Patriot Act skewered by Penn and Teller

[Lobotomy Boy]

I'm not sure if this will show up because the name of Penn and Teller's show is in the url and may get censored:

http://throwawayyourtv.com/2006/03/patriot-act-bull????.html

If that doesn't work, just go to:

http://throwawayyourtv.com

The clip is on today's front page. Like everything on this show, it's thought-provoking and hilarious.

 

[Zero_DgZ]

The URL does get censored.

Folks, to view this, click the link. You'll get a "404 Not Found" error. Just replace the four question marks ???? with everyone's favorite 4 letter word for excriment that begins with S and hit enter. Off you go, then.

Pen and Teller are the Men (as there are two of them) in all respects, and their show-that-cannot-be-named has hit a lot of chords with me. They've done rips on gun control and drug control as well as a lot of other more trivial topics and every single episode has been a outstanding, as well as pretty well researched and low on the... um, BS factor (if you'll pardon the pun) for something that gets aired on TV.

I guess these guys have enough money and popularity now that they can pretty much do whatever they want without fear for their careers. More power to 'em, I say.

 

[Zedicus]

Nevermind, alternate link posting method is also being censored as well.....:banghead:

 

[Nitrogen]

Try this URL:
http://tinyurl.com/pwjcg

My Anti mother loves this show, until the gun control one came on. It made her think too much.

 

[dpote]

Good post!
Am I the only one that thought this was funny?
"begins with S and hit enter"
I love Penn and Teller, but I have never seen this show. Hopefully, I can rent it.

Be safe,
Dave

 

[Sgt.Slappy]

everyone's favorite 4 letter word for excrement that begins with S

But... Soros (as in George Soros) has 5 letters...

(This is funny, my spell-checker kept trying to replace Soros with Sores... guess it knows him better than I do...)

 

[Zen21Tao]

Prior to seeing this video I have only seen the PETA episode and the Gun Control episode and loved them. However, this episode I found some problems with though.

First, I am saying that I am for or against the Patriot act only that this episode was intellectually dishonest in a few regards.

As for, their "experiment" notice that Penn does say that they have PC to watch that one house but not the other. With PC they could have gotten a warrent to do so just as in any criminal stakeout. In fact, this could just as easily have been a van full of (Insert law enforcenment agency here) Detectives watching a criminal suspects house. The noticable difference is that LEOs are "trained professionals." In the case of REAL governmental analysts watching a home that they have PC to watch they too would be trained professionals with the necessary security clearence to analyze information relating to national security. However, Penn is using untrained people that haven't been through the process of being approved for national security clearance to engage in analyst work. If Penn was able to replicate this experiment with "trained professionals" then Penn's experiment could be used to make the argument that even highly trained law enforcement officers operating under the authority of a warrent shouldn't be allowed to perform the most rutine law enforcement stake-outs.

 

[Sheldon J]

Met them in LV

and those guys are great, on stage and off, they spend time after every show talking to their public. Now if you want a real shocker check this out http://www.freedomtofascism.com/ and click on your prefered meda.

 

[UWstudent]

great movie.. tells it how it is.

the hell with the patriot act

another poll was taken regarding how individuals felt about the patriot act, and the majority of these "uneducated" individuals who really didn't know what the patriot act would implement favored the patriot act because really, it would sound like you were un-american to vote against it because of the name.

now if we changed the name of the patriot act to the "loosing your 4th amendment rights act".. i guess the american majority wouldn't accept it and it would cease to exist.

it's destroying our core values and liberties that made this country so great..

very un-american :banghead:

 

[Maxwell]

I also supported the patriot act initially, but with the belief it was temporary...
I figured that the government, now caught behind on their intelligence, would use it as a jump start then fall back to the old standbys.

Penn and teller make a powerful argument.
The problem is not that they can collect information, its that they can use that data in court any way they please, even for trial, and never expose how or why they got it. They can even use it on non-terroism cases.

Lets remember its folks like the fine people from the FBI and BATFEM that will be carrying out these investigations... I dont have a good feeling about that.

You take a government churning out new laws like bottlecaps, agencies that have full power to spy in any manner they can conceive, and the ability to put an invisible thumb on the scale of justice.

Go in to pay a traffic ticket, spend 3 years in jail for an unregisterd machete, and your wife will never know what happend to you?
That sounds bogus.

 

[Lobotomy Boy]

I also supported the patriot act initially, but with the belief it was temporary...

It is only temporary, and will only last as long as we let the SOBs scare us silly with this vague threat of terror.

 

[CAnnoneer]

I liked the clip and am very much against the Patriot Act, but they could have made the same points with much less swearing.

By the way, what's with the censorship? Why are the first links blocked? Who decides that? What happened to 1A?

 

[Kim]

I not going to get in a patriot Act argument. But I would like to mention that at Volokh Conspiracy Dave Kopel has a blog note that states in the new Act just passed that the BATFE now has to have their director approved by Congress. A much better thing for us. Did anyone else know that or is the act all evil, some evil, or not evil.

 

[Lobotomy Boy]

They normally don't swear so much, but they choose to swear in "Bullshiite" to make some kind of point or another. I forget what exactly that was. I think it was to scare away the easily offended from the get-go, or something like that.

 

[Lobotomy Boy]

A much better thing for us. Did anyone else know that or is the act all evil, some evil, or not evil.

It's probably mostly evil, but as the clip shows, the incompetence of the federal government nullifies much of its evil.

 

[1911 guy]

"patriot" act anything but Patriotic.

I'm firmly against the act, but then I'm against anything that tries to destroy the foundations and freedoms of this country. Something about swearing an oath and something about ALL enemies foreign and DOMESTIC.

 

[Strings]

1911 guy, you just made me think of something: WHEN was the oath written? Sounds VERY much like something that would have come out of the mouth of one of the FF: do the current politicos even THINK about what the military has sworn to do?

 

[CAnnoneer]

It is exactly the second part of that phrase that gives me hope that the military can never be turned against the common citizen, e.g. in a gun confiscation following an unconstitutional ban.

The same phrase also suggests to me the feasibility of a Heinleinian reshuffle if the ruling class gets any more rancid in their treasonous globalism.