Thought it was funny
I used to love The Daily Show, back when Craig hosted it. Not a fan of John Stewart. Apparently, Stewart has actually (after several years) become funny. A recent episode discussing the new automated system for fingerprinting visitors to the US and checking prints to a database went like this:
Civil libertarians decry the system as Orwellian. Of course, civil libertarians decry license plates as Orwellian.
As Homer says: It’s funny ’cause it’s true.
January 10th, 2004 at 3:18 pm
I always thought Kilborn came across as a complete jerk when he was on the show. I’ve liked it far better since Stewart became the anchor.
January 11th, 2004 at 9:06 am
In my experience, the libertarians who decry license plates aren’t the most civil of them.
January 11th, 2004 at 10:22 am
personally I always thoguht the registration & subsequent taxation of property such as cars was not a good thing. It’s not something I bring up that much because most of the public has accepted it regardless of its merits & there are other things that are more pressing – such as firearm & firearm owner registration – to tackle.
But if you objectively examine it, I think you’ll find several arguments could be made for viewing license plates as an orwellian concept. certainly more Orwellian than Lockean.
January 11th, 2004 at 10:16 pm
Kilborn was an ass, plain and simple. The show is MUCH better with Jon Stewart.
And yes, the joke is funny, but you could just as easily plug in “gun rights supporters” for “civil libertarians” and have the same joke. (“If you make us register our guns, then only criminals will have unregistered guns!”)
Oh, and the fingerprinting thing is idiotic, and should be ridiculed.