BRUCE SCHNEIER writes that we’re slouching toward Big Brother.

I’m not as gloomy as he is, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read his piece. I could be wrong, you know! I do think, though, that the most important thing in preserving civil liberties is to maintain a firewall between the treatment of noncitizens and citizens. Mistreatment or surveillance of noncitizens may be bad, but it doesn’t offer the temptation toward political abuse that such conduct offers where citizens are concerned.