GCHQ can monitor MPs' communications, court rules

Re:GCHQ can monitor MPs' communications, court rules by mikecb on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:33AM (#10392514)

This quote is taken egregiously out of context.[1] You could still say its a nice quote, but its power comes from an appeal to authority, in this case, a founding father, and despite the fallacy inherent in such a tactic, the extent to which it does not apply to the liberties we talk about today suggest we could do much better than to bring it up every time.

[1] https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-ben-franklin-really-said

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Re:GCHQ can monitor MPs' communications, court rules by PythonicAlpha on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:51AM (#10392570)

Benjamin Franklin, being a big man, but still a human. We must not think, that he could comprehend our future problems.

Of course he did only talk about his current problems.

Still it is a very good quote that deserves to be seen not only in it's singular, historical meaning, but also in a wider look.

And as we see, we all need a broader look to preserve humanity -- or freedom and humanity will finally perish.

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Re:GCHQ can monitor MPs' communications, court rules by mikecb on Thursday October 15, 2015 @09:41AM (#10393042)

Exactly what I said, just don't attribute it to Ben Franklin.

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