Re: Philadelphia Enquirer Story on Clipper

[Adam Shostack <adam@bwh.harvard.edu>]

Jeff Gostin:


|      Damn right you can't, because it starts a rather attrocious slippery
| slope. Sure, right now it's phone calls. Next, corner "papers please"
| checks. Finally, open random house checks, and thought police. Sorry, but
| I didn't elect Orwell to be god, er, president. Of course, I didn't elect
| Clinton either...

	Not that I'm a Clinton fan, but most of his orwellan proposals
have been around, simmering, for a while.  Both Clipper & Post Office
national ID cards first came up under Bush.  health ID cards are, of
course, Hillary's.

	The problem is not any one particular idiot in office, but a
strong public desire to give up a little freedom for a little
security.

	My response to these concerns to to point out that we have one
of the highest incarceration rates in the world right now, and more
crime & problems than 15 years ago, when we had far, far fewer people
in jail.  Many, if not most of the people in jail, are there for
selling drugs, often as a result of 'zero tolerance for pot.'
(Interesting article on this, btw, in the current & upcoming issues of
the Atlantic, titled 'Reefer Madness')

	reforming the laws so that violent criminals go to jail
for longer than drug criminals should be pushed constantly.  (Talking
about *gasp* legalizing or decriminalizing drugs tends to be counter
productive except with old style conservatives, far leftists, and
libertarians.)  Talking about violent v. non-violent crime often has
better results in terms of opening peoples eyes.

Adam

-- 
Adam Shostack 				       adam@bwh.harvard.edu

Politics.  From the greek "poly," meaning many, and ticks, a small,
annoying bloodsucker.