[roc]

Particularly when those cuts are delivered by people wrapped in the flag, promising safety.

It seems we have healthier debate over the government's ability to pass blanket public-space no-smoking laws, than the executive's new-found legal ability to ignore the constitution, the judicial and the legislative at its whim.

You can get tens of thousands to protest the deficit, or health care reform, or gay rights - but the steady erosion of our rights barely raises an eyebrow.

[hugh3]

Actually an awful lot of people protested against this kind of thing when it was George W. Bush doing it.

[RyanMcGreal]

Given the organizations supporting Yahoo, the same people are still protesting it today.

[weaksauce]

It's the whole "I'm not doing anything wrong, why should I care if they are watching me" standpoint that most people have. The problem of course is that the people watching you are the ones who decide what's wrong. Of course there is the famous other quote: "If I have nothing to hide then why do you need to watch me?" or something like that.

[mixmax]

Maybe you meant this:

First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

[GrandMasterBirt]

I like that quote. It is a good description of what happens when people ignore basic rights infringements. The core of the US's glory is our rights, and if we let them be taken away for any reason... well... that's not why I came to the US.

In any case, what was the quote from Ben Franklin? "He who lets his rights be taken away in the name of security, deserves neither."

[mixmax]

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

[protomyth]

with a complicated enough legal system, everyone is a criminal