Empirical evidence notwithstanding, stupidity is not a requirement for membership in the U.S. Congress. Also, stupid acts by Congress do not have to be forever.

Witness the infamous, freedom-busting, Orwellian piece of legislative stupidity known as the Patriot Act. Passed by a panicked Congress right after 9-11, and reauthorized by a cowed Congress in 2006, this thing empowers the FBI to make wholesale, secret invasions of the American people's privacy — grossly violating one of ...

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