I am very surprised by the very large amount of statism that seems to be present in USA in general and on hacker news in particular.
The high level of support for GWOT and all the side dishes like TSA, mass surveillance etc is very surprising.
Each and one of all the things that have been done in the post 9/11 world may partially or completely be justifiable on it's own.
But please, take a step back and paint a picture of where we have come from and were we are going if this trend continues.
If I may help you...
http://i.imgur.com/tfPY1y0.jpg , here is a picture of the subway in New York in the 80's, dirty and full of graffiti - with drugs and violence present and by all means also music, food vendors and a lot of people going to their jobs.
http://i.imgur.com/AxWRPgl.jpg , here is the Moscow subway from the same time. Clean, spotless and no one behaves disorderly without the police arresting them quickly, police officers with none of the ridiculous limitations that the western police had in their code of conduct at that time.
In which of those two subways would you prefer to ride to work every day?
With every new alfabet law designed to protect us that passes through the parliaments, with every new government agency we move closer to a society that looks more like the Moscow subway station.
Not to long ago we were prepared for thermonuclear war to defend our ways.
Today we are giving up our open and free society with a cheer so we can stay safe. Step by step, piece by piece.
Why can't the otherwise so intelligent and educated crowd of hacker news see that our society is heading in the direction of a police state? We are not there yet, but it is where we will end up if we don't turn around soon.