Since the bombing has started, I've heard a steady parade of government types on the news calling for the US to be on heightened alert against possible terrorist retaliation. The feds have told all police and military services to be on maximum alert. No problem there, that's just common sense to me.

What I did hear that bothered me was several government types calling for people to keep an eye on their acquaintances & neighbors and to report any unusual or suspicious activity. Walking around with your head up your rear certainly isn't safe, but the tone these guys were taking almost bordered on inciting paranoia. The Nazis did the same thing in Germany when they took over... BE a good German and turn in your disloyal neighbor or family member.

I'm sure a few of you are going to start calling me disloyal, paranoid, etc... It's the way it was phrased each time that concerned me though. If it was a call to keep alert but to keep your head and use common sense, then it wouldn't have bothered me. Vigilance makes sense, but what they were advocating could lead to a de facto police state with all of us living in fear of our neighbor.

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Courage is not the absence of fear, but the conquest of it

"There is no weapon deadlier than the will" Bruce Lee

http://www.boortz.com/gadsden.gif

well...i agree and dissagree...

i think you are blowing it out of proportion shadow...

i think it is more along the vain of the whole "see a gun at school, report it"....


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Rest In Peace victims of Terrorism, you will be remembered.

http://www.sublimedirectory.com/flag.gif

You know, the other night I was working and I pulled into one of my regular accts (parking lot), and in the middle of the lot is this big ol U-Haul.
Im like, Hmmmmm, thats a first.
Then I get to thinkin. What would a U haul be doing in the middle of a parking lot at 2am?
Well before I could, someone else called the cops and they virtually tore the thing apart.

I just think we all have to have a heightened sense of awareness. Not go overboard, but when things are definetly out of place it should be reported.

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War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
--John Stuart Mill--

I think Paranoia is an accurate description. Friday morning 3 middle eastern looking dudes walkend into our corporate office here. They asked: "Is this the national corporate headquarters for ACME Bank?" They asked and then just left. 5 minutes later the building was evacuated and we all got a 4 hour vacation as every cop in the area converged on the scene. By then the guys were gone. No threats, nothing. This is getting really stupid. Not a good time to be an Arab.

And not a good time to bw a US Citizen!

Bill, I think your story is an example of what Shadow would deem okay.

being AWARE and 'spying' is far different. The calls by some govt. officials to actually look into your neighbors going ons...that is bothersome.

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Manu Narayan

Manu's pretty much got it right PB. It's not so much that I don't believe in common sense, and staying alert. I just don't want to see a few government officials blow it into a full blown case of nationwide extreme paranoia. Deliberate or not, that's the way some of their comments came across to me. With luck, cooler heads will prevail though.

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Courage is not the absence of fear, but the conquest of it

"There is no weapon deadlier than the will" Bruce Lee

http://www.boortz.com/gadsden.gif

Yeah, yesterday they found a box out in the middle of the parking lot at my store. For 8 hours, they cordoned off the lot while the police brought in a bomb squad. Just before closing, they used some detonation charges on the box to see what was in it.

Turns out it was an empty cardboard box!

I think hysteria is a better description...

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Artist formerly known as Reindeer