Words fail me

[captain beyond]

Perhaps someone here will write something. The following letter was in my town's sunday paper.
The Journal and Courier
Lafayette Indiana
E-mail: [e-mail]
fax: [phone]
mail: 217 N. Sixth St., Lafayette, Indiana 47901
Letters should be 250 words or less.
Anonymous letters are not published.
Provide name,address and daytime phone number.


















"Go ahead, I have nothing to hide

On domestic spying, this is how I feel and think that every true American should feel. You can tap my phone and read my mail any and all the time, because I have nothing to hide from God, the president or my wife. And while you are about it, why not do a DNA profile on me and every other citizen and noncitizen of the United States, and keep a record that could be used to reduce the incidence of murder, rape and AIDS. This is a democratic republic (almost a democracy), and those objecting to these minor infringements to protect a free people and their nation should be branded as traitors and sentenced as such."

Ray Hicks

Mulberry




ahhhhhhhhhhh

[babylonsister]

1. I recommend for the depth of the ignorance. Some bright star

will send you a rebuttal.

[punpirate]

2. It's a terrible thing to be...

... insane, ill-informed and stupid all at once, isn't it?

Whew....

[leftstreet]

3. "God, the president or my wife."

:eyes:

Med check.

[ClassWarrior]

7. God doesn't need to wiretap you to know what you're doing. And if...

...you have a healthy relationship, your wife shouldn't either. Now President Gore - that's a different story.

:evilgrin:

NGU.

[raysr]

8. In that order too

[FormerRepublican]

4. I don't have anything to hide either...

...but it doesn't mean I want my personal details to be fodder for the BushCo mafia. Some of us like our privacy, even though we have nothing to hide.

[mikelewis]

6. Why do you hate America?

[FreedomAngel82]

70. Right

It's like when you're young and have a journal. I don't want anybody in my family reading it even though I have nothing to hide. :shrug: It's just about privacy and being allowed to have a place where I can escape to. That's what your home is.

[mikelewis]

5. I think it's brilliant...

only if he's being facetious. Otherwise, whoa.

[punpirate]

12. Umm...

... I think the answer to whether or not this is satire is found in the suggestion that DNA testing will detect and track AIDS....


Whoa.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Yes I picked up on that as well

Makes ya wonder, don't it?

[mikelewis]

43. I wonder if this is some sort of psyops....

We know they had psyops campaigns going on in Iraq, whose to say they're not doing it here. The more times people read shit like this, the more likely they are to accept that a majority of people actually feel this way. Over time, the people are then mentally beat down into a Spiral of Silence. This is how a lie, repeated often enough, becomes the truth.

I sincerely hope this is a psyops or satire because if it's not, this dude is off his fucking rocker. The greatest threat to our Democracy is not Osama Been Forgotten or even George Bush, it's the fucking ignorance that permeates this country. There are some seriously dumb ass muther fuckers out there. You'd have to be either brilliantly sarcastic, deviously manipulative or fucking brain dead to write ignorant shit like that.

[punpirate]

48. In this case...

... I don't think it's psyops. He's written at least one other letter to the same paper on an entirely different subject (oddly enough, a rant about stupid government laws :) ).

Sarcasm is apparent in other ways. Satire always has a glimmer of the mischievous over-the-top to it, which this doesn't seem to exhibit, and it's certainly not persuasive enough to be considered manipulative.

Nope, I vote for crazier'n a bedbug. :)

[mikelewis]

52. Occam's Razor strikes again...

[EFerrari]

81. I think it's satire. Really well done satire because it doesn't

go off track in any way and because the wording is very precise. It've lovely: I have nothing to hide and you should go to jail for what you think. Lol.

[punpirate]

87. Nope... don't think so...

... this guy has written other LTTE to the same paper on a much more mundane subject without any satirical edge, with the same style and a similar tone. Satire always shows itself for what it is to those willing to see it. I'd love to believe that it's meant to be satire, but, I don't. It could be dismissed as such if that view weren't so prevalent in one small segment of society. What makes this disturbing to me is that it is not replete with the stereotypes of that kind of mind--misspellings, syntactical errors, aimless point of view. That's why I thought it to be satire at first, too. Then I reminded myself that David Duke and Matt Hale, in short stints, write reasonably directly and without prose errors, too.

[Swamp Rat]

9. "Ray Hicks???" ...

:D

Mulberry?!?

