OK, Phil, so there are a number of civil liberties you're willing to jettison to gain a feeling of security. When a man starts talking about his family being blown to bits or dismembered, I wouldn't dare criticize his priorities.

However, I think your trust in the government to protect your family is seriously misplaced.

You do realize that such intrusions are NOT allowed for civil and non-terrorist criminal matters.

Are you serious? Who doesn't allow those intrusions? A fundamental purpose of the "Patriot" Act was to free the Executive branch from oversight by the Judiciary. Most of its public provisions set up mechanisms to streamline or even do away with the need to get subpoenas and court orders. The "Patriot" Act is a direct attack on the due process of law. The mechanisms by which intrusions are not "allowed" is a robust structure of law and accountability...the very thing the "Patriot" Act destroys.

Phil, do you realize that if a Federal agent showed up at my door and demanded to see my records of your activity on the Zone, I would have to comply even if he didn't have a subpoena? The "Patriot" Act specifically empowers Federal agents to demand to see logs and other records of Internet service providers without requiring a court order. Even worse, what if he wanted to set up a tap on the Zone to monitor you, and cited as authority one of those secret provisions of the "Patriot" Act. I would have no way of knowing whether such a law exists, so I'd have to comply out of nothing more than fear of government reprisal if I don't obey. Under the "Patriot" Act, the law becomes whatever any bureaucrat tells you it is.

Who would you appeal to? The "Patriot" Act destroys government accountability. You want a preview of how it would go with you, just look at the experience of the Gitmo prisoners. It's taken them years just to get limited judicial review of their cases, and the government's still fighting every inch of the way. You could be completely innocent, yet your life would be ruined if any part of the "Patriot" Act touches it.

And people just like you would say "tsk, tsk, gee, that's too bad, but ya gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette". We've reached the point in our frightened stamped off the cliff where we're willing to throw each other to the wolves to save our own skins. The "Patriot" Act, more than anything else, destroys the very soul of America. It's a cancer on our society.

I just love the irony of a liberal cautioning a conservative to not trust the government. What a truly whacky world we live in.