I was at the Labor Day rally at the Marcus Amphitheater where Sen. Barack Obama spoke. Certainly I expected a high degree of security. But they pulled something new out of their bag of tricks that really left me scratching my head.

The guards had made us dump all liquids, just like at the airport (though it was even more ludicrous in this situation). After sitting in the heat for a while, I reluctantly got in line to pay $3.00 for a bottle of water, which the vendor insisted on pouring into a cup.

Then I asked for some ice. “No,” I was told. “Security reasons.”

Security reasons?!? What possible threat could crushed ice in the water they’d just poured me pose to Obama? Even with C. C. Sabathia’s arm, I don’t think I could have hit him with a fragment. Were they afraid I’d lurk in waiting and stuff ice down his shirt?

We’ve become sheep. People tell us something is for security and we passively accept it. Maybe that’s why there’s been next to no MSM coverage of the police-state repression tactics being used in Minneapolis/St. Paul.