Read My Article about the Patriot Act at Free the People

While you're there, check out the other content put out by Free the People. I also recommend some articles from a couple other writers on Substack.

A little over a week ago we passed the 21st anniversary of the signing of the USA Patriot Act. As much as I wish we could forget all about that law and ignore that recent anniversary, the unfortunate reality is the passage of that law had huge ramifications for this country. The Patriot Act was a massive overreach by our government and it helped pave the way for the surveillance/police state that is currently the United States of America. That may sound hyperbolic, but if anything, I don’t think I’ve emphasized enough just how awful that bill truly was.

To help remind everyone of that disaster of a bill and the effects it still has on this country, an organization called Free the People put out content about it all last week. I wrote a short article for them about how that bill has affected generations of U.S. citizens, and how it will continue to do so unless the powers it granted to our government are repealed. Free the People has been kind enough to republish several of my articles in the past, but this is the first one I’ve written exclusively for them.

Instead of posting a full article here this week, I want to direct anyone who’s interested to go read my article at Free the People. While you’re there, I would recommend checking out the several other articles and videos they put out about the Patriot Act. The videos and the articles are all fairly short, and I think it’s worth remembering the circumstances in which that bill was passed and the effects it has had on our country in the 21 years since.

Free the People @freethepeople

“Those in my age group seem to be desensitized to the severe impact on civil liberties the Patriot Act has had over the last 21 years since its signing.” New contributor article by Steven Craddock bit.ly/3SPTJp3

Free the People has also put out great content on other topics as well, so if you decide to go read my article on their site, look through the rest of their content and see if any of it appeals to you. I personally enjoy the Cult of Wokeness series on their YouTube channel, and occasionally I’ll catch an episode of the Kibbe on Liberty podcast which is hosted by Matt Kibbe. (Kibbe founded Free the People with his wife Terry in 2016.)

Since I’m not providing commentary on any of the bigger stories that were in the news this week, I figured I’d recommend some articles about a couple of those stories for anyone who’s interested.

One of those articles is from a Substack called Lafayette’s Newsletter, and it’s about the recent attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. More accurately, the article is about the response to that attack, and how it compares to the response people had to Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) being attacked by his neighbor a few years ago.

Remember When They Gloated Over Rand Paul's Attack?

The other article I want to recommend is from a Substack called The Wayward Rabbler, and it’s about a recent article put out by The Atlantic titled “Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty” written by a woman named Emily Oster. The article from The Atlantic essentially argues that the people who overreacted to Covid-19 and locked us down, closed small businesses, schools, and churches, and caused the last two years of tyranny and the horrible conditions we’re still living through, deserve to be given “amnesty” because they simply didn’t have enough information to make better decisions.

No Pandemic Amnesty

I first heard of Emily Oster from an interview she did with Reason in 2020, where she advocated for reopening schools. I enjoyed that interview enough that my wife and I bought two of her books, one called Expecting Better, which is about going through pregnancy, and another one called Cribsheet, which is about the first few years of raising a child.

Since I enjoyed her writing and her breakdown of the data surrounding pregnancy (I assume I’ll enjoy her other book as well, I just haven’t been able to read it yet), and since my introduction to her was an interview where she was slightly better on Covid policy than a lot of people (during a time when it was not popular to advocate reopening schools) I was very disappointed to see that it was Emily Oster who wrote that piece for The Atlantic. The criticism her article has received is definitely warranted.

I intend on writing another full-length article here soon, but for the time being, those who are interested should go check out my article and all the other great content over at Free the People, and also check out these other writers on Substack if you want some commentary on either of those recent news stories.

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