[smass]

Interesting POV Chanak. I would just like to add that many of these "moral zealots" were also proponents of slavery. My own point of view on the civil war was that it did more good than harm. 150 years later, in 2003, I would tend to agree that the federal government has its hands in too many areas of our lives.

I am certainly no proponent of big government and I do support civil liberties. I draw the line when those very civil liberties that we hold so dear are perverted and used against us. The Patriot Act is an attempt to stop certain people (terrorists) from hiding behind these liberties. Maybe the government has gone too far into some Orwellian future - this is certainly debatable - but in my opinion there must be some urgency to crack down on those people who are here for the express purpose of promoting and carrying out terrorist acts. Sometimes I think if it was up to the ACLU we would be setting up some kind of low cost housing for terrorists - rather than putting them in jail where they belong...