In article <9409201859.AA00254@doom.intuit.com>, Mark Chen <chen@intuit.com> wrote:
The facts and the law only matter when the government doesn't have a hard on for you. If the government wants to get you [and, perhaps, if you're not a millionaire "sports figure"] it will get you. The crime bill just makes the task a bit easier.
This is quite accurate. Howard Zinn makes the same point in _Declarations of Independence_.
Where does Steve Jackson fit into this theory? I don't think it's nearly as black & white as you suggest: Our systems are not monolithic and some consitutional and democratic principles do still have some sway. Noam Chomsky discusses this when he talks about reasons for optimism. Which is not to belittle the orginal point that we have reason to be paranoid: it's just to say that we don't have total justification for despair, either. -- L. Todd Masco | "A man would simply have to be as mad as a hatter, to try and cactus@bb.com | change the world with a plastic platter." - Todd Rundgren