It's a matter of balance. Unless you're one of the increasing numbers of leftists who are assuming that terrorism is a phoney threat ginned up by the Republicans to keep power, there is a significant possibility of terrorism in this country.
Nobody is throwing all the Arabs in camps. We have a security agency building an anonymous database to use in finding patterns that could track terrorists. "Connecting dots," as it were. Any damage this might do to some person's individual liberty--and I have yet to see a good example of how this could be done outside of paranoid delusions--may be balanced by what could be gained if a terrorist plot is stopped. Obviously, lines have to be drawn somewhere. But why here? My luggage is x-rayed at airports. What about my privacy?
I drive down the road, and am painted with radar, while pictures are taken of my license plate. I already mentioned my tax forms.
The abuse of this kind of data requires the assumption that the government will abuse it. Now, I will grant you that this is a perfectly valid assumption. But at least be consistent about it.
There's no way you can make the case that I should be in a screaming panic over these phone records, but not worry about tax records or the other information the government is routinely storing up on me. Potential for abuse is potential for abuse.
You don't get to pick which parts of government interference with our lives and privacy are "Big Brother" and which aren't, based solely on political advantage.
Okay, I'll grant you that your own motives in this case are probably noble, but there is no way you can convince me that the leadership of the Democratic Party has anything other than political motives for pushing this issue, no matter how much high-minded lipstick they put on the pig.
Current Events » in reply to re: Paranoia
Balance
The whole thread (69 posts)
- The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans
- Here is something interesting - good or bad?
- re: The New York Times article from last December
- HIgh crimes and misdemeanors
- Brace for spin
- Tens of millions of Americans?