A Homeland So Secure We Wouldn't Want to Live There - I love the title of this essayby Joseph Stromberg. He explores the dynamic of the modern security state: more surveillance and more war:

...on the received liberal-centrist-conservative (both meso- and neo-conservative) theory, the power of government becomes infinite in wartime. Happily, we get back all of our liberties, such as they are on this theory, the very second the "emergency" is over.

Exposing this theory to the bright light of day, we find that: 1. It is easy to erode and smudge the difference between war and peace. After all, what was the Cold War? 2. Governments have great leeway for finding potential wars in which to be involved. 3. Now we add the axiom that, governments like to wield power and wish like to increase their power. Thus, the conventional theory comes to this:

An institution that has an incentive to find wars and the capacity to find wars is likely to go around finding wars and expanding its powers. If the "war" could be permanent, the bottomless powers would go on forever and the so-called "rights" would never need to be "returned."

Also, an interesting analysis of the state and surveillance. I tend to forget that lots of people don't even theorize the state as an independent organization with its own ends. This is an obvious thing to a libertarian.