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Bookseller Purges Records to Avoid PATRIOT Act
Skyshadow writes "Vermont Bookseller Bear Pond Books has announced that they will purge their sales records at the request of customers . This would effectively sidestep typically insideous a provision of the PATRIOT Act which allows government agencies to secretly seize sales records. The store's co-owner, Michael Katzenberg, put it this way: 'When the CIA comes and asks what you've read because they're suspicious of you, we can't tell them because we don't have it... That's just a basic right, to be able to read what you want without fear that somebody is looking over your shoulder to see what you're reading.' Now if only certain other booksellers would show that same conscience, we might have something here."
I believe in myself and in the forces of nature and science, not an imaginary superfriend who farts the universe and everything in it out of his ass one cloudy morning. If there are things we can't explain, it's because we haven't yet acquired the knowledge with which to do so...see A. C. Clarke...and I don't need to invent fantastic tales to explain it in the meantime. I do not follow a book of rules, visit a temple, dress a certain way, follow a certain diet, or depend on a central agency to tell me how to think and act.
And I'm not going to debate religion...or atheism...with a theist.
You are so right about an ignorant population being easily controlled.
A perfect example were the morons at the anti-war protests. They were acting solely on emotion, instead of fact and logic.
When you read what the professors from our so-called "places of higher learning" espouse about their "world view", it really makes one concerned about how our youth is being brainwashed instead of taught to think for themselves.
The remainder of our "no intellect population", who get their news from CNN, ABC, etc. and take it at face value, are also lost causes. They are unable or unwilling to take the time and brain power to actually determine for themselves whether or not what they are being fed is relevant, logical or useful.
We are in a sad state. Maybe I'll join Alec Baldwin when he finally gets the testicles to keep his promises and leave the country. But, he would probably move to France.
...that if I walk into a bookstore in the US and pay cash for a book, they're gonna want to know my personal info? Well I got a news flash for them, IT"S NONE OF THEIR FUCKING BUSINESS!! That is how I conduct business...with cash. You start asking questions, expect answers that are either incomplete (I won't tell you) or false (Homer Simpson zip: 90210) and if they're too stupid about it I might just walk out and never return.
You're using her as bait, Master!