So on one hand we have organized gangs with a demonstrated ability of killing thousands of civilians at a time and a strongly stated desire of killing hundreds of thousands and on the other hand we have embezzlers, welfare cheats, etc.

If you look really hard Jose, you may be able to dimly make out a substantive distinction.

(oops - pressed the wrong button.)

Yes, =I= can make that distinction. However I do not trust our
government to do so. I have personally been on the wrong end of a
machine gun for insisting (politely) that my film be hand inspected at
LGA rather than run through the X-ray machine. The screener insisted
that there were "secret laws" that applied, something that was only
straightend out (in my favor) when I called the FAA out on them. The
same thing happened to me in DC when I dashed into an alcove (a
legitimate entrance to a museum) in a rainstorm; I didn't want to enter
the museum, but didn't want my film X-rayed. Ten security guards
escorted me back into the rainstorm. (I swear the entire contingent was
called out).

Does "carnivore" ring a bell, or has everyone forgotten the gross
intrusion of privacy =that= entailed? The profile of the Columbine
killers is the same as a good portion of our youth, most of whom are
perfectly good citizens with odd (or not even that odd) tastes.
Profiling effectively criminalizes harmless but unusual behavior, and
this is bad for society in a way that will not be apparant for twenty
years, and cannot be undone.

The presumption of innocence upon which this country is based becomes
nothing more than doubletalk if we need to prove our innocence before
being presumed so.

We are doing =far= more damage to ourselves than the terrorists ever did.

Jose
--
Math is a game. The object of the game is to figure out the rules.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.