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Ugh.
{sorts through varied knee-jerk responses, discards, attempts to express rational response}
Okay. While I grant that it is more likely for a terrorist to be a young Saudi male rather than a grandmother from Missouri, the image that sticks with me is from about a week after 9/11. My whole family was flying somewhere, out of a small regional airport with somewhat lax security. Don't get me wrong, there was still a guy with an M-16, but they didn't do stripsearches or anything. We waited patiently when the rush to board came, and it turned out to be just as well. A man with "Middle Eastern" skin entered the plane. Half a dozen people ran off looking over their shoulders.
It is indeed difficult to balance national security with personal freedom, but I'd submit that the way things are these days if you shoot for what you want you'll fall short, but if you overshoot, you might get your intended result, like starting a haggling price higher than you actually expect to get. That might be the technique of the ACLU in this case.
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it's quiet in here
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