Disney gags on "Ho White" beer
This week's great games
Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5, has made a blistering public condemnation of the British government's "exploitation" of the threat of terrorism to create a "police state" where the terrorist objective of taking away Britons' liberty is achieved by government, and where crackdowns serve to inspire new terrorists.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, Dame Stella said: "Since I have retired I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the Government, especially the attempt to pass laws which interfere with people's privacy."Government accused of exploiting terrorism fearIn the interview, published in the Daily Telegraph, she continued: "It would be better that the Government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism: that we live in fear and under a police state..."
"Furthermore it has achieved the opposite effect: there are more and more suicide terrorists finding a greater justification."
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Le ciel est bleu, la mer est verte...
If you're up to speed on these issues, you already know that too many of the people making decisions are (take your pick) incompetent, ill-informed, lobbied to death, more concerned with appearances than with knowledge, don't understand complexity.
So this really isn't news.
I'd be willing to wager a week's salary that even if, say, Bin Laden had stated that his ultimate goal was to restrict civil liberties in the US and in the UK, the 'leaders' would still say "We have to take away your liberties in order to preserve them".
I've been contemplating a move to Europe for some time. Always wanted to live in London, but with the insanity that it has become, it's not even on the list of options. Taking my money to Berlin instead.
The powers granted to the police isn't what's scary, it's gusto with which they utilize them. It's the unrelenting enthusiasm with which they adopt these powers, the sense that without restraints they would crush the UK under unending authoritarianism.
The Bobby of yesteryear is long since passed, now it's the closet Gestapo, the jackboot fantasist, the secret BNP member, it's a nasty party and they're demanding more, more, more.
"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever." - George Orwell
Ah, don't forget:
It's "Dame Stella Rimington, former head of MI5" AND "author of passably acceptable thrillers which realistically portray espio-crats as plagued by internal politics and less than entirely infallible."
So, she's a rare public servant who has already demonstrated that she is self-aware and in possession of a soul (her own, I might add). This is not a surprising statement from her.
It's nice to see it said by a serious bigwig in the Establishment, though. We know this is the case, but there's only so much hectoring from (increasingly surly) hippies that gets through.
Anti-Anything laws create a Police State.
Warrantless wiretaps, surveillance planes, random searches, and all the other police-state tactics, are all just as bad if you are enforcing environmental laws, corporate oversight, gun-control, child-obesity programs, or whatever.
Terrorism is a boogyman that is used to sell the police state to a certain social demographic, and the Boing-Boing crowd happen to loath that specific demographic and thus the War on Terror.
However, the people who readily speak out against the War on Terror are willing to accept a police state provided that the police state is marketed to appeal to their demographic. Instead of having random searches for terrorist bombs, sell people random searches to find illegal guns, hate speech materials, genetically modified plants, smutty magazines, or whatever their demographic irrationally fears, and they will go along with it.
Most people here strongly support a police state, so long as it matches their own set of aesthetics and cultural affiliations. Until people condemn the police state for all purposes (not just the policies you superficially dislike), you support the police state.
Is it only because I am young that I find this dynamic despicable, and its practitioners unworthy of my ear? "FFS," says my moral compass, "Do what you believe in while you're still in your official position or else keep your beliefs to yourself after you retire!"
That's because hippies, while often right, are also total crackpots who discuss outlandish ideas and pure idealist drivel with the same sincerity.
I like the fact that such a well known, establishment figure is saying these things, but then again, I can't help thinking that never before has the phrase "No shit, Sherlock" been more apposite.
Same same for the U.S.A.
Everyone needs to stand up to the govt and let em know that You're Mad as hell and that you're not going to take it anymore.
Get the hell out of our lives and get back to governing.
(Government is NOT Micromanagement)
Do you see the cycle? Terrorists are merely people fighting for their own beliefs against a corrupt system. They're only defending themselves from the same people that will eventually crack down and take your freedom too. You don't think those big energy companies will just give up all that wealth and leave foreign land to protect you do you? Hell no, they'll just make you a captive too and pretend they are protecting you. I think we ALL believe we are doing the right thing, it is an inherent quality in all mankind. We need to open our eyes before we ultimately destroy ourselves.
#7, UK satire site The Daily Mash puts it quite neatly:
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/war/former-mi5-chief-finally-gets-it-200902171583/
Oh yes, you're correct. I can't wait for my Government to enforce laws for random searches for genetically modified plants.
I advocate a website allowing people to break the law by uploading photographs of the police going about their daily business. the law is an Ass, we are going down a very slippery slope