Safety at the cost of Freedoms?

[Shipuuden]

Would you give up you're freedoms to be safe from attack?

[Theophylact]

No.

First of all, you can't guarantee safety; and it's always the rationale of tyrants.

Quote:

And you all know security/Is mortals' chiefest enemy.
(Macbeth III. v)

[diode]

Unless you're free, there is NO safety.

[Shipuuden]

Quote:

Quote:

This statement was used as a motto on the title page of An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania. (1759) which was attributed to Franklin in the edition of 1812, but in a letter of September 27, 1760 to David Hume, he states that he published this book and denies that he wrote it, other than a few remarks that were credited to the Pennsylvania Assembly, in which he served. The phrase itself was first used in a letter from that Assembly dated November 11, 1755 to the Governor of Pennsylvania. An article on the origins of this statement here includes a scan that indicates the original typography of the 1759 document, which uses an archaic form of "s": "Thoſe who would give up Essential Liberty to purchaſe a little Temporary Safety, deſerve neither Liberty nor Safety." Researchers now believe that a fellow diplomat by the name of Richard Jackson is the primary author of the book. With the information thus far available the issue of authorship of the statement is not yet definitely resolved, but the evidence indicates it was very likely Franklin, who in the Poor Richard's Almanack of 1738 is known to have written a similar proverb: "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."

I found this and thought it was quite interesting.

[The Real Bingo]

What's a "freedom"?

If you're above having your bag search or your body scanned before going into a sporting event or boarding an airplane...well, you're just asking to get blown up. That kind of stuff is fine by me if it helps reduce the risk of a bombing or terrorist attack.

Tapping phone lines is borderline unacceptable. Keeping track of known terroristic individuals is good, but then where does it stop?

The only problem I see is the government getting larger and larger, while our liberties proportionally get smaller and smaller. Once they start passing legislation to impede our freedoms, there's no end to it. It may take a while, but when the ball starts rolling, absolutism is right around the corner.

I wish we didn't need to compromise between security and liberty, but as long as we have nutcases who are willing to kill themselves to kill us, then what the hell can we do?