a little essential here a little essential there...

Sometimes hard to believe that she's originally from Philadelphia.

The Ben Franklin quote that has been so misused and abused by the civil liberties absolutists since Sept. 11 originally appeared in 1755:

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. ...

The omission of those key qualifiers--"essential" and "little"-- makes all the difference in the world. Ben Franklin has been hijacked to endorse an untenable and deadly view that no sacrifice of any liberty for any amount of safety at any time should ever be made.

Moreover, Ben might not have even written the quote, making it almost completely invalid. Listen hither, that Richard Jackson's a moonbat I tell thee!

not essential:
warrantless wiretapping
torture
internment

essental:
The Constitution


Update: a good day for dissent:

When you're a law student, they tell you if say that if you can't argue the law, argue the facts. They also tell you if you can't argue the facts, argue the law. If you can't argue either, apparently, the solution is to go on a public relations offensive and make it a political issue... to say over and over again "it's lawful", and to think that the American people will somehow come to believe this if we say it often enough.

(ooops, delayed hat tip: "dada")