[SGVLUG] Scary stuff for us Geeks.

[Dustin]

On Fri, 23 Sep 2005, Michael Proctor-Smith wrote:

> I saw this on slashdot and it scared the crap out of me(As a geek, who
> as entirely to much electron stuff). Even though it took place in the
> London underground and they are still pretty freaked out after the
> bombing. From the way I read it seems like a similar thing could
> happen here are I don't see anything that is massively different then
> the laws in the US.

Yes, very scary.

There is one difference in principle--an actual hierarchial legal system
with a Bill of Rights that trumps statute law.  As (I gather)  Roosevelt
joked with Stalin at one of the big three Allied meetings that "the
British Constitution says whatever Mr. Churchill says it means."

Yes, all of you can put down your keyboards, it doesn't necessarily help
in the short term when a popular administration is determined to abrogate
civil liberty.  (Of course I have *no* *particular* administration in mind
when I say that.)  It does help a lot in redressing the balance later when
the political winds are different.

It also doesn't help if the citizens don't care enough to defend
themselves, but in that case one could argue that ultimately they didn't
deserve to be free anyway.  Of course laws only help in a society that
attempts to follow the law (though they also don't help in a society that
confuses law with justice and values the former only).

Anyway, it is experience in just the sort of situation that we have today
in both Britain and here that led to the invention of things like
hierarchial law and explicit statements of rights.  I take comfort in such 
things when I reflect that some rights may take a while to get 
back--freedom can use all the help it can get.

Dustin