Senator Rand Paul has caught the world's attention and infuriated his own party by taking on one of the most powerful forces imaginable - the US security apparatus.

Behind the drama there are deep currents, a tale of sex, drugs, violence and conservatism.

Senator Paul has, almost single-handedly, blocked the extension of the Patriot Act, seen by its opponents as the USA's very own snooper's charter.

It takes some guts to stand in the way of the US spy agencies, if only for a short while.

You might even think it an unconservative, rebellious, counter-cultural thing to do.

But, of course, US conservatism delights in tracing its roots to revolution.

Senator Paul ripped into the idea of the National Security Agency merely monitoring the flow of data, with an appeal to America's origins.

"Our founders objected to the British soldiers writing warrants," he said.

"They objected to them coming in their house and gathering their papers.

"Do you think our framers [of the constitution] would have been happy if the British government said, 'OK, we're just breaking your door down, we're just getting your papers, but we're not going to look at them?'"

Famous father

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32972880