:rofl:

Well "Ray Hicks," if you want to give up your right to privacy so badly, send the NSA your DNA, ISP passwords, bank account numbers, and set up a video camera in your bedroom! ... you fucking loon! :eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Would those video tapes in his bedroom be available to the taxpayers?

I wonder if you could get them with a FOIA request. :eyes:

[Swamp Rat]

30. I was thinking that if I were rich and lived in "Mulberry,"

I'd write a response to Hicks and offer to fully equip his house with video cameras for 24/7 surveillance, and broadcast it live on a local cable access channel. Unemployed locals who want and need a job would be hired to monitor and catalog Ray's every movement. :D

[Pachamama]

34. Ha ha! Good one Swamp'r!

Thanks for making me laugh...I was just about to call it quits for the night, but then read your reply on this thread....

Maybe we could add that ole' Ray would be required to give urine samples in the morning and night as well....

[Swamp Rat]

42. Oi Pachamama!

:hug:

How's it going? How's the Pachababies?

[Pachamama]

45. Pachafamily is good....we all have the flu though...

Not surprising...with all the stress et al that we would finally get sick...

How about you? I by the way got a great LTE from my father in law I'm going to post tommorrow (when I'm not so fatigued)...its great...more of an opinion piece, hopefully they will print it...he went to town, bless his heart!

Anyway, I just saw the post with an image of Lord Pissypants and the Queen Witch and suggested that the image needs your touch.....

[Swamp Rat]

49. I look forward to reading his LTE.

What image of the Bushlers are you talking about? :D

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. And Hicks wouldn't mind at all!

[Surya Gayatri]

61. LOL! Maybe the guy is a closet

exhibitionist & secretly hopes to have his bedroom antics seen by a wider audience! :rofl: SG

[captain beyond]

16. Hey there Swamp Rat

I really enjoy your art. Thank you.

[Swamp Rat]

31. Way'at captain beyond!

:hi: Thank you.

[Erika]

10. This response was by a simpleton who trusts govt completely

They love a nanny or big brother to take care of them and keep them from having to think on their own. They would have been the first to say Heil Hitler when Hitler made his purifying Christian crusade.

The true dumbing down of America. W would be proud.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. God wiretaps?

Doesn't seem like he would need to go to all that trouble. He is God, after all.

[Erika]

13. Big smile with a big laugh! Thanks n/t

[samhsarah]

19. GOD is so pre-911,

just like the Constitution. God needs to get with the times.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. So God is living in a pre-911 world?

That's gonna piss off Karl Rove.

[Erika]

35. God says we should trust W, it's God's way

Chuckle, chuckle. I love this thread.

[samhsarah]

39. It is good for a laugh...

While I'm sitting up, delirious, fillibustering for the fillibuster.:silly:

[punpirate]

20. Would you do a mind meld...

... on this character to see what's in his head? :P

I have a feeling that would put any almighty right out of the god business. "In my image, my ass!"

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. Well I am sure this guy won't mind

That mind meld is for the good of God. And for Amurka.

[Erika]

32. But was it the RIGHT thing to do?

We have to remember the RIGHT priorities. What were they again, wire-tapping, invasion of privacy, dna collection.

Best line of the month "God doesn't really need to depend on wire-tapping" Fantastic humor relief.

[captain beyond]

47. No

i do not want to go there.

[Greylyn58]

14. Wow!!!

Words fail me too. Unbelieveable!! :shrug:

[samhsarah]

17. I think Mr. Hicks would have fared quite well

in Nazi Germany.

[Skittles]

18. I believe this is how a great majority of republicans think

they really are that stupid

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. They act on principle

Everything they do is the RIGHT THING to do.

[Erika]

25. Robertson/Falwell/Bush tells them

it's the RIGHT thing to do. God, Government, and his WIFE control all of this. (funniest post in months)

[A-Schwarzenegger]

22. I got plenty to hide!

And I'm proud of it!

[Erika]

29. What are you? Some kind of an American?

That free thinking is No longer allowed. It's not the RIGHT thing to do.

[FormerRepublican]

33. I figured that out from your screen name. ;)

Ahnald and his piccadilos....

[A-Schwarzenegger]

36. picca WHA?

Watch it.

[FormerRepublican]

38. LOL! Just teasing.

[Hello_Kitty]

26. This HAS to be satire!

No one could possibly say that in earnest :scared:

[captain beyond]

28. I had to read it several times

I do not think it is.

