With nearly breathtaking rapidity, we are becoming a nation that simply shrugs off the concept of individual rights,
I am not familiar with the laws used to issue a temporary restraining order against this McClellan creep, but I would be surprised if the law was not bent, twisted, burnt, and otherwise fouled in order to make this order a reality.
I am not surprised that many of us, perhaps most of us, accept this, in this particular case, as a necessary evil, nor that others of us do not consider this an evil at all. We are, after all, protecting our children, are we not?
In the final analysis, the issue here is the same one we confront when people write about killing others on their blogs or in term papers for English professors, when preachers post their beliefs about the imminent coming of the Apocalypse and what followers need to do to prepare: when does this move from personal expression to a danger to the community?
It is, in fact, typically presented as an argument between practicality and idealism.
What is legislated and enforced on behalf of common sense is often the product of corrupt or irrational idealism, more often the bastard child of a compulsion to expediency in the name of righteousness.
As always, the individual loses. As always, the majority of individuals revel in the loss, for a bit more sense of security, for one more night of dreamless sleep.
