the_gneech | Not So Nifty

Current Mood: pessimistic

Not So Nifty

Grrrroowwwlllll...

This kind of crap is why I wish the U.S. had a decent libertarian party, instead of The Immoral Mobsters vs. The Reactionary Police State.

And don't tell me it's some kind of "Bush vs. Gore" nonsense, because a Gore administration would be doing exactly this same crap right now. It's all about control; whether the tyrants on the left or the tyrants on the right have it, they both agree on that one aspect.

There are two phrases I keep remembering as things progress in this country. I don't know who said them, but whoever it was knew what they were talking about:

Those who give up liberty for security, end up with neither.

...and...

The last act of any democracy will be to elect a dictator.

Sigh.

-The Gneech

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Someone I know that lives in DC is always worried about the nature of over record keeping, and how if teh records are there they can get misused.
At the time I thought all these ramblings were a stretch -- these kind of things do not happen here.

Thinking about some of the records that are kept on me in mydailly life though..
Shopping. I have a couple of those shopping cards -- they keep records of the foods I buy and my shopping habbits
Roadway Tolls. Even though E-ZPass has rules to protect the records -- court orders can open those records at any time and find out where I travel.
Cameras on roads -- video is said to be kept now 3 years by some agencies.
Cameras in stores. Video face Ident software.
The list goes on and on.
Yes I am worried about all of this now.
I try not to use the shopping cards anymore unless it will save me more then a dollar.

Robert Heinlein commented once that when a planet is crowded enough to require IDs it was time to move on to the next planet.

I am aware of a number of arrests made through analysis of grocery shopping records. In one instance, a thief with a very young child had a taste for a particular seasoning. These purchases were detected in Seattle, even though the thief had left his native Los Angeles where this pattern was established.

This system has been in place for at least four years that I am aware of. I was impressed; that's a large database to manipulate -- but also troubled by implications.

===|==============/ Level Head

"Robert Heinlein commented once that when a planet is crowded enough to require IDs it was time to move on to the next planet."

---Lazerous Long. Yep, I've gotta agree with that one... but where to go?

The whole thing seems to be everybody zeroing in on small things in order to divert attention from the Really Big Screwups -- I've read the articles now that have stated that Bush knew what was going on and chose to look the other way.

But the fact that this seems to be so easily voted into law is still scary...

"I've read the articles now that have stated that Bush knew what was going on and chose to look the other way."

Consider the noise level: We are unable to prevent an attack tomorrow, and we know what our enemies are capable of. To curtail every possible attack means an invasion of civil liberties on a grand scale, and also picking the one good subset of clues out of millions of false leads that are part of each day's data. A tough job, indeed.

Woodrow Wilson Smith is something of a mentor to me. For that matter, so is The Gneech. ;)

===|==============/ Level Head

....and have you noticed that both W.W. Smith and The Gneech are redheads? Ooooohhhh...

To answer the rest of your post: a good point. However: if it was told to several people higer up, and repeated several times, why not do the prudent thing and investigate? Furhaps it might have mitigated what happened.. or maybe I'm being to idealistic...

I look at these things black and white.
If you catch the people before they act: mark that as a sucess.
If you do not chatch the people before they act: mark that as a failure.

How you react to such failures is vary important.
Congress' witch hunt meathod I just do not think works for me nor a lot of the laws that have been passing to be since 9/11. I really think after every failure you should ask "why"? not "whos fault" and not finger point. Fix the system.

But then I always beleagve there will be failures of inteligence. "Sometimes the dragon wins..."

Good point; I also agree that there will be failures of intelligence -- not just of the information kind of inteligence, but also of the intelligence of the people trying to fix the problem after it's happened. We need thoughtful decisions, not hasty ones.

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Not So Nifty

About record keeping...

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Re: About record keeping...

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9/11 was a failure of inteligence but....

Re: 9/11 was a failure of inteligence but....