My little media crush is fading. Dahlia's latest article in Slate talks about civil liberties in a post-9/11 world, and how we as a society decide to alter them.

It's a serious article, and she makes her points well. Our civil liberties are being curbed not as a result of societal deliberation, but the knee-jerk power grab of a theocratic country lawyer.

She also shows moderation and compromise; she argues that some small, well-chosen reductions in freedom can result in a great increase in individual security and safety.

There's a part of me, the part triggered by my disgust that American citizens are being held as "unlawful combatants" without judicial review, that wants to take an absolutist stand on civil liberties. And I want my crush, who in the past has excelled at dishing out some highly entertaining analyses of the hypocrisy on our Supreme Court, to be similiarly entertaining in slamming the Justice Department.

But instead she holds back a little, shows some reason, probably makes the right call. But it's the brash Dahlia I have a crush on, not the sober one.