The Patriot Act

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
-- Samuel Johnson (Boswell's Life of Johnson)

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"
-- Benjamin Franklin (An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania).

There are many excuses that are used to grow the government. One of the biggest government power grabs happened just a few short years ago in the Patriot Act. It was accomplished under the banner of fighting terrorism (i.e., temporary safety) but ravaged our essential liberties. Did you know that the government can now conduct unlawful search and siezure if it merely suspects you of being a terrorist? Yep. No warrant needed. They also can hack into your computer and see what you've been reading and writing (to all you feds out there: A big Howdy from the Wizer--y'all should be reading the stuff I'm reading).

All this is supposed to make me feel safer? I feel less safe. Take airline travel, for example. We have so many security protocols that you can't help but feel substantially less safe. The constant reminders of how unsafe it can be is more debilitating than the actual risk itself. Wizer believes we'd be much safer just to issue firearms to all the passengers. Oh, wait, that's one of those essential liberties we have a nasty habit of giving up just so somebody can "feel" safer.

Now we have created this big honkin' bureacracy (Dept. of Homeland Security) for the purpose of spying on our own citizenry. We're training computer snoops by the hundreds and thousands. All of this so that we can believe the country is doing something to make the citizens feel safer. Word to George: "It's NOT WORKING".