Ah, anecdotal arguements and panic. The tradtional raw material used by political ambition to create reactionary draconian threats to personal freedom.

Did you know that for the most part, crime in America has been dropping steadily for several decades. It doesn't matter what you look at, violent or non-violent crime is dropping. What has increased by a long shot is the amount of crime reporting.

The incedence of teenage pregnancy is dropping, among both blacks and whites.

N'sync is selling more albums than Marylin Manson.

More people go to Disney Movies than to Pulp Fiction.

Here's a beauty. Ask anyone how often criminal defendents 'get off on legal technicalities'. Its amazing. Most of the answers are in the 1-in-20 range, when in truth its less than 1-in-1000.

And yet the culture is collapsing, requiring desparate measures and restrictions of trade and freedom to save it.

Haven't we heard this all before? And isn't there always an anecdote to justify the unwarranted reactions?

How about a stroll down memory lane....

We have to infiltrate the campuses, there are communists there (Oh boy, 3 students with berets the bought from goodwill meeting in a dorm with a half torn Mao poster, trying to figure out a way to distribute 20 copies of the Daily Worker without getting beat up --THAT certainly warrants an undercover FBI presence).

Extremism in defense of liberity is no vice (what a classic).