Friday, January 20, 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen...Big Brother is in the house!


There it was, as predicted by George Orwell and all those other ancient soothsayers from days gone by. Big Brother has entered the lives of ordinary people just like you and me. Our U.S. Government has been eavesdropping on phone calls and other communications outlets searching for those ultimate connections to anything "terrorist related." It wasn't good enough that the Patriot Act allows the good ole protectors of freedom a means to look at your library card, validate your Identification, maybe even list you, as they did Senator Ted Kennedy, on the "Do not fly" list. Who in there cotton pickin mind doesn't know that Senator Kennedy is not affiliated with Al-queda, but rather those other guys who continue to terrorize us all with bad legislation.Believe it or not, all in the name of safety and the ultimate White House catch phrase of the century, Homeland Security. Depsite my better judgement, I was grudingly beginning to accept some of this safety jargon, until the latest news flash included that the Feds were now not only, wanting to expand their noisy searches into your land activities but, also your cyberspace doings. Recently their demands from ISP's concerning web searches involving porno or "other highly charged sexual content" based on current Child Porno laws sends mixed messages to me. Well, enough is enough as far as I'm concern. As a citizen I demand that we be allowed to exert some bounderies when it comes to personal privacy.I don't pass any judgements on that industry, even though I have a distaste for that type of material and those who are obsessed with Twinks and Toddlers for their sexual gratification.This behavior is a social ill that is perplexing to say the least and certainly warrants much attention.However, I'm very concerned with the fact that so much personal information is being ping-ponged around and that our every day lives are almost open books for all to see. You can't cash a check or even some places make a deposit without proper I.D., your doctor's office knows everything about you including your weight and this is just a start. The mortage company, credit card folks, and just about anyone who will do business with you, wants to be in all of" your business" regardless to what you may think. My personal experience with this all too intrusive peek into my life has had me "going off" several times via creditors or advertiser attempting to tell me what's best for me and why I should bow to their suggestions. I simply reject the notion that every micro-bit of my personal info somehow sums up everything about me, afterall, I know for a fact that I'm a work still in progress. Yet, the government's stealth approach of spying on it's citizens, in the name of security or being interested in where I spend time on the web has me rather bothered, as it should all of you. Where does it end and will any of us have a say as to how far these intrusions will position themselves within our lives. Consequently, all of this activity is an echo's Orwell's book 1984, and more recently the rantings of those supporting players in the movie Network, who followed the advice of the newscaster character, "...go to your windows and scream out, I mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!..."