One of my professors mentioned Ben Franklin's famous quote about liberty and safety. Here's my response:

I agree entirely with Mr. Franklin's sentiments: I have been saying since shortly after 9/11 that I would literally rather die in a terrorist attack than have my little girl grow up in an America that has given up its freedoms in search of ( ( Read more... )

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This video (link included in case I can't get this "embed" thing to work, or if you want to look at the original that doesn't have some other organization's URL plastered across it) shows how a room can become lethal to human life in a few seconds. While the video itself is about dry Yule trees, it's also a general reminder to keep your smoke ( Read more... )

Homeland Security (OK, that phrase still gives me a bit of the willies) is a Big Issue in the upcoming campaign, and the Republicans are making a lot of noise about it, but our ports are still about as porous as a fishnet. Thousands of containers arrive aboard ships every day, and only a tiny fraction of them are inspected. I won't go into ( Read more... )