Sissy Sue hit the nail on the head. If you've ever played any of the countless of 1st person shooters out there, you know where we are headed. A police state, run by a corporation that has been given the task of policing our own populace - the world of Half Life 2, coming to fruition. Think it that far off? There are more "guns for hire" or PMCs or Private Military Contractors in Miiddle East wars right now than actual combat troops, protecting the interests of corporations doing "business" there. In 2008, it was a 100 Billion dollar business.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_companyAs Donald Rumsfeld himself pointed out, PMCs are not subject to "Uniform Code of Military Justice." They carry guns. And as he said, "any idea that we shouldn't have them I think would be unwise." Of course he does. These are people "outside the normal avenues of justice." Just what forms of justice ARE they subject to?
SS's (too funny) view on how our own rights are being slowly eroded, need look no further, than road side checkpoints looking for drunk drivers. Here in Canada, it USED to be only on long weekends. The argument was, it was going to make the roads safer. And the story was, that it was ONLY going to be on weekends. Then suddenly, the story changed. It was now on RANDOM weekends. Now, its whenever. We all know the ultimate goal here - a permanent checkpoint asking for your "papers" everyday.
Here's the ultimate irony of all of this. Our own city, Winnipeg, is erecting a Human Rights Museum, the likes of which the world has never seen. It is to show the world, examples of past Human Rights violations and most likely, how we can keep this from happening in the future. Yet, while they spend close to Half a Billion dollars on this project, our own Human Rights are slowly being eroded, right under our own noses.
Those in power, will always continue to hunger for more power. It is up to the rest of us, to keep that power in check. As the article's author said, the worst thing we can do, is nothing.
