I'm not paranoid. I just study history.

Why do I distrust the expansion of state power in the service of "security"? Because "freedom" and "state power" are, at some point, antithetical. Top Maryland cops ordered peace activists' names added to anti-terror and drug trafficking databases The pull quote: "I don't believe the First Amendment is any guarantee to those who wish to disrupt the government." ...as if the very people who wrote the First Amendment weren't trying to do exactly that. If all those people are doing is talking and peacefully protesting then, uh, that's exactly what the First Amendment is: a guarantee against the government using its power to stop or intimidate them. ..