It is interesting this is being asked here. Even more interesting is&#x2F;are the responses.<p>My first thought (after the initial thoughts of OMG and etc.) when I heard about the Paris attacks (lower case on attack is mine - when did attack stop being a verb?) was the upcoming attack that would be perpetrated against civil liberties in the name of freedom.<p>Maybe I am in the minority, and honestly my assessment is that readers here are likely to be in the same minority group; but from a philosophical point of view the rapid reversion to tightened control and monitoring by governments was a significant setback to our race as a whole and the great strides made in last 200-300 years regarding personal freedoms. We can marry whomever we want in the US now, but heaven forbid I wanted to have a private conversation.<p>I don&#x27;t know what our future holds; but I am quite sure that this won&#x27;t bode well. Knee jerk reactions are now a specialty of all governments and critical analysis and discussions are no longer in vogue.<p>I sincerely hope that Edward Snowden has nothing he was looking forward to in the US.