> At this point, two weeks after the terrorist attacks, you have to ask > yourself what is more important, freedom or security? Guess what, terrorist > in the US at this very moment have the very same freedoms that we do. Are > you willing to temporarily give up some of those freedoms to help ensure > the safety of your family and children? If you are not, I think that I > would be worried.
Freedom is more important than security: full-stop. There is no point in going to war to protect freedoms that have been bargained away to stay cozy and secure. If you want to be safe just capitulate. As for the ACLU: we live in a society with an adversarial court system. It is not the role of the ACLU to be right (though often they are), it is their job to make unpopular arguments. As for reason: In time of war some freedoms are always traded away for security; but even in WWII be managed not to suspend the Bill of Rights. Our current situation is not as serious as that in the 1940's ... at least not yet. Face recognition software doesn't bother me though. I regard my personal appearance as a publically accessible attribute. You are free to collect any data you want in public. How you process it is your (possibly lucrative) business. However, I would be a bit alarmed and annoyed if the NSA decided to put digital cameras on every downtown public sidewalk. However, the local police doing so would worry me less.
