Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

August 4, 2011

In a memorable scene from the 1970s film ?Animal House,? the odious Dean Wormer of fictional Faber University informs the slovenly misfits of the Delta House fraternity that they?ve been on ?double-secret probation? and are facing expulsion from college. Apparently the people running Washington?s intelligence bureaucracy have seen that film, and drew inspiration from it for the official interpretation of the so-called PATRIOT Act.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has referred to a ?secret? PATRIOT Act ? meaning a classified interpretation of the statute that would permit extensive covert surveillance of American citizens.

Wyden and fellow Senator Mark Udall affixed an amendment to the Patriot Act reauthorization that would require the Attorney General ?publicly [to] disclose the United States Government?s official interpretation of the USA Patriot Act.?

Their concerns were deflected by the Select Committee, which rejected Wyden and Udall?s proposed amendment.

What this means, of course, is that for the foreseeable future, all Americans will be on ?double-secret probation? ? under unremitting scrutiny, and subject to the whims of people who are entirely unaccountable to us.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.