I finally see some other people pointing out the low likelihood of terrorism affecting you. Try Sam Hughes on How to fight terrorism.]

Your chance of having bad things happen to you as a result of "security" measures taken by your government is definitely on the rise. The U.S. Government has killed at least ten times as many innocent people in anti-terrorist wars after 9/11/01 than were killed by terrorist activity on and since 9/11/01. If you are an innocent person living in Afghanistan or Iraq, you are far more likely to die from the intentional act of a US Government soldier than you are to be killed by any other terrorists.

Many US citizens have spent time in jail because extra "anti-terrorism" searches found illegal things (that had nothing to do with terrorism). Thousands of immigrants have been imprisoned without cause, and thousands more have been deported for trivial non-safety-related crimes like overstaying a visa. (Many thousands more have left even though they were here legally, figuring out that they did not want to live in a society like what the U.S. has become.) Our former corrupt Attorney-General decided that every prosecutor and every judge should impose maximum sentences for every detected crime. Our latest corrupt Attorney-General nominee was the architect of the US torture in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib that violated international law and every norm of civilized conduct. These actions have nothing to do with making us safer, and everything to do with building detailed control over people. A public that's constantly herded into fearfulness is far more likely to give away the blessings of liberty that we "ordained and established" a federal government to protect for us.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals came to a similar conclusion in Bourgeois v. Peters, in which it found "Given that we have been on 'yellow alert' for over two and a half years now, we cannot consider this a particularly exceptional condition that warrants curtailment of constitutional rights. We cannot simply suspend or restrict civil liberties until the War on Terror is over, because the War on Terror is unlikely ever to be truly over. September 11, 2001, already a day of immeasurable tragedy, cannot be the day liberty perished in this country. Furthermore, a system that gave the federal government the power to determine the range of constitutionally permissible searches simply by raising or lowering the nation's threat advisory system would allow the restrictions of the Fourth Amendment to be circumvented too easily. Consequently, the 'elevated' alert status does not aid [a government attack on civil rights]."

Comments on Emergency Re-Sentencing of Ecstacy. There is no need for an "emergency" change to the sentencing provisions for Ecstacy; democracy requires full public participation. Congress did not mandate an increase in penalties; it mandated a review of penalties to make them appropriate. The penalties for use or sale of MDMA should be decreased, not increased. The discovery, manufacturing and distribution of MDMA has provided positive benefits to millions of citizens. Sentencing guidelines penalizing MDMA use are an unconstitutional regulation of the freedom of thought that underlies many cherished freedoms, and should be eliminated. The re-sentencing of MDMA is part of a misguided attempt to "lock up the truth" -- or at least to lock up the truth-tellers -- about MDMA.

Securing Internet traffic against wiretapping. Given the current rampage of Federal cops, it is even more important that honest citizens and businesses protect themselves from wiretapping, by deploying good encryption both in your own systems, and for communication with anyone else. If we can secure 5% of the traffic this year, we can secure 20% next year; and 80% two years out. The whole Internet will have been secured. Want to help?

Verio censored my email, and ultimately cut off my net access, under anti-spam pressure. I am not a spammer, and have never sent any spam. But Verio blocked outgoing email from my machine. I was not able to send person-to-person email to my friends, my colleagues at EFF, or anyone else. I think this is wrong. Any measure for stopping spam should have as its first goal "Allow and assist every non-spam message to reach its recipients." I found a new provider, United Layer, who is not trying to censor me. I encourage everyone to boycott Verio's Internet service, until they fix both their "Acceptable Use Policy" and their enforcement policies.

Al Queso seeks U.S. school technologies. Terroristas from impoverished lands desparately seek information about US technologies that are used to educate and control U.S. students. Concerned parents should remain cowed but pliant.