Note from Matthew Gaylor: Today I read two more disturbing stories of America's slip into police statism. The first is about a Illinois public school Nazi using a polygraph to ferret out the off school grounds activities of his students. See: <http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-football-polygrap hs1105nov05.story> . Dunlap, IL High School Superintendent Bill Collier said it was the right thing to do to sort the guilty from the innocent: "It may look bad, it may sound bad, but it's the fairest way." -- One by one, the subjects were led into a room and hooked up to a polygraph machine. The purpose: to determine whether the teen-agers violated Dunlap High School's code of conduct by attending a party where alcohol was consumed." And I worry what might be the next step in America if polygraphs don't achieve the desired results. The New York Times reports <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/05/business/media/05TORT.html> this chilling thought "In many quarters, the Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter is considered a liberal. Yet there he was last week, raising this question: "In this autumn of anger," he wrote, "even a liberal can find his thoughts turning to . . . torture." He added that he was not necessarily advocating the use of "cattle prods or rubber hoses" on men detained in the investigation into the terrorist attacks. Only, "something to jump-start the stalled investigation of the greatest crime in American history." And the NYT continues: "One week earlier, on CNN's "Crossfire," the conservative commentator Tucker Carlson said: "Torture is bad." But he added: "Keep in mind, some things are worse. And under certain circumstances, it may be the lesser of two evils. Because some evils are pretty evil."". Now obviously giving children polygraphs and torturing terrorist suspects are very different, but what happens when the kids "crimes" are considered so heinous that stiffer measures are required? Considering the US government, public schools and other public institution's insane obsession with the war on drugs it is in my mind a hop, skip and a jump for them to come to the conclusion that torture, (like getting a teen drug pusher to revel his supplier) an acceptable technique. Perhaps it's important to dust off your copy of The Bill of Rights and re-read the 5th amendment which explicitly states that: "No person shall be nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law..." See: <http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/billrights/billrights.html> I for one swore to uphold the US Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and anyone who tortures suspects is someone I'd consider a traitor and enemy. Regards, Matt- ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt@coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per week) Matthew Gaylor, (614) 313-5722 ICQ: 106212065 Archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/ **************************************************************************