McGuinness accuses "hippie values" to disregard the true value of music when I think his very argument against P2P programs is strictly driven by greed and loss of revenues which aren't at all true values of music either. I'm not glorifying illegal downloads of music but I will label U2 as a bunch of sell outs. At least P2P programs spread the art of music around our culture as oppose to people like Bono who slap his picture and signature on the back of every iPod sold a few years back. And now this 3-D bullshit. I started laughing for at least 5 minutes when Bono said "we've always been in 3-D on stage and now you can see us 3-D on the big screen." I'd say sharing music using P2P programs is definitely the lesser of two evils when compared to bands like U2 that sell out hardcore so that Bono can buy another thousand pairs of his stupid looking, over priced glasses and travel on his personal jet.

good quote

These witch trials were mainly conducted pre-constitution in the late 1600s. That's almost 100 years prior to the declaration of independence.

I like the cartoon.

Cowicide - Just because I have nothing to hide doesn't negate the fact that I am guaranteed my rights. You may have heard of these guys called "the founding fathers". I'm sure your a lot more patriotic than them but they made this thing called the constitution which attempts to insure rights to American's like you and I. Rights which I'm arguing for the protection of and rights which you feel are flexible and unimportant . Who's the patriot?

EH - Although non specific, the ninth amendment guarantees enumerated rights to the American citizen. These enumerated rights include natural rights, background rights, and fundamental rights. Specifically, what these rights entail is arguable unfortunately.

But on another note and more specifically addressing your response, just to be clear, my argument regarding security v. privacy is not aimed at the corporate sector but more towards the public sector. The liberties of the public which were infringed upon by bills such as the patriot act which was quickly rushed through the senate with little debate before being signed. With regards to your claim "that material privacy is not codified in the Constitution beyond the third and fourth amendments", this act is in direct violation of the fourth amendment as it bypasses the need for a search warrant with wiretaps. Don't play the "probable cause" card either because it's a cop out.

Apashiol - I agree with regarding how the advancement of technology within our media, such as the creation and accessibility of the internet to the average American citizen has opened many doors allowing them immeasurable freedom and influence but like I said before, the internet is not the only means of communication that the government has been unjustifiably sticking its nose into with the use of illegal wiretaps on phones which is in direct violation of the fourth amendment.

I find myself asking how people can have such blind faith and be so accepting of the media, specifically the news? It is indeed like you say, very insidious how the media and government can conspire to create this false sense of fear and use this in order to convince people to give up their rights because the government is looking out for their "best interests". Although this isn't so much the case now, can you remember when practically everyday after 9/11 for an extremely long time they were changing the terror threat level?

It is true that privacy is not needed for survival but privacy is a civil liberty guaranteed to us by the constitution. The government is using fear as a tool and a means of abusing their power to infringe on the very freedoms that this country prides itself over and that which the individual is completely sovereign over (or at least should be) while it goes unquestioned by the majority. I just feel that eavesdropping on peoples phone conversations, internet history and behavior etc. etc. is just the first step of many that can and will eventually lead to a totalitarian government system.

"The government which governs best, governs least."