Where Is The Line?

While reading about the confirmation hearings for General Hayden, I found myself wondering where is the line? I understand the need for national sercurity in this "new" post-9/11 world where the terrorists are out to get us. And that it's our mission and responisbility as American Citizens to aid our great nation in stopping terrorism in our borders. I can understand the CAPPS II (Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System) for airlines because, in my eyes, they'll never be totally secure. I don't feel that people that go through extra screening are being profiled. I've been sent through the extra screening process. But where's the line. I've had a family who was detained on a return trip from Europe for over 24 hours with not even the ability to make a phone call to a lawyer, to her son, to her father who was to pick her up from the airport. Is that too far? Maybe. I've never been one for rash decissions and after 9/11 while this country's single legistlative agenda was a sweeping overcompensatory bill that was signed into law as "The Patriot Act," we all made a rash decision. Parts of the Patriot Act are necessary not to fight the "War On Terror" but should have been in place before 9/11 in the interest of national security. But I ask again where's the line? A great author once wrote, "And what is the state but a servant and a convenience for a large number of people, just like the electric light and the plumbing system? And wouldn't it be preposterous to claim that men must exist for their plumbing, not the plumbing for the men." When Ayn Rand wrote those words some 70 years ago, she was speaking on the evils of the Soviet Union. I dare not compare the atrocities suffered by those under the iron fist of communism to the comforts that I enjoy here on American soil. I only wish to ask and emphasize the question, "Where Is The Line?" I'm not a fan of the slippery slope argument as it always leads us to Armageddon or world destruction but from what I see, it's not an even plane either.