> The BIGGEST QUESTION for me is this: Will there every come a point where the government will say "Ok, the world is safe again, we're giving you your liberties back."?

I think I know the answer to that one but you will not like it one bit.

What's the last time a country repealed a law that limited citizens rights somehow without there being a confrontation about it?

Confrontations happen with every political change. The real question is whether it's feasible to repeal laws that limit citizens rights; the US presents numerous examples that suggest it is.

In 1972 the draft ended. In 1996 export of strong cryptography from the US was legalized. Since the 1990's, 18 states have either decriminalized marijuana or legalized medicinal marijuana. A couple states during that time span legalized assisted suicide. Judicial rulings in the past ten years alone have overturned laws banning firearms and sodomy, and in five states, same sex marriage was legalized.

Define confrontation.

Because I would argue that the end of the legal limits on the price you could charge on things in most of Europe was just such an event.

You forget the "if it's working, let's not fix it" thinking.

I can see it from both perspectives. It is shocking, but the government isn't just doing full body scans for kicks. Airlines are ridiculously hard to secure - if terrorists use another one as a bomb after the US has spent so much money already protecting them, then we're in big trouble. Not only would more terrorists try to hijack planes, but we would lose some standing with other countries because of "insecure" transit systems.

The BIGGEST QUESTION for me is: Will there ever come a point where our airlines WILL be safe again? If there is ever a lapse in our security, will someone new try to embarrass us using the same attack? Will the world ever be safe?

I have a friend who regularly talks about how easy it would be to 'destroy' (kill power grid, poison water supply bomb pretty much anything) NYC (he's from up there) without using the airlines.

Even before 9/11, it was by far much easier to 'destroy' a city than it is to hijack an airplane to do whatever.

The government isn't just doing full body scans for kicks - they're doing it for kickbacks.