And honestly, if anyone thinks they can get an accurate picture of anyplace on the planet by reading news reports, they're sadly mistaken.

It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.

Choosing providers is not a choice between surveillance/not; it's just choosing which feudal lord gets to spy on you.

If you ask amateurs to act as front-line security personnel, you shouldn't be surprised when you get amateur security.

Why is it that we all - myself included - believe these stories? Why are we so quick to assume that the TSA is a bunch of jack-booted thugs, officious and arbitrary and drunk with power? It's because everything seems so arbitrary, because there's no accountability or transparency in the DHS.

Surveillance is the business model of the Internet.

The more we expect technology to protect us from people in the same way it protects us from nature, the more we will sacrifice the very values of our society in futile attempts to achieve this security.