Mike Hide wrote:

snip

at times it is necessary to relinquish some civil rights to
ensure the security of the country.

A sometimes seductive notion; but not true.

No one likes the patriot act per se on the other hand it gives
some protection. Without it the next hit might well be
30,000 and not 3000 plus.

The Patriot Act provides no such protection. It allows the
investigators/enforcers to stumble about at a higher speed and
without regard for constitutional safeguards.

It does *not* ensure that the next hit isn't 300,000 or even
3,000,000.

Our security grows out of and depends on our freedom and on our
cherishing that freedom more than life itself. I would like to
point out that a group of "ordinary" Americans on an airliner
over Pennsylvania did more to ensure the security of our country
than thousands of governmental security types.

Passage of the Patriot Act was a victory for the terrorists - not
for the Americans who cherish freedom and recognize that there's
a little less to cherish while that act stands.

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto, Iowa USA