Prof. Epstien, perhaps this might get you to think on these matters a little differently. There is hardly any good reason to trust the government, especially when it isolates itself under the mantle of secrecy. Governments have long claimed power in the name of "safety" and you appear to be a willing follower of the same.

?Who says that we can't find terrorists the old fashioned way. It only takes getting rid of the political correctness that inhabits so much government to allow police to actuallyinvestigate issues that have probable cause.

I have noted that you seem to have a strong tendency to lean to government for ALL safety. Your previous comments about self defense coupled with your current comments about safety and the necessity of large scale dragnets appear to me to be a clear leaning toward the overbearing of government vs citizens.

Well, I use ixquick.com as my search engine simply because it doesn't record where you have gone. And I regularly refuse to allow the computer to "report" usage or other stuff. Not much, I admit, but something.

One small step for man, one large step for mankind.

I'm a conservative, so I'm jaded.

I see, however, a virtual sea of corruption now being unearthed, so to speak. It was F&F way back, but it's so much more now. Personally I am amazed that the administration is still standing, not-withstanding idiots like Cummings.

The majority of people just don't find politics "interesting". They want to go about their lives without having to contemplate all the ramifications of this or that. Politics seems to live on the edges - left and right. That's where all the discussion and argument is.

These issues, however, transcend that divide. We are seeing a government that has now actively invaded the space of those who simply want to be left alone. THAT will change public opinion. The IRS issue is huge. Not to diminish Benghazi, F&F,  and Obamacare, but everyone knows just how ruthless the IRS is in normal behavior. Now we see them actively targeting specific Americansfor political positions. THEN we hear the gov't spies on our phone stuff - and now we have a private citizen having their computer hacked illegally.

Trouble in River City.

As I said, I am hardly a legal scholar. It seems to me, though, that John Marshall didexactly this kind of stuff - to advance the power of the SCOTUS.

?Can anyone teach me better.

Well, then you have John Wayne Gacy. ?Is there any real reason NOT to execute that guy.

Not being even a legal mind, much less a scholar, I tend to view the plain words. It seems to me Thomas has it by a country mile. ?What was Scalia thinking.

OK. I'll bite. ?What is it you are objecting to. Tribal are those whose family ties outweigh and ideology - check out the Mideast for examples. ?How did McCain sneak into this.

And yet, and yet ... it ought to be blatantly obvious that our whole immigration stance is broken.

We once had good worked rules, allowing the migrant workers access to the work they wanted in the SW and still go home at the end. No permanent status, no citizenship, no benefits. It's the socialist state that has ruined this working relationship.

It ought also be blatantly obvious that ourcurrent laws don't work. Perhaps that is because we don't enforce them, but then what makes anyone thing we will in the future. There will need to be a radical shift in American attitudes FIRST. That will change the political direction.

The socialists will cry, but the socialist ALWAYS cry. ?So what ought our policy to actually BE. ?What should we actually DO - that actually CAN be done. Securing the border sounds so good, but the practical answer is that it won't happen any time soon.

I would hold it is unreasonable to have to have a drivers license. Moving about the nation ought to be a right. Getting into accidents because of bad driver skills (hardly a part of getting a license) is still personal responsibility.

OTOH voting is, or should be, limited to citizens. Having to show proof of citizenship ought to be part of registering to vote - and only registered voters ought to be allowed to vote. If you "didn't get to it" ?whose fault is that. ID to show you are you when you vote merely attempts to correct Chicago-style voting - off the dead registers.

This!

?Who ever decided that "latinos" are conservative. ?On what evidence. They aren't ideological, they are tribal!

"Don't worry, be happy." I am not at all sure what we should be happy about, IF we have children. You are childless - and my age (mid 60's) it doesn't much matter. Even if the world deconstructs, it won't affect me much.

But if you have children....  I am totally disgusted over where our "education system" is. For any who would care to check, up to somewhere in the 1840's the standard text for 1st grade was the New England Primer. If you've never looked at it, you should. I doubt very much most FIFTH graders today could do the lessons in that book. The Americans of the late 18th century had an average education of 8th grade, yet were able to understand, debate, and grasp the various arguments of the Federalist Papers. ?Where are those Americans today - on either side of the spectrum.

As Prager says, you don't know who you are - and that's a function of who you came from - you have little chance of succeeding in the world. iPhone won't help you.

Personally I believe that with this decision we now can vote as often as we want, making Chicago WAY ahead of its time.

I guess I continue to be mystified by a group of people who stalwartly claim to support evolution but then vigorously attempt to deny it by "saving" a dying specie. If one can so be labelled. The fossil record is FILLED with dead species. What hubris to think one can reverse such history.

I know little of Hong Kong, so you will have to enlighten me (and others like me).

?What is the population and area of HK. ?What social programs does the government provide, and how does one access them. ?What benefits, other than a job and nice environment to live, does HK provide. ?What does it take to become a citizen of HK, and does that entail becoming a citizen of China.

I recognize that much of the fervor over immigration rests with the consumption of governmental resources by those who are here illegally. That closely follows the sense that they got to go to the head of the line while so many wait elsewhere. The former is a serious problem, but one that we have with citizens also, so the overall lack of will to "solve" this issue is directly a function of the population, which is ambivalent about them. The latter is a mess, and attempting to revamp it in an intelligent way isn't a bad thing.

That said, a national ID card is simply more knowledge about me than I want a government to have. It becomes SO easy to parley that into any number of further socialist programs, none good.

Kind of like back in high school days, when kids made up data to fit the lab, then just fooled around IN the lab, since they already had their "report" finished. No need to actually DO anything.

Just so. I see the left finding yet another "golder opportunity" to attempt to smear activities that don't promote the state.

Please note that the cynic in me says that once the state controls all, these same production facilities will again be populated by the same kind of men - only now working for a pittance and the state pocketing the "profit" - which will now go under a new name.