[quaoar]

40. Read the next letter right after the Ray Hicks letter

http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060129/OPINION02/601290304/1100/OPINION

Land of the wimps, home of cowards

The Bush theory: Everything changed on Sept. 11. Tall buildings, airplanes, religious fanatics and box openers. Our fearless leader says: If we want to protect the land of the wimps and the home of the cowards, we will have to give up our outdated constitutional democracy and change it to a police state with a tyrant leader who is not only above the law, but is the law.

Personally I would prefer that I and my grandchildren live in the land of the free and the home of the brave with our constitutional democracy, and a president who is not the law.

George H. Stine
Lafayette

[captain beyond]

44. Hey there Mr. Stine

read your letter also in the paper. Good job

[captain beyond]

46. My name is JEFF

JEFF STINE. WOW

[captain beyond]

41. Darn it.

OldCrusoe please write me again. i hit the wrong button and deleted from my in box.

[saltpoint]

50. Captain Beyond -- thanks for sending this post to us to read. It's eerie.

What a frightening individual Mr. Hicks must be. Evidently living out in hyper-rural mulberry has become too desolate, too disconncted, and too delirious for him and he's become a slobbering fool and a witless supplicant to fascism. It's one of the worst letters the Journal&Courier has ever printed, and I've read them for many years.

[earth mom]

51. Ah, so that's how the rethugs are gonna frame illegal spying...

expect a version of this b.s. on Faux news and CNN very soon. :puke:

[NMMNG]

53. When does Mr. Hicks want his telescreens installed?

[sweetheart]

54. "words fail me"

words fail me too,
upside down and in the loo,
fuzzily wrong, i never agree,
not what i meant, never quite three,
meanings or four, or none, wrong
again, indicted, tried, convicted
and on the alter
of his death
What he found in his last breath
to finally speak the words he meant
"You cannot trust the president."

[rucky]

55. OK so lemmie get this straight...

He wants less freedom to protect freedom and everybody who disagrees should go to jail.

mmmmmkay.

[LibertyorDeath]

56. Ray Hicks....Roves pen name no doubt

Sounds phony to me.

or this person is certifiable.

Their logic such as it is...is shit, sure sign of a freeptard.

[chat_noir]

66. Liberty, no it's a real name

I found a Raymon D. Hicks using whitepages.com.

[stickdog]

57. Bill's brother?

[caduceus111]

58. Pot...Kettle...Black.

This is about the most traitorous letter I've ever read. Why?

BECAUSE IT STANDS COMPLETELY AGAINST THE PRINCIPLES THIS COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED UPON AND FOUGHT FOR!

If we're truly American,

we DON'T spy on our citizens without probable cause.

We DON'T profile DNA of innocents.

We DON'T treat our people as guilty until proven otherwise.

We DON'T give up our basic liberties for protection. We fight for them.

He says, "those objecting to these minor infringements to protect free people and their nation should be branded as traitors."

I say those "infringements" are what make you no longer a free people.

Peace,

=caduceus=

[annabanana]

62. so true!

Welcome to DU :toast:

[OnRee]

59. IT'S NOT ABOUT WHAT THEY FIND, OR DON'T FIND!

By the time they look, it's already too late!:argh:

[annabanana]

63. and Thank YOU!

This is what happens when you let your mind wander in 5th grade Social Studies..
(and welcome to DU:toast: )

[EFerrari]

80. Well, it's about the 4th Amendment of the Constitution --

one of my personal favorites. :)

[radfringe]

60. if he has nothing to hide.... (a modest proposal)

perhaps a taste of surveillance would wake him up?

how would he feel if he received a report on his comings/goings and doings over a two week period? What would be his reaction to find that someone had been following him around and taking detailed notes?

[free4now]

64. Ive gotten this reply 2 times already

When discussing the surveillance. My GAY neighbor actually said I have nothing to hide. Then I reminded him they don't like his lifestyle and he shut right up. :hide:

[proud2BlibKansan]

73. Is he a log cabin republican?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

65. Wow, that is powerful stupid.

:banghead:

[xchrom]

67. another agent from S.T.U.P.I.D.

[Delphinus]

68. Ah, Indiana.

The land that time forgot.

[FreedomAngel82]

69. Okay...

AIDS and why does he say we're an almost democracy?

