[Steel Wolf]

I always see this as not an "either/or" chioice, but a balance. We "give up" freedom by having laws in the first place, or by empowering police at all. We couldn't have a society at all with total anarchy. It's a question of how much liberty, how much security.

Common sense? What's that doing here? Don't you know that you can't make an arguement for anything unless you take your point to a bizarre absolute?

Most people seem to be stuck in one of two panic mode absolutes.

PANIC: FOR "If we don't let the government do whatever it wants to keep us safe, atomic weapons will start going off in major cities by Thursday."

and

PANIC: AGAINST "If we give up any rights at all, we'll become a police state. Wiretapping Al Qaida members in the U.S. is only a step away from death camps for anyone that disagrees with the State."

[cvq3842]

Internet message boards tend to accentuate that, don't they? And politics (sound bites) in general. Oh well . . .