Theatrics

We can look at National Security and think in terms of 'stupid' or 'farcical' or 'tragic' or 'melodramatic' or whatever - all of those things are pertinent if trivializing, but even if we're trying to apply more clear-eyed, bang-for-the-buck criteria, we're still losing.  We've thrown trillions of dollars at the War On Terrorism, and we've stripped away every meaningful protection for citizens' rights under the US Constitution, and we've accomplished nothing but the illusion of security.  And in fact, we've established a state of order in which our liberties are guaranteed only as long as a cop is feeling generous at any given moment.

from James Fallows:

The British couple, shown below in a photo via ABC, got in trouble for a slangy use of the word "destroy" in a Tweet.

And in the end, we're getting a near-exact duplicate (ie; Epic Fail) of the War On Drugs where lots and lots of junkies and casual pot smokers are sent to prison while hundreds of thousands of tons of every conceivable street drug make it to every neighborhood in this country.

In the ten years of Homeland Security, where the fuck is the real evidence that we're under anything close to a level of threat that would justify either the time effort and money, or the abandonment of our principles?

This is horseshit and we need to stop it.