> It is not the goal of a civilized society to spend a lot of money or

> effort making things easy for the police.

@bob: think about that one again.

Of course it is! We spend millions a year as a society to make things easier for law enforcement officials so that they can protect us from all kinds of real or imagined threats. There is a consensus that this is a good thing in general, but we also worry, as did Seneca, about who should guard the guards.

Security and individual freedom are two opposites that need to be balanced. The tricky question is: where and how?

In Europe everybody is perfectly happy to carry around a government-issued ID card that he or she is compelled to present to police or other state officials in order to prove his/her identity at all times. Sooner or later most of us will be using them for online transactions.

The notable exception are the Great Brits, from whom Americans inherited our loathing of prying governments, but internationally speaking the Anglo-Saxons are the odd men out.

In fact, Americans are probably completey alone in their Hollywood-inspired enmity towards policeman in general. The British love their "bobbies". Contrariwise, everybody in America seems to hate the "fuzz", which is interesting because a policeman is of course by definition a representative of the state, so I draw the conclusion that Americans hate their own state, and that's not just the Teapotties.

Okay, principiis obsta and all that. But being watchful does not mean reflexive rejection of all state authority, especially not if its democratically delegated. I mean, how paranoid is this?

In the case of NISTIC, I would argue that we need to cut these guys some slack. They don't work for the Evil Empire, after all.

Anyway, my two cents worth.

And I apologize for the Latin quotations...

Tim