[mcscajun]

72. He's beating the "democratic republic" drum, which is true.

We are not a pure democracy, but a representative one.

So instead of saying either "representative democracy" or "democratic republic" which might choke him, he says "almost democracy".

[baby_mouse]

71. Well, Rick... suppose the wiretappers have something to hide?

Have you thought of that, my dear?

Is their department performing well? No? May as well sew together something incriminating from phone conversations held by *you*. Bingo! Instant perp.

Does you neighbour want a chunk of your backyard? Quick deal with the wiretappers and bingo! You're in jail and your assets are seized and auctioned. Instant swimming pool.

Do you want to live in a world of spies and lies, Rick? It's just around and the corner.

Power does not merely corrupt, power develops *into* corruption, becomes corruption *itself* It doesn't take long for a relationship of power to mutate into a relationship of abuse irrespective of who is in the driving seat. The terrorists will find a new way to communicate and will not be caught. In the meantime, criminals will gather in the wiretapping offices to see what use this new source of information can be put to.

Insider trading? Settling old scores?

Remember that prick you hated and who hated you at high school? You know, it wouldn't take long for him to get a job in the wiretapping offices, Rick. Just a little time and patience. Then your ass is his. He can dip in on your poe conversations any time he likes and with one or two connections could make your life very nasty indeed.

Tell me this, Rick, how would you stop them, the criminals of your country from simply walking into wiretapping jobs?

And that's just one problem, Rick, just because YOU have nothign to hide will not mean, as you will discover in a wiretapped world, that your privacy is worth nothing to you. You will be in for some very nasty surprises if your country goes down that path. You will discover that things you thought you needn't hide might in fact be best hidden, not because there's anything wrong with them, but simply because someone *else* thinks they should be hidden.

Your opinions of what you have to hide or are free to reveal are not tremendously likely to remain static and in alignment with a wiretapper's ideas of what you may hide or reveal.

[proud2BlibKansan]

74. Rick needs to be reminded that when a Dem is in the

White House, she will get to spy on him too. :)

[cyberia]

75. This letter is clearly a satire.

Frame your reply satirically, too. Have a good laugh with Ray Hicks about all those hicks who would read his purple prose and believe it.

[EFerrari]

79. We need a response to Ray Hicks from Pippie Bluestocking.

lol

[long_green]

76. he can't be serious

he can only be serious about his personal willingess to bare himself to the government if he is confident that such intense surveillance would never be aimed at someone like himself.
If he believes any of what he wrote then he is more dangerous than Bush.

[spanone]

77. Dear Ray, you are THE very fool that this president just loooves.

By the way Ray, I hope you got your card in the mail, today is your hero, Dick Cheneys, birthday.

Ignorance is what keeps these criminals in office.

[converted_democrat]

78. I am sooo fucking out of this country as soon as I we sell the house...

We are going to go on a long vacation in Mexico, and we'll still be able to vote.. I hope our vacation will end by 2008, but I'm not counting on it.. I don't trust these freaks any farther than I can throw them..

[distantearlywarning]

82. Let me see if I have this right:

To protect FREEDOM, we should listen in on and read every citizen's private correspondence. Anyone who objects to these practices should be taken away and executed. For FREEDOM'S sake, of course. Because we really don't want to lose the FREEDOM we have in this country. Because if we lost that FREEDOM, then we might be living in a godless Communist country. The kind of country where they spy on their citizens and take people away for complaining about their government.

Ok. Got it. Makes sense to me.

:crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

People this stupid should not be allowed to vote. Seriously. I despair for America when I read things like this. You just know this guy is just the person who happened to write the letter to the newspaper. There are probably millions more out there just like him. I can't stand it anymore. These idiots are ruining my country and it makes me want to tear my hair out and scream!!!

[Obamarama]

83. The asshat is probably of the ilk that if you asked him how he votes....

He'd go into the "that's nobody's business but mine" diatribe.

Wow...abject ingnorance is alive and well in Indiana I see.

[demgurl]

84. Mr.Hicks, I would like to reply to your LTTE.

Dear Mr. Hicks,

There are many Americans who do not want to lose their privacy and do not want to be spied on. It is not a matter if what you want, Mr. Hicks. It is a matter of the law.

The Americans who put together the constitution did so with much thought to protecting the rights of all of our citizens. Many Americans fought to the death so that our rights would be protected. I do not take such a sacrifice lightly.

