All Posts Tagged With: "homeland security"
How Washington Protects Your Privacy and Liberty
Preserving trust in government is the highest good—at least for politicians. To create that trust, government continually spawns façades to make people believe their rights are safe. Few things better illustrate this charade than the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. In 2004, three years after the Patriot Act was enacted, politicians started to worry [...]
22Dec2010 | James Bovard | 7 comments | ContinuedAn American Stasi?
The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported on July 25 that “there are 72 fusion centers around the nation, analyzing and disseminating data and information of all kinds. That is one for every state and others for large urban cities.” What is a fusion center? The answer depends on your perspective. If you work for the [...]
22Oct2010 | Wendy McElroy | 22 comments | ContinuedPutting Security Back on Track
Becky Akers is a historian and freelance writer in New York City . You might think the threats confronting American aviation are unique and unprecedented, given the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) unique and unprecedented regulations. Passengers must shed their shoes and they may carry aboard only three-ounce containers of liquids and gels, but “larger containers [...]
1May2007 | Becky Akers | 3 comments | ContinuedUndoing the Fourth Amendment
Carlos Gonzalez, 21, of Weston, Florida, stands
spread-eagled while an officer pats him down.
When the officer bends to frisk his legs, Carlos
lowers his arms without asking permission. The officer
snarls, “Hey,were not even close to being finished.What
are you trying to hide?” While a crowd watches, Carlos
is ordered to disrobe. He hands over his shoes and belt
and empties his pockets as the search continues in mortifying
detail.
Homeland Security Circa AD 285
Alexis de Tocqueville said that nothing is so threatening to individual liberty as extended war. Wars add to the relative power of the central government, and this change in the balance of power is accompanied by the decline of personal freedom. “A long war almost always places nations in this sad alternative: that their defeat [...]
1Apr2003 | Harold B. Jones Jr. | 3 comments | ContinuedPostconstitutional America?
It’s a cliché that in time of war we must shift the balance between liberty and security, sacrificing some freedom to protect our society from assault. Funny how we blithely forget other fond adages when they become unfashionable, such as Benjamin Franklin’s famous warning about trading freedom for security. It is more important than ever [...]
1Feb2003 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Right to Be Left Alone
“The makers of the Constitution conferred the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by all civilized men—the right to be let alone.” -Justice Louis D. Brandeis According to Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence, one of the “repeated injuries and usurpations” committed against the American people by the King of England [...]
1May2002 | Mark Skousen | 1 comment | ContinuedA War to End All Banditry
Even before the United States wound down its military operations in Afghanistan, it began looking for targets elsewhere. But policymakers must remember that Washington’s primary interest is thwarting transnational terrorists who target Americans, not combating local criminals and insurgents around the globe. After just three months, the Taliban was overthrown, the al Qaeda network was [...]
1May2002 | Doug Bandow | 1 comment | Continued-
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