[OT] In defense of Google

[Ben Scott]

  This is getting completely off any topic remotely appropriate for
this list.  I encourage replies to be off-list.  Interested parties
(unlikely, but I'll entertain the possibility) can mail me to be
included in any discussion.

  I do wonder why the people who keep posting on these topics on this
list don't use the other list the same parties created explicitly for
such discussions.  Maybe it's the lack of a captive audience on that
list.

On 1/31/06, Fred <puissante at lrc.puissante.com> wrote:
> My concern is, of course, that they may use these tactics on *us*.

  That's hardly news, either.  (And I'm not referring to your paranoia
not being news (that's already well established on this list :)  ).) 
Indeed, that's always been a concern for everyone everywhere,
throughout history.  On the whole, it appears that the idea that the
military is not to be used against a nation's own citizenry is a
fairly unusual concept in political history.

> Whatever they *perceive* as the "enemy" could just as easily be domestic as
> international.

  Could?  It's explicitly in their charter.  "... against all enemies,
foreign and domestic", remember?

> And in light of what the current Administration has been doing over the
> years, I don't think I'm being paranoid in that assessment.

  Crazy people never think they are.  ;-)

  Seriously, while I harbour a fair bit of disagreement over recent
political decisions, I know of no evidence that a military coup is a
likely possibility in the foreseeable future.

-- Ben