Journalist Elana Lappin has an interesting account of being arrested and held upon arrival in the US despite being from a friendly nation whose non-journalist citizens acan enter the US without hassle. Journalists from Friends, Allies of America: Beware. Food for thought and a bit more than depressing. The Patriot Act was intended to fight terrorism but it’s managed to catch none but the innocent. As more Americans and more of our foreign friends are caught in the web spun by that act, we are creating more ill will then that which has been contatined. It seriously needs a reconfigure and a reboot. In this new age, we need to protect ourselves from harm but there’s a difference between crying wolf at every foreign face and catching bad guys. We need to be creating good will at home and abroad through proactive positive measures rather than through kicking down doors. I wonder if the Homeland Security guys wear brown shirts, the more we hear about the state of things the more it seems that they really should, brown shirts and jackboots.