Taking Away Our Civil Liberties Doesn’t Hurt Our Enemies
Freedom vs. national security
July 4th weekend is a perfect time to reflect on our freedoms and their importance. In that spirit, Remy of Reason, who’s kind of the Libertairian version of Weird Al Yankovic, has produced a parody of Toby Keith’s song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” which enjoyed popularity after the attacks of 9/11.
You can make an argument, and many conservatives have, that things like the Patriot Act haven’t directly impacted the civil liberties of average American citizens, but some things have obviously gotten out of control, as exemplified in Kemberlee’s horrific post about the TSA yesterday.
Remy’s humorous parody focuses on the fact that while we give away our civil liberties in the name of combating terrorism, it doesn’t hurt the terrorists, it just makes us less free.
Watch the video below:
If you’re in a place where you can’t watch videos, here are the lyrics, courtesy of Reason TV:
Remy: Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue (Civil Liberties Edition)
My daddy came to this country
he escaped from Iraq
and he came with nothing but a dream
of the American flagHe wanted my mother, my sister
our carpet and me
to grow up and live happy
in the land of the freeNow this nation that I love
is under terror attack
another sucker punch came flying in
from this punk in the backYou think you can start a fight
and we’ll roll over and die
man we’ll light up your world
like the Fourth of JulyWe’re gonna tap this guy’s phone
take his rifle and then
force companies to make software with
backdoor access and thenWe’ll be raising his taxes
make him pay for these toys
and whenever he goes flying we’ll be
cupping his boysYeah it’ll feel like the whole wide world
is raining down on you
brought to you courtesy
of the red, white, and blueWe’ll run up debt and be
so underwater on loans
you’d swear Ted Kennedy
had probably driven us homeYou think you can pick a fight
and make us change our free ways
we’ll put a dude in his ass
it’s the American wayWe’ll tap this guy’s browser history
have due process decreased
and when he bites a shape in Pop Tarts
we’re gonna call the policeWe’ll put your name in the papers
you’ll be famous in malls
and when this guy goes to New York
they’ll be cupping his ballsYeah don’t it feel like the whole wide world
is raining down on you?
that’s brought to you courtesy
of the red, white, and blue
Balancing our freedoms with national security is complicated but at least we can still laugh at ourselves.
Right?
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
If I click on a link to a commercial website at Reddit, the ads at this site change. My preferred search engine is duckduckgo, partly but ineffectively to get away from Google.
We might as well give the government the power to do what advertisers are already doing. The way to safeguard our liberties is to put substantial penalties on the misuse of personal information, because like it or not, the information is out there.