Sweden's new law and the loss of freedom
Expat recently wrote asking that I post on Sweden's new wiretapping law, which Fjordman calls The Greatest Betrayal in History.I wasn't able to post on it earlier, but Porretto has an excellent essay on Freedom under siege
At this time, every government on Earth claims the power to do as it pleases to anyone and anything within its sway, for any reason or none. Governments, including the 88,000 governments that operate within these United States, compel, forbid, and expropriate without regard for any assertion of rights; that's what "compelling government interest" means. Nowhere that a government claims jurisdiction are men truly free. But were you to ask a hundred recent high school graduates whether Americans are free, ninety-five or more would answer in the affirmative. Ask them why, and they would reply, "Because we get to vote!"Go read every word.
So much for the understanding of freedom.
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Labels: government, Sweden
posted by Fausta @ 3:56 PM
5 Comments:
When I was in Hong Kong, awaiting permission to enter the U.S., a very nice Swedish couple took a parental interest in me. They tried hard to sell me on the virtues of their country. I'm glad I wasn't persuaded.
I love your new tango shoes, by the way!
Call me naive, but I don't see how this regulation is much different from what we've been doing to monitor suspected terrorist phone calls that originate overseas and pass through the US.
Indeed, Anthony.
Glad you liked the shoes, Fetiche!
My interest in this came from the demonization of Bush in this country for doing something similar. It is quite clear that surveillance methods have to be updated to the new technology. It is also clear that some very bad people are quite adept at using both the technology and the loopholes in our legal system. I don't expect anyone to hit the right system on the first try. What I really hate is letting the fringes take over the discussion and hype it for political reasons. I would love to have reasonable adults discussing the problem and evaluating the surveillace program for its effectiveness and its over reaches. I would also prefer that classified information didn't make page one of the NYT. We aren't the only ones with this problem and the problem tomorrow won't be the one we solved today.
expat
It's sort of hard to take any essay seriously that begins with, "Freedom has been under siege since the Wilson Administration..." when that statement completely ignores or is unaware of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, Marbury v. Madison, the private correspondence of James Buchanan to James Polk urging the latter to instigate a war to exterminate the Mormons from Deseret and the remaining areas of Missouri and Illinois or any of the debatable acts that Lincoln took during the Civil War to name just a few.
But the problem is that the rest of us do not live in a perfect world where if only we could eliminate either property (Scientific Socialism) or laws (Libertarianism) then a new millenium would arrive and we would live in a state of harmony. But since we have seen the murderous self immolation of the former and rightly fear the fantastical utopianism of the latter then our last defense, peacefully, is the vote. At least that way some if not all of the excesses of the perfectionists can be corrected or erased.
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