9/11 comes to mind as well. So does Ressam trying to move bomb-making supplies through Port Angeles to LAX; then there was Richard Reid with his exploding tennies and the guy who wanted to explode a dirty nuclear bomb in the U.S. and use natural gas to blow up apartment buildings.

Sorry, but I prefer to keep my two sons alive, one of whom lives in NYC. If I have to surrender the right to keep my library checkouts secret, that's fine by me. If I have to take off my shoes at the airport or remove my laptop from its case-- no problem. I thank the TSA agents when I go through security because I do appreciate the job they're doing.

This issue of temporary cessation of freedoms isn't a case of "bill of rights" issues but rather one of "in times of war." It's just too bad that the U.S. and its presidents didn't recognize that war had been declared when the World Trade Center towers were bombed the first time or the Marines were killed in Beirut or the sailors killed on the Cole.

If you don't think that the terrorists who have declared a jihad against the United States aren't interested in bringing the war to our shores, you ought to pull your head out of the sand and take a look at the world. Bin Laden said that only until FOUR MILLION Americans were killed would he be satisfied.

If it wasn't for the security and "Gestapo" doing their job of protecting us, then the Los Angeles airport would be still under repair, and a city somewhere in the U.S. would still be cleaning up the radioactivity, and parents and children and brothers and sisters would still be mourning the loss of family whose apartments were destroyed.

You bet politicians make decisions to abrogate rights in the name of national security. Look at what Hitler did with the Holocaust, Stalin with his purges, the Khmer Rouge with their cleansing, at the Balkans, at Africa. Does anyone honestly believe that this will happen here in the U.S. under our government? If so, I feel very, very sorry for you.

My $.02,

Keith