Is IT Really Going To Leave?

For the past few years, some bloggers have talked about Bushcheney declaring martial law. Laws have been quietly changed and reworded, so that in case of a terrorist attack, natural disaster, disease outbreak — Bush can declare a State of Emergency and impose martial law. Etc.

The counter-argument is usually that America could never become a police state because there are too many millions of armed households in the country. As The Doors once sang, “they’ve got the guns but we’ve got the numbers.”

And the counter-counter-argument would be that Americans have become too addled and too zombified to know or care what’s happening around them. We’d all be so busy watching American Idol and Fear Factor, there could be tanks rolling down the street and we wouldn’t notice.

In any case, the paranoid arguments and counter-arguments have pretty much subsided lately. The paranoia has given way to that odd combination of euphoria, anticipation and “Are We There Yet????”

Should we be afraid?

In Romania, the Ceausescu regime was probably Europe’s most brutal post-WWII government. In 1989 Ceausescu was overthrown, executed and dragged through the streets of Bucharest. Steps 2 and 3 should’ve been switched around.

Here was one of his many dirty tricks: Some remote parts of Romania had a fake “border” out in the middle of nowhere. People trying to escape the country would sneak through the woods, cautiously creep up to the “border,” and slip past. They’d be ecstatic, euphoric, jumping for joy, dancing, hugging. Then they’d walk on, come to the real border, and get arrested and sent back to be tortured and executed.

But I digress. I don’t know what made me think of that.

Are we there yet??????

cross-posted at Bring It On!