The following is my public response to an email message from jason.korosec@case.edu:

I read your periodic emails with great interest. Recently, I read the attached article from the JacobyList and could not help but reflect on what your position would be towards the Mass Governor suggestion.

Very flattering but the man is not on my listserv.

It raised many conflicting thoughts for me. We must take every measure to defend our society. But yet, thoughts of liberty weigh heavy in my mind. At what point does our society become a place that is no longer worthy of defending? The terrorists have found the Achilles heal, and that exploitation may yet destroy us.

Yes, our society is worth defending. It will remain so until one can be sure that the one seeking to destroy it is far superior to the one Jason Korosec has to defend. One should never make the perfect the enemy of the good or the better.

No, the terrorist are not destined to win as long as they are reasonable people applying the reasonable rules such as the elected governor of Mass.

Of course, our liberty has been under steady attack – from internal forces – for a long time. Perhaps this is the nature of liberty. Each year, we will have less, until there is none.

Such an alarmist, absolutist position can only be taken by a person who lacks any idea of what living under tyranny is really like. In other words, it is the position of those seeking to undermine liberty and their useful idiots.