9/11 - no big deal; My Privacy - how dare you??

Dear Editor -Steven Greenhut's article on 9/11 today featured this doozy: "The 9/11 attacks were bad, but ...". In the Libertarian decrying of eavesdropping on terrorist's phone calls, I continue to wait for them to at least admit that the potential abuses of the Patriot Act are just that - potential. The fact that thus far the tools in the toolbox of the US Patriot Act have been exclusively used to protect America from murderous terrorists is always ignored. I am all for an honest and intelligent conversation about the pros and cons of certain measures in a post-9/11 society, but when reasonable concerns about precedent turn into an obvious dismissal of the threat the Islamo-Fascists represent, it is time to converse elsewhere. Radical isolationism does not have a friend in the Founding Fathers, and stirring Orwellian paranoia only works for so long. Eventually, a grown-up conversation will be necessary.