Balance, Hackers

"The Quandary Of Freedom Vs Security" by Herr D,
heromachine.com, rights reserved. Excellent!--Hairy Deewon

At what point does security not just quash your freedoms but start interfering with your identity? This is a very big deal. America might be governed by consent of the majority of the governed, but its early success and rise to superpowerdom was obviously caused by individuals' ability to stand up against tradition, the ruling class, fear of change, threat of horrible death, personal ostracism and condemnation, and whiners.

Terrorists hate America? The ones that died on September 11th actually DID restrict a tiny bit of freedom. Wait times for flights went up, letter organizations shuffled their letters a little and sound scarier now, people imagine threats in forgotten baggage, there are more things you can't do on a plane (man, why'd they make the mile high club illegal?) certain jokes can now make people miss their flights, and the Patriot Act . . . happened. It's now much more possible to really make America sound overzealous and Gestapo-ish. I'm gonna go up on dry land here for a minute--

Out on a limb.

What? [momentary disconnect] Sorry. I'm gonna go out on a limb here for a minute and say that I'm glad that that much freedom was lost only in response to a few thousand people being killed in the first successful attack of its kind on American soil.

Only.

Right. I meant only. The important thing to remember is that it takes only one moron too hateful to be allowed out in public to ruin or end a few dozen lives, while it takes a concerted, specific, well-thought-out, team effort to do anything really impressive.

And the bad guys can team up too. I think maybe it would be worth it for parents who like their freedom to notice which of their children put thought behind what kind of coach their sports team has and which ones follow blindly or won't follow at all. The blind followers can be just as dangerous as anyone if the wrong person leads them astray. Teach your kids to follow when they should, and question authority in RESPECTFUL ways.

Hacking detected again.

%^&@#$%^! Yeah, okay. whoever you are? There's a time and place for that sort of thing. If you can't do it undetected, don't do it at all. Someone might get the wrong idea and get you caught when all you wanted was a harmless peek.

Sorry, everyone. Someone's been in here that shouldn't have been. I don't have the time and energy it takes to audit everything, so comment if you see anything untoward here. Or if you have something to say about properly balancing freedom and security.