I feel safer. Don't you feel safer? I feel safer.

More from the clowns at the Department of Homeland Security, and their assault on the civil liberties of Americans. A photography student taking photographs of the Ballard Locks in Seattle for a class assignment was followed and harassed by Seattle Police and "Special Agents" from the Dept of Homeland Security. On public property, taking photographs of the area's premiere tourist attraction. After having gotten permission to do so from the National Park Service's resident Park Ranger.

The Special Agent showed his special understanding of the law:

"I've listened to this for over five minutes. Look here. You see this?" Special Agent McNamara said, producing his badge. "This is a federal badge. We're not with the rest of them. We're federal agents from Homeland Security...."

He told me that I'd broken the law by not providing my ID to the original investigator (a man who I personally feel has entirely too much power). I told him that I'd asked if I was legally obligated to produce my ID, and that he'd clearly told me "no," but it was obvious that that didn't matter to Special Agent McNamara in the slightest. I was just wrong, and he was just right.

He went on to tell me that the minute I'd photographed federal property, citing the Ballard Locks, the train bridge and the Patriot Act, that I'd, again, broken the law. Of course, I asked why there weren't any signs on that parcel of public property disclosing that photography was forbidden...