How can you run, when you know?
Jul. 18th, 2006 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
substituteThe State of Ohio felt the need to have its own Patriot Act. Way ho way to go, Ohio.
As a result there's a loyalty oath, of course. State employees have to certify that they're not terrorists and that they don't support terrorists. Sign here, please.
This is even more ridiculous than the Cold War loyalty oaths. Those at least had a tenuous connection to reality. There was a real war, and real Soviet spies operating in this country, and some of them were American citizens. The rest of it, well. Yeah.
The idea, though, that agents of terror are deliberately getting jobs with the State of Ohio in order to use their influence to cause terror to reign o'er the land, uh, no. If such people exist, lying on the loyalty oath isn't going to be such a problem for them. Yeah, I'm leaving pipe bombs full of nails around in malls on weekends but due to this official form I'm now forced to admit it! GOT ME!
I took symbolic logic at UCLA from Donald Kalish. Kalish was a wonderful teacher and a very nice guy. He was also an old time radical (he hired Angela Davis) and had the genuine rebel spirit. One day he used loyalty oaths as a logic example:
"So, we have here the example of an oath which professors are asked to sign, certifying that they are not Communist agents. There are three groups here... [chalkety chalk] The secret Soviet Communist agents will of course sign the oath [chalk chalk], the collaborators and the weak will also sign the oath [chalk chalk!] but the idealists will neither sign the oath [chalk] nor speak to those who do! [furious chalking]
As a result there's a loyalty oath, of course. State employees have to certify that they're not terrorists and that they don't support terrorists. Sign here, please.
This is even more ridiculous than the Cold War loyalty oaths. Those at least had a tenuous connection to reality. There was a real war, and real Soviet spies operating in this country, and some of them were American citizens. The rest of it, well. Yeah.
The idea, though, that agents of terror are deliberately getting jobs with the State of Ohio in order to use their influence to cause terror to reign o'er the land, uh, no. If such people exist, lying on the loyalty oath isn't going to be such a problem for them. Yeah, I'm leaving pipe bombs full of nails around in malls on weekends but due to this official form I'm now forced to admit it! GOT ME!
I took symbolic logic at UCLA from Donald Kalish. Kalish was a wonderful teacher and a very nice guy. He was also an old time radical (he hired Angela Davis) and had the genuine rebel spirit. One day he used loyalty oaths as a logic example:
"So, we have here the example of an oath which professors are asked to sign, certifying that they are not Communist agents. There are three groups here... [chalkety chalk] The secret Soviet Communist agents will of course sign the oath [chalk chalk], the collaborators and the weak will also sign the oath [chalk chalk!] but the idealists will neither sign the oath [chalk] nor speak to those who do! [furious chalking]
