Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Spy More
Now here is an interesting headline. “Forget Privacy, We Need To Spy More.” Has Max Boot caught your attention just yet?
I agree with 71.4% of the headline, all except for the first two words. Those two are purely evanescent though, because nowhere in the content does Boot suggest we completely “forget privacy.” His point is simply that our efforts to walk the tightrope between unacceptably eroded civil liberties, and unacceptably ineffectual defensive measures, have culminated in a lousy half-assed compromise product assembled from disingenuous political motives. In fact, halfway down he makes a brilliant point, albeit an obvious one to a scant minority among us:
All this concern with privacy would be touching if it weren’t so selective. With a few keystrokes, Google will display anything posted by or about you. A few more keystrokes can in all probability uncover the date of your birth, your address and telephone number and every place you have lived, along with satellite photos of the houses and how much you paid for them, any court actions you have been involved in and much, much more.
It is only a little more work to obtain your full credit history and Social Security number. Or details of your shopping, traveling and Web-browsing habits. Such information is routinely gathered and sold by myriad marketing outfits. So it’s OK to violate your privacy to sell you something � but not to protect you from being blown up.
Once upon a time, there was a comedian whose name may or may not have gone on to become a household word…or he may have faded into obscurity. I have no idea who he is anymore. He was making fun of husbands and wives, in the same conversation all married couples have after the wife has just gone shopping. Husband asks how much she spent and instead of answering, she tells him how much she saved. “How much did you spend?” “Nothing, I saved $130…” So Mister asks how much he should subtract from the current checking account balance, or from what the account balance will be after the next credit card payment, and what he gets back is the amount he should subtract from some mythical, pie-in-the-sky retail figure he never heard of before, that nobody ever pays anyway.
That is exactly where we are with our “civil liberties.” What we really want to know is “what could we do on September 10, 2001 that we can’t do now?” and what we get back from what Boot calls the “civil liberties agitators” is “Bush may be spying on you when you do such-and-such.” And logically, the next question must arise…so? As opposed to what? Is this something we could do in private before? Does anybody know? Does anybody care?
Phone records are a perfect example of what I’m talking about. I make a local call, I make a long-distance call. I make an international call. The call lasts so-many-minutes. Who knows this, exactly? The billing department of the phone company definitely knows it…who else? Is this information kept to a selected audience? Does the phone company have a privacy statement that pledges this kind of discretion? If so, does anybody read it? Is anybody making these kinds of calls with the expectation that nobody will ever find out they made it? No, I’m not re-hashing the “if you’ve nothing to hide” argument…I’m wondering how private these people expect the phone call information to be kept, and what they’re doing to make it so private, other than bitching.
And I’m questioning the desire, too. I’ve had private conversations before, conversations I wouldn’t like to be broadcast. Who hasn’t? But that I made the call…that strikes me as phony outrage.
The point is, to politically-neutral Americans who are simply concerned about the balance between defense and civil liberties, the question has not been answered. What is to be deducted from the civil-liberties-account balance since the September 11 attacks? And the answer that is forthcoming, has to do with stuff that we can’t do compared to some mythical, pie-in-the-sky perimeter of civil liberties that has never existed, never can, and that a reasonable person would have to doubt that anyone ever really wanted.
Getting in a screaming match with a security guy over your “I’m a Terrorist” lapel pin before your flight? And still making the flight?
Making a phone call, and having the billing company shred the record of your phone call after they send you the bill?
Screaming at the President of the United States, getting as close to him as you want to get, so that nobody can even hear him speak?
Oh sure, we can have a lively debate about whether every American should have these “civil liberties”…but when, exactly, have we had them? Ever?
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