From: PA146008@utkvm1.utk.edu (David Veal)
Subject: Re: What is United States of America like?
Organization: The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 16:39:36 GMT

In article <BzM8u5.JM3@unix.amherst.edu>
pdchapin@unix.amherst.edu (PAUL D CHAPIN) writes:

>Jyrki Kuoppala (jkp@cs.HUT.FI) wrote:
>
>: I hear reports of kids trained to inform to the officials about their
>: parents.
>
>That's plan silly.

       I take it, then, that you've missed all the news reports on children
turning their parents in, usually for drug abuse, sometimes for other things?

>: I hear reports of proposed legislation to required every telephone or
>: other communication network operator be required to build taps for the
>: Government on all equipment.
>:
>Tapping a phone is not that difficult.  It can be done anywhere.  This country
>requires a court order in all but a few extreme cases.

        There's been far too much "Oops, you mean we were supposed to get
a court order?"  Anyway, what with the advances in technology, it is getting
harder and harder to do taps.  That's part of the big stink over encryption.
Even if they can do the taps, they want to be able to read the communications.

>: I hear reports of proposals for mandatory registering encryption keys
>
>Still a proposal.  Hotly contested.  Most people don't use encryption and
>don't care.

        So?  Being a minority in this country doesn't mean you've surrendered
all of your rights, yet, no matter how much the (little-d) democrats would
like it to be.  That "most people" don't care is irrelevent.

>: I hear reports of U.S. government hitting on a ship on international
>: waters for transporting a drug illegal in USA, while the ship was not
>: coming from USA, was not going to USA, and had no anything else to do
>: with USA.
>
>Hitting on?  That's what guys do to women at single's bars.  I suspect a
>translation problem here. I haven't heard
>of any serious complaints about U.S. activities in international waters.

        I think this involved a drug smuggler in international waters
heading to Canada.

>: I hear reports of a war being declared and fought in USA - a war
>: against "drugs", with the Bill of Rights being the major casualty.
>:
>Bullshit.  The Bill of Rights is alive and well.

        No, the Bill of Rights is dead and buried.  There are wisps of the
first still hanging around for, I would guess, sentimental value, but the
second through the tenth are, for all practical purposes, gone completely.
        It was when the federal judge ruled that having a large amount of
case was probably cause to have it confiscated as being part of a drug
transaction that the fourth finally bit the big one.

>There are individual
>cases of overzealous enforcement, but the courts usually strike them down.

        I suggest you read up on civil forfeiture, no-knock raids,
warrants based on anonymous tips (supported by oath or affirmation my
ass) and other amusing aspects of modern law enforcement.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Veal     Division of Continuing Education Information Services Group
               University of Tennessee, Knoxville
               PA146008@utkvm1.utk.edu
Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.politics.usa.misc,talk.politics.misc