[Sydaycymn]

Jasonik, I think your allusion to US authoritarianism-in-development is a little overreaching.

I don't want us to become complacent and settle for relative freedom, but strive for and defend absolute freedom. On that score we have a way to go.

We're already going down the road of, 'well in London they have cameras and checkpoints everywhere, and they can't have guns, so what's the big deal?'

Or, 'in Israel they use racial profiling and treat people differently based on religion and ethnicity for the sake of safety, so what's the big deal?'

Or, 'it doesn't mean anything that the largest military-industrial corporations also own the major media conglomerates. Government contracts and advertisers' government contracts won't influence the way the news is reported. We have a free press.'

Or, 'government officials can break the law, even lie about it and cover it up -- as long as they say they did it to protect us, what's the big deal?'

Bureaucratic government's natural tendency is to acquire power, and politicians' natural tendency is to exercise power. There are no checks and balances anymore, just checks and negative account balances.

And STOP with all this talk of -- and reverence for -- democracy.

“Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”