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Hernando Today

Heed heavily armed drooling lunatics

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Hernando Today

Published: November 2, 2009

Terry Lyon makes the mistake of thinking that what I believe will happen is what I want to happen.

But, regardless of what I want, the violent rhetoric of some of the tea party crowd will come back to bite them if there is a spectacular act of right-wing violence.

Mr. Lyon predictably invokes Hitler and Stalin, but a more on point comparison would be what happened to the Muslim community in America after Sept. 11.

The United States has a plethora of secret police agencies. In the past, both liberal and conservative administrations have unleashed these agencies on people who the government considers dangerous. Given the recent string of killing sprees by right-wing nut cases, I'm sure that the FBI and Secret Service have their eyes on the radical right already.

The First Amendment gives us broad free speech rights, and Brandenburg vs. Ohio limited sedition laws to cases where there is imminent threat of violence. But the USA-PATRIOT Act, conspiracy laws and President George Bush's claims of dictatorial executive powers, have weakened these protections. Ominously, President Barack Obama not only hasn't rolled back Bush-era claims and legislation, he is actively defending them.

It might be nice to live in a country where people were free to dissent as "vociferously" as they wanted. Of course, it would also be nice if we didn't have so many "dissenters" who are heavily-armed drooling lunatics.

But given the country we actually live in, it is wise to be careful about violent rhetoric and individuals.

Dallas Dunlap

Brooksville

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