these people are deeply screwed. here deroy murdoch argues that libraries ought to be centers of state surveillance. it's hard to see how this is going to help anything, even with all the little cases he adduces. i guess maybe accompanied by racial profiling and a policy of extra-legal detention you could do something about some arab who goes to the stewartstown library and googles "how to build an atomic bomb," or something. but does murdoch actually believe, for example, that these guys couldn't have gotten web access except at a library? or that it will actually help homeland security to know that abu likes tom clancy novels? meanwhile we will keep handing over any last vestige of autonomy as the u.s. heads on its asymptotic course toward totalitarianism. every step on that road is justified because it saves american lives. only ask yourself: overall, does totalitarianism save lives?