The old saw that Washington is a hammer and the rest of us are nails comes true once again. When the so-called Patriot Act was passed more than three years ago, many people warned that once armed with such a weapon, federal prosecutors would find a way to expand the definition of what one calls “terrorism.”

The man in New Jersey who pointed a green laser at a small passenger jet now has been indicted under the Patriot Act. He also has been charged with “lying” to law enforcement officers. (May I remind you that it is official FBI policy to lie? The law goes only one way.)

I am not condoning the man’s behavior; it was stupid, but almost surely did not go to criminal. Furthermore, I seriously doubt that he was trying to bring down the plane or even make things difficult for the pilots. He simply was shining a light, which was pretty careless — and even dangerous, in retrospect — but one must differentiate it from an act by a “terrorist” trying to make a passenger jetliner crash. The Patriot Act is evil in every sense of the word. For all of the noise coming from the U.S. Department of (In)Justice that this law “protects” Americans from terrorists, it is clear that it simply is a weapon wielded by federal prosecutors to fatten their own personal resumes. Keep in mind that we do not have one (that is right, not one) example of the federal government protecting us from ANY acts of terrorism since 9/11. Yes, a large number of people have gone to jail, but for things that really are not crimes.

When the government had the opportunity to actually break up a conspiracy to bomb the World Trade Towers in 1993, the FBI did nothing. Lord knows how badly they blew their chances before 9/11. Now we are treated to ordinary people being caught up in the evil vice known as federal justice. Welcome to Hell.