From: pdchapin@unix.amherst.edu (PAUL D CHAPIN)
Subject: Re: What is United States of America like?
Organization: Amherst College
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 15:39:41 GMT

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 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.

: 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.
: 
: I hear reports of U.S. government agencies kidnapping people in
: foreign countries, against those countries laws.
: 
The kidnapping I suspect your thinking about was done by nationals in the
country involved.  The US supported and rewarded the kidnappers - not a good
idea admittly - but did not directly participate.  (Caution on this, exactly
what happened is open to a lot of dispute.)

: 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 hear reports of U.S. military invading Panama to get Noriega, in
: violation of international treaties and all concepts of jurisdictions.
: 
I believe the justification of the invasion was that Panama was systematically
violating the Canal treaty and that US personnel, legally in Panama by the 
treaty, were coming under a program of physical attack. As I understand it, the
US was well within its rights under international law, to defend its interests
and its people from the treaty violation.  Noriega also stated 
that Panama and the US were at war.  This was all before the arrival of US 
troops. He just didn't expect us to take him up on it. Picking up Noriege on 
drug charges was just an extra bonus.

: I hear reports of the U.S. military going to Somalia, then declaring a
: prohibition on the Somalian's drug of choice, khat, while the
: Somalians are worried that the U.S. drug of choice, alcohol (which
: they report is brought to Somalia by the U.S. troops in great
: amounts), will cause much more trouble and health hazards in Somalia
: than khat does.  The Somalians believe that alcohol is more dangerous
: a drug than khat, and from everything I've heard it seems they're
: probably right.

I believe, but am not sure, that the US has stated that it's not going to
get into the drug enforcement business in Somalia.  And given the problems of
getting supplies into Somalia, I can't believe that the US is wasting time 
bringing in large amount of alcohol.  And they sure aren't going to give it
to the locals.
: 
: I hear speeches by the U.S. president chanting things like "One nation
: under God", "May God bless our troops", "The greatest nation on Earth".
: 
So what?  Pompous perhaps, but not very important.  The first two are natural
if you believe in God.  The last is matter of debate.

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

: I hear plans for "boot camps" with "training" for the drug, ie.
: political, criminals.

They're called prisons.  The "boot camp" model is a more active approach than
the typical, "let them rot" approach.  If given a choice, I would opt for
the new approach.  And were do you get this "political" crap.  
: 
: I hear statistics saying that U.S. of A. has the biggest percentage of
: people in jail, and more blacks in jail per population than South
: Africa, and that most (much over 50 percent I think) are there for
: non-violent drug crime, ie. are essentially political prisoners.
: 
Wrong.  Most states are now in the position of letting out most non-violent
criminals for lack of space.  (Yes we do have an enormous prison population,
but we also have one of the highest crime rates.  Black are disproportionately
represented in prison, but they are also disproportionately represented among
victims of crimes.  Blacks preying on blacks is a serious problem in this 
country.  Why the crime problem is so great is a long discussion.)
And non-violent crime is not the same a political crime.  C. Keating is going 
to prison for defrauding thousands of old people out of their savings.  He's
typical, it extreme, example of a non-violent criminal who deserved to rot
in prison for a good long while. Find me somebody who
can be shown to be in prison for strictly political reasons.  I don't count 
those people who commit crimes for "political" motivations.  A theft or a 
murder is still a crime no matter what your reason.

: I see a president candidate whose major agenda is "change" getting a
: very big percentage of the vote taking into consideration he wasn't
: from the demopublican party.  Go check what the situation was in Germany.

Is there a point to this? Perot was, is, and will be, irrelevent.  People
just didn't like Clinton or Bush very much, but the party structure of this
country is still intact, whether we like it or not. In 1996 you'll see us
back to the old, boring, two parties.

: I see people talking about a "moral imperative" for the U.S.
: government to be "world police".

An unfortunate reaction common to people with power.  It comes and goes 
depending on how successful the last action was.  Gulf War went well so
we're on a temporary activist binge.  Vietnam ended the last such period. I
fear that Bosnia will end this one.  You also wouldn't see much of that
kind of talk from the Clinton administration.
: 
: I see the U.S. vice president saying "No I don't know that atheists
: should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered
: patriots. This is one nation under God."  This during his campaign,
: and he is later elected president.

A comment almost no one here ever heard of.  He is also about to become
a former President.
: 
: I'll let you be the judge of what these events mean.  But these things
: do worry me.

I don't think they mean much of anything.  Except that the world can't quite
make up it's mind what to think of us.  We're the incarnation of evil until
somebody needs us.  It's amusing how the world yells at us for foreign
involvement, but when it's their ass that's in danger they're more than
willing to have us play policemen.
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