Wednesday, July 30, 2003
For some time now I’ve been wondering just what specifically were the fundamental civil rights that we are being deprived of as an immediate effect of the current administration’s policies. It’s been like pulling teeth, but I think I’ve managed to deliniate most of them:
1 - The right of non-citizens to citizenship rights.
2 - The right to freedom from ambiguity.
3 - The Constitutionally implicit privacy right not to be investigated in order to determine whether or not you have commited crimes.
4 - Property rights (No, wait, those were a casualty of the mammoth environmental crisis we went through in the 20th century, that led to huge increases in infant mortality, and precipitous declines in average life expectancy and air and drinking water quality (No wait, the exact opposite happened))
5 - The right to burn flags without having your patriotism questioned.
6 - The right of foreign heads of state to determine U.S. policy.
7 - The right to throw yourself in front of moving bulldozers without being run over.
8 - The right to violate any laws that have been inconsistently enforced under previous administrations.
9 - The right to freedom of worship, if your religious convictions require you to possess controlled substances and/or trespass on military bases.
10 - The right to freedom of speech, if speech is defined as “expression”, and means of self-expression include vandalism, arson, and blocking traffic.
11 - The right to freedom from the embarassment caused by being called cowboys because of leadership so arrogant and provincial that it’s policies promote the interests of this nation, even when they conflict with the interests of other nations.
Here is the tongue-out-of-cheek version of the above list, and Here is something in a similar vein which, remarkably, does make a few good points. At least I though so the last time I read it.
1 - The right of non-citizens to citizenship rights.
2 - The right to freedom from ambiguity.
3 - The Constitutionally implicit privacy right not to be investigated in order to determine whether or not you have commited crimes.
4 - Property rights (No, wait, those were a casualty of the mammoth environmental crisis we went through in the 20th century, that led to huge increases in infant mortality, and precipitous declines in average life expectancy and air and drinking water quality (No wait, the exact opposite happened))
5 - The right to burn flags without having your patriotism questioned.
6 - The right of foreign heads of state to determine U.S. policy.
7 - The right to throw yourself in front of moving bulldozers without being run over.
8 - The right to violate any laws that have been inconsistently enforced under previous administrations.
9 - The right to freedom of worship, if your religious convictions require you to possess controlled substances and/or trespass on military bases.
10 - The right to freedom of speech, if speech is defined as “expression”, and means of self-expression include vandalism, arson, and blocking traffic.
11 - The right to freedom from the embarassment caused by being called cowboys because of leadership so arrogant and provincial that it’s policies promote the interests of this nation, even when they conflict with the interests of other nations.
Here is the tongue-out-of-cheek version of the above list, and Here is something in a similar vein which, remarkably, does make a few good points. At least I though so the last time I read it.
