In earlier posts on my blog, I talked about how implausible the system Mr Snowden described was.

My frustration was that Mr. Snowden focused on the wrong problem. The problem isn’t that the US government can spy on you in real-time, the problem is that the only defense we have against snooping is a thin black line of judges who get to decide what part of our lives is or is not private. And that thin black line is easily swept aside in the name of protecting the people….

Every time I take off my shoes to go through security, I am reminded that Osama won. Everytime I see a bit of my freedoms curtailed, I am reminded that Osama won.

The price of victory in this war on terror isn’t just the astronomical number of dead, the waste of resources and the loss of will, it’s the loss of freedom. The only way we win is if we are still a free society …

We chose as a society to protect our skins over our freedoms. And we willingly gave up our freedom one small piece of a time.

I live in the free-est country on earth, and it has prisons where the writ of law doesn’t hold.

I live in the free-est country on earth, except I can’t take a backpack to a hockey game anymore.

I live in the free-est country on earth and all of my communications are spied upon.

30 years ago I could open an account with my name. Now I can’t do anything without leaving a trail of identification papers and blood droppings…

It’s easy for me to sit here at my computer and wonder what the price of freedom is and whether I would pay it. Is losing my life or worse my son’s life the price I am willing to pay to preserve our freedoms? Would I be willing to live in a freer society if it meant that the terrorists could strike more easily?

I don’t know.

But I do know I gave up many freedoms because of this war on terror. I gave up so many that the idea of the government spying on me, no longer is the most worrisome part of this war on terror.