it's a delicate balance. For myself, who have worked with
men and women from the FBI and supported what they were doing within
reasonable bounds (no intrusions on anyone's privacy; no dirty tricks),
I prefer to be in a position to make sure the "secret policemen" don't
pull dirty tricks. Besides, what can you say about "underhand[ed]"
secret cops who thought it their duty to keep a file on that dangerous
subversive, Hemingway?
> Suppose someone with a swarthy skin, cross eyes, a broken nose,
> smelling of stale kebab & speaking fractured Levantine English
> turned up at your local library asking for the latest books on
> do-it-yourself explosives & a map to the nearest nuclear plant.
> Wouldn't you consider checking his address on the card?
Whew, at least we're not dealing in generalizations, eh?
My checking his address (which we scrupulously keep off many of our
library cards) wouldn't do much good. I don't know what I would do.
Not leap to conclusions, I guess. I doubt I would we fit to play the
role of a hero, saving Indian Point 1 (our closest nuclear plant) from
outside threats, when we can barely save it from the menace of the
people who operate it as badly as they do.
Besides, we have at least one anarchist bookstore nearby. They deal
in cash, no questions asked. I think your straw man would more likely
go there, given the relatively poor state of our libraries, anyhow.
> Constitution, schmonstitution, keep up the protests, chaps.
> It helps maintain the balance between you libertines & us
> authoritarians - without which no civilisation can survive.
You can see, I guess, why in the 1770s our countries parted ways.
<grin> No "constitution, schmonstitution" feeling here....
> But not too much self righteousness. The drains will always need
> clearing & the bed pans emptying. That lovely integrity of yours
> depends on not being asked to do it yourselves.
I took a break before replying to this, giving myself a chance to
reassemble the dogs' beds, which had been puked in by a sick dog and
needed cleaning. Last night before sending that mail, I spent some
hours cooking dinner, washing laundry, and scrubbing the pots. There
was no self-righteousness -- and nobody to come in and do it for hire.
I have my share of faults, but I'm content with my integrity. And
about looking after myself. I wouldn't for an instant compare myself
with a person capable of genuine heroics or battle duty, but I find it
amusing that the cave dwellers of Tora Bora and now apparently Scottie,
too, make the assumption that Americans are "soft" and unable to fend
for themselves. It was not easy for the colonists in 1776 and it is
not easy now, and it was difficult many times in-between. But we like
to think we can rise to the occasion.
(Drains, I admit, I leave to someone better skilled -- and better
paid -- than I am.)
But now I am badly off-topic, and I doubt that the intelligence
operative, Staff Sergeant Salinger, would much approve of this talk.
But that's the crazy thing about this country: there's room for both
of our points of view. All I want is to keep it that way, not cede it
to the man in the pink tutu.
--tim
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