Martial law supposedly implemented in the US

Karsten M. Self kmself at ix.netcom.com
Tue Oct 16 17:17:14 PDT 2001


on Tue, Oct 16, 2001 at 04:34:34PM -0700, Tim May (tcmay at got.net) wrote:
> On Tuesday, October 16, 2001, at 04:04 PM, Greg Broiles wrote:
>
> > At 05:45 PM 10/16/2001 -0500, measl at mfn.org wrote:
> >> On Tue, 16 Oct 2001 jamesd at echeque.com wrote:
> >>
> >> > According to Pravda, the US is now under martial law
> >> >
> >> > http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/10/08/17359.html
> >>
> >> For all intents and purposes, we are.
> >
> > Well, no. "Martial law" usually implies that civil authorities have
> > been replaced or overriden by military command, and that civilian law
> > is not in effect, having been replaced by orders from a military
> > command structure; and it's usually imposed on formerly hostile
> > territory, or territories considered very close to conflict spatially
> > or temporally.
> >
> > That has not happened in the US, except arguably at the ground zero
> > site, and even there it sounds like it's civilian police officers and
> > elected officials, not military officers, who are setting policy.

> Agreed, not martial law.
>
> However, America operates on the ratchet principle: the tightening of
> liberties _always_ proceeds in the forward direction. Each new crisis,
> each new emergency order, each new federal agency, each new
> law...everything cranks the ratchet wheel toward less liberty.

So the 1960s-70s really *was* a time warp.

I tend to see things as more cyclycal myself.

Peace.

--
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>       http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
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