Opponents of civil liberties contend the NSA data collection has made our country more safe, but even the most vocal defenders of the program have failed to identify a single thwarted plot.
Interpretation
The quote questions the effectiveness of the NSA's data collection in enhancing safety, highlighting a lack of evidence for its success.
Rand Paul's quote critiques the justification used by opponents of civil liberties who argue that the National Security Agency's data collection programs have significantly increased national safety. He points out that even staunch supporters of these measures have not provided concrete evidence of any terrorist plots that were successfully prevented due to these invasive practices, suggesting a deeper philosophical debate on the balance between security and personal freedoms.
In practice
During a debate on national security policies, one might use this quote to argue against invasive surveillance practices.
The U.S. should never get involved where we have no clear national interest. We should not intervene militarily in a country like Syria, where we can’t separate friend from foe and might end up arming the very people who hate us the most.
The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered. I don't think we need to name any names, do we? Our party is encumbered by an inconsistent approach to freedom. The new GOP will need to embrace liberty in both the economic and the personal sphere.
No American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found guilty of a crime by a court.
When you couple this militarization of law enforcement with an erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury - national security letters, no-knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture - we begin to have a very serious problem on our hands.
I will speak until I can no longer speak. I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court.
For, in truth, an image is only dead matter shaped by the craftsman's hand. But we have no sensible image of sensible matter, but an image that is perceived by the mind alone: God, who alone is truly God.
Society is just a structure with no soul. The soul is of the individual. One individual outweighs all societies. And, one individual's revolution outweighs all revolutions in the whole of history, because one man can become the womb for God to be reborn.
It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.
If there's anything you absolutely hate, why, it must be unconstitutional. Or, if there's anything you absolutely have to have, it must be required by the Constitution. That's where we are. That is utterly mindless.
Mortality is a period of testing, a time to prove ourselves worthy to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. In order for us to be tested, we must face challenges and difficulties. These can break us, and the surface of our souls may crack and crumble-that is, if our foundations of faith, our testimonies of truth are not deeply embedded within us.
Their understanding_x000D_ _x000D_ Begins to swell and the approaching tide_x000D_ _x000D_ Will shortly fill the reasonable shores_x000D_ _x000D_ That now lie foul and muddy.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.