The Complete Loss of Common Sense

They do.

We also have to remember that there is a very real presence within the law community that seeks to find persons who have pornography, or at least any pornographic pictures of young children, on their personal home computers. I believe they even go so far as to set traps for people who download such photos, and will arrest and convict such people.

I have stated my dislike of pornography many times in many places, and I can't imagine what anyone would derive from pictures of children. I can understand that the authorities believe they may be stopping some child abuse by these people, but making it a crime to have these photos in your own home on your own personal computer is just a way of arresting a person for something they may do in the future. Somehow I have a problem with doing that.

When will they start arresting a man who owns a pistol or who downloads a picture of a pistol to his computer because his profile says he may kill someone at some point in the future? How long will it be before they are arresting people who have pictures of drugs on their computer, because they think they may be dealing or doing drugs in the future? And the list goes on and on.

There's a Tom Cruise movie, Minority Report, that has this very thing as it's plot. It's where teams of physics look into the future and make arrests now for something someone may do at a later date. The way we are doing things by going into someones home and arresting them for having something on their computer smacks of the same thing. Do we really want to give authorites this much power over us? Are we now that afraid?

As I said, and as I believe Dick is pointing out, we have completely done away with common sense in many things, and I think it diminishes us as a society.

We were talking about common sense at work the other day, and the general consensus was that common sense is not all that common.

E Don said:

Quote :

When will they start arresting a man who owns a pistol or who downloads a picture of a pistol to his computer because his profile says he may kill someone at some point in the future? How long will it be before they are arresting people who have pictures of drugs on their computer, because they think they may be dealing or doing drugs in the future? And the list goes on and on.

Don't you love Big Brother, E Don?

Ann

Can't talk now, I think someone may be reading what we're writing. Shhhh

A guy in San Diego (a total jerk who leads "sex tours" to Thalland, evidentally focusing on underaged girls) was arrested for BOARDING A PLANE to Thailand.

The idea was, he was going there to do something illegal in the US so they arrested him for his presumed future actions.

Lin,

One time we took a train out of Bangkok. There were the creepiest men I have ever seen in our car. They were Americans living in Bangkok and were on a "run" to get their visas renewed in Malaysia. I might have arrested them for things they were going to do in the future if I could have.

Carol

I'll bet you would not have, Carol. It's hard to tell by appearances. Some of the worst people look like ideal citizens. Remember Ted Bundy? Many Nazi concentration camp guards were handsome men. Jeffrey Dahmer could have been mistaken for a professional athlete.