Welcome to a land that Lewis Carroll & Jonathan Swift could only create in Parody and George Orwell wrote of, but had his time table off by about 40 years.

The Patriot Act (A very 1984-ish bit of Double-speak), exist to catch Terrorist and other 'Enemies' of America. If you oppose it, you're Un-Patriotic and thus an Enemy of America.

I begin to have thoughts on why Bush might want the US Armed services with the power of Domestic Law Enforcement. It also might explain why the National Guard is so freely used over seas and so many regular Military are left at home.

The National Guard responds on a state level. If my home town in rural Kentucky gets pissed and rises up, says no more taxes paid, we'll set our own laws and enforce them, the federal government would be forced to respond. If the National Guard were sent in, many would have friends, relatives, ect. They would not shoot to kill, they would sympathize. Many might well join the revolt.

If the Military is sent in, they're likely to be from someplace else. Despite everything, an urban born and raised black is more likely to shoot a red-neck cracker, than say, a National Guardsman from the same rural area. The reverse is quite true as well. A Good ole boy from Ky. will be quite happy to shoot a black Gangsta from Detroit.

Never in my experience has our country been so divided. Using highly charged issues such as Patriotism, Gays and Abortion, we have been neatly divided into factions with no room for compromise. It has become a For Us or Against Us set of subcultures. At one point in time, you could discuss politics or Religion in most settings. Today, you must not, unless you are in a small group that you are on good terms and much shared sentiment on. The last time there was such a great difference in opinion, we had the Civil War. We may well have another, if things do not change. This time though, the lines are not as well drawn.

Until enough people get pissed and start a true revolt, you might follow the suggestion of Robert Heinlein. "Accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. "

Quiet Civil Disobedience is nice. I intend to write letters and post and do other Civil acts of opposition. I also intend to circumvent any laws I find intolerable. How will I do this? Well, if we believe Law Enforcement agencies are checking places such as this, it would be foolish to tell how I am doing this... Or I might just be saying this to tweak their noses... as a bit of Civil Disobedience.

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