Back to the topic at hand...

given the subway is considered a public transportation system, if you refuse to identify yourself or more specifically, answer questions about where you are going and what you are doing, what are the repercussions from that - could you be banned from the subway? arrested? How far do they plan on taking this?

Now, as far as comparing WWII and today - given the very nature of freedom and the lives of hundreds of millions of people were at stake - a loss to the Axis would have ended human life on earth as we knew it, there is no question that personal sacrifice and giving up certain freedoms during this period were necessary and a burden shared by democratic people all over the world. Even Benjamin Franklin would have given his OK on this.

Regardless of how many times L'il Bush repeats it - world terrorism does not represent a threat to the very nature of our society and world democracy. It is a cancer which must be dealt with and rooted out, but not at the loss of our freedom and rights - else the terrorists will have accomplished their goals without firing another shot. I am for doing what's necessary to destroy terrorism, but not at the loss of freedoms and rights, especially when curtailing freedoms has as little to do with terrorism as much as it has to do with people like Ashcroft, Perle, and Rumsfield using these times as an excuse to push their own personal anti-freedom agendas. Living in a free society like ours entails risk - and as Spiff pointed out, you need to accept that. I accept the added risk. European and Asian societies have lived with terrorism and bombings for years and never resorted to what has been going on in America during the last few years. Only recently, at the lead and encouragement of the US Government, have certain nations like the UK with it's lapdog leadership, begun experimenting to see how far the envelope could be pushed on Government invasions of personal privacy and freedoms. Ben Franklin would NOT approve.