The many pro-surveillance advocates I have debated since Snowden blew the whistle have been quick to echo [Google CEO] Eric Schmidt's view that privacy is for people who have something to hide. But none of them would willingly give me the passwords to their email accounts, or allow video cameras in their homes.

I don't have a 'side'—I'm responsible for what I say and nothing else.

A citizenry that is aware of always being watched quickly becomes a compliant and fearful one.

Of all the views that are detached from reality, the most delusional is that Christians are persecuted in the U.S.

You can offer the ability to citizens to choose from one of the two parties and elect their leaders as much as you want. But "democracy" is an illusion - a sham - if the most significant acts taken by those leaders are kept concealed from the citizenry.

Beyond all the other reasons not to do it, free speech assaults always backfire: they transform bigots into martyrs.

The definition of an extreme authoritarian is one who is willing blindly to assume that government accusations are true without any evidence presented or opportunity to contest those accusations.