OT: Here we go again ...

[Bill Campbell]

On Thu, Sep 18, 2003, Ted Ozolins wrote:
>David A. Bandel wrote:
>
>
>>I'm sorry, but this abuse of power by power-hungry agencies is way
>>beyond reasonable.  While I'm glad the bastard?s in jail, I'm extremely
>>unhappy with the way he got there.  Welcome to the Police State of
>>America (where you might be next for using Linux instead of M$).  I
>>expect the RIAA will start pushing to label file sharers as terrorists
>>next.
>>
>>I'm appalled and disgusted and glad to be living outside the US at this
>>point in time.
>
>Likewise
>
>>
>>Ciao,
>>
>>David A. Bandel
>
>I use to travel to Spokane Wa and L.A. California on a regular basis 
>buying various surplus test equipmemt. Since the formation of the US SS 
>I outright refuse to travel south of the 49th. I guess most people have 
>forgotten the lessons of the past. What a shame.

Brooks Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams, made an excellent point in his
book ``Law of Civilization and Decay'', first published in 1896 (he used
the term imagination to mean driven by superstition, not creative):

  ``Abstract justice is, of course, impossible.  Law is merely the
  expression of the will of the strongest for the time being, and therefore
  laws have no fixity, but shift from generation to generation.  When the
  imagination is vivid and police weak, emotional or ecclesiastical law
  prevails.  As competition sharpens, and the movement of society
  accelerates, religious ritual is supplanted by civil codes for the
  enforcement of contracts and the protection of the creditor class.

  The more society consolidates the more legislation is controlled by the
  wealthy, and at length the representatives of the monied class acquire
  that absolute power once wielded by the Roman proconsul, and now
  exercised by the modern magistrate''.

Bill
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