I have a difficult time with the manner in which this country is continuing to wittle away our rights.

I would submit that many people in this country spend a lot of time railing about the erosion of liberties that they perceive to be uniquely American but that many of those same people waste 95 percent of that energy on trivial issues like seat belt laws (which have a definite upside).

Reason #12 that i left Massachusetts was that political discourse at the time was dominated by a talk-radio host's noisy campaign to repeal the new seat belt law (the link I posted earlier to ithoughti). What a huge waste of time when so many other issues were being ignored.

My very, very imperfect adopted home state now has an $87 fine seatbelt law. It passed, so far as I could tell, without any considerable dissent. Do I now feel less free? No.

There *are* many small, slippery slope issues that concern me WRT corporate and government intrusion into my life. I refuse to shop at stores that require some sort of discount/tracking card. More and more I work to be an anonymous, cash customer.

In the end, though, the fact that we can devote significant mental energy to something like a seatbelt law when faced with a civil rights abomination like Ashcroft just reinforces how impotent the electorate is on important issues.