Our freedoms are protected under the law and the law is the real issue here, Mr. Hicks. I am willing to bet that you were one of the ones frothing at the mouth to indict Bill Clinton over a blow job. You were rabid because the President is never supposed to be above the law.

You are stating that your president should be trusted with all of our secrets. I cry foul on that. Bush asked us to trust him that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Most of the country trusted him and we illegally invaded a country on bad Intel.

Bush asked us to trust him again when he stated that any time they talk about wire tapping Americans that a warrant is absolutely necessary. We found out months later that his assurances were spoken with a forked tongue.

Let us analyze our own intelligence, shall we? His Intel has been wrong before and who's to say it may not be wrong when it comes to his spying on us? And worse than that, he has lied about the Intel process itself. Does this truly inspire confidence in you Mr. Hicks?

Mr. Hicks, what if your best friend told you your wife was cheating on you and you found out he gave you bad Intel? What if you trusted him and gave him money to pay your power bill and then your power was turned off? Would you still trust him? How much would you trust him when you tell him you are going away on a trip and he volunteers himself into your home telling you, against your wishes, that he will keep an eye on your wife? You would be a fool to trust him at all and the same applies to your president. He has openly broken the law and said he will continue doing so. We owe it to all of our ancestors to take on the president and uphold our laws along with our privacy.

Sincerely,

demgurl

[Yollam]

85. Oh brother.

Der Führer would have loved this guy. What a perfect citizen of the Thrid Reich he would have been. I'm sure he would have dutifully reported his "rat jew" neighbors for failing to wear their star of David armbands...

[Imagevision]

86. what a wasted click...!

[MissB]

88. There was one in our paper recently that was quite similar

The letter was from a woman who thought that Brandon Mayfield should just drop his lawsuit. He was the one that was wrongly identified by the FBI after the train bombing in Spain. The Spanish authorities cautioned the FBI that the fingerprint match was shaky at best. When I first read the LTTE, I thought it was fairly clever satire and then I realized that the letter writer meant it.

It is from The Oregonian, January 25th: http://www.oregonlive.com/letters/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/113815052620970.xml&coll=7


******************
Mayfield should drop suit

If I were in Brandon Mayfield's place, I, too, would feel humiliated and angry over being arrested as a terrorism suspect. However, I think Mayfield could save himself and many others a lot of pain (and taxpayers' money) if he would just drop his lawsuit against the U.S. government.

These are perilous times, and if we err, it is good to err on the side of safety. After all, Mayfield was not returned to his family in a metal box, as so many other American boys have been. He has his arms and legs attached, and he was not starved or tortured.

He was only asked to give two weeks of his life, not all of it. Surely, that is not too great a sacrifice to ask of him.

******************

[Carni]

89. Hicks what an appropriate last name...

I hope to God this was parody on the part of some smart ass.

[oblivious]

90. If citizens had the same right to spy on their leaders, hmmmm....

And if the president, V-P, heads of intelligence, spies, etc. objected, "they should be branded as traitors and sentenced as such". By God.

[KelleyKramer]

91. Mr Hicks: Its doesnt matter if you agree with it or not ...

And thats the whole point, if you think it is ok to spy on you means NOTHING, its not your choice, its up to George Bush and George Bush only. Just like it will be up to President Hillary Clinton and Hillary Clinton only.. in secret, with no supervision from any person of law or authority.

And yes you do have something to hide, it may not be illegal, but everyone in their private life has something they would rather not be broadcast on the local news.

Maybe you have a gay brother and dont want your poker buddies to know about it. Maybe you have toenail fungus. Heck, maybe your kids friend comes over and googles a lot of stuff about AIDS and you end up in countless government files listed as a homosexual. And this is all taken down in secret with no accountability.

And maybe you still dont care, well, it doesnt matter if you care or not. Bush has made the decision for you, George Bush is above the law and can do anything he wants to you or anyone else at the sole discretion of his whim, just like a president Hillary Clinton will be able to.

You may have had good intentions, but your letter (and permission) are MEANINGLESS, if your children have any civics books you need to dig up the part with the bill of rights and black-out the 4th Amendment, its gone. If you dont like that, then you need to move to a democratic country where the president is required to follow the law and constitution.

Otherwise, please dont waste our time writing letters willing giving up your privacy, when George Bush already took it from you years ago.