[SGVLUG] Scary stuff for us Geeks.

[Don Saxton]

Dustin has yet to see divorce court.

Dustin wrote:

>On Fri, 23 Sep 2005, Michael Proctor-Smith wrote:
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>>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.
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>Yes, very scary.
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>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."
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>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.
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>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).
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>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.
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>Dustin
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