On the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I took a lot of flak from many of my readers for an article I wrote stating the following:
As we approach another anniversary of the terrorist attacks that took place in New York City and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001, we are reminded of many things. We remember the thousands of innocent lives that were lost and the billions of dollars lost in economic damage. As great and tragic as these losses were, there was another loss that is proving to be the greatest loss of all.
Because it was on that dreadful day that liberty died in America.
I went on to say how the death of liberty came, not at the hands of the terrorists, but at the hands of our own government. Recently, Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit proved my point when he told a conference on privacy and cyber crime in Washington, D.C. that the National Security Agency (NSA) should have unlimited ability to collect digital information in order to protect the nation against terrorism.
While it can be debated about how far we let the government go in the name of security, it’s the specifics of the judge’s comments that should cause concern to liberty-loving Americans:
“I think privacy is actually overvalued,” said the judge. “If the NSA wants to vacuum all the trillions of bits of information that are crawling through the electronic worldwide networks, I think that’s fine.”
Yeah, because the protection against unreasonable search and seizure provided under the Fourth Amendment is just so yesterday, right judge? But he didn’t stop there:
“Privacy interests should really have very little weight when you’re talking about national security,” he said. The world is in an extremely turbulent state—very dangerous.”
No, your honor. The only “very dangerous” thing is that you think that my Constitutional rights no longer apply. In a lame attempt to defuse his controversial opinion, he said:
“If someone drained my cell phone, they would find a picture of my cat, some phone numbers, some email addresses, some email text,” he said. “What’s the big deal?”
Well sir, the big deal is the Constitution, and how progressives such as yourself are working non-stop to destroy it.
In their report on the judge’s lackadaisical attitude about privacy rights, PC World quoted David Cole, a Georgetown University Law Center professor, about the real threat to Americans if the government were to do as the judge is advocating. He warns that the United States and other governments have a history of targeting people “who they are concerned about because they have political views and political positions that the government doesn’t approve of.”
For those who want to tell me how that will never happen in America, I refer you to Obama’s abuse of the I.R.S. against the T.E.A. Party in 2012.
I leave you with two quotes from two of our Founding Fathers:
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” – Benjamin Franklin
“A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.” – John Adams
If the Judge Posners of the world have their way, this is exactly where we’re heading.
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