Just a word or two of warning: I love my country and I take great pride in being a citizen of it. I always have. I’m very serious about the bill of rights. It’s what keeps me out of jail. Otherwise, I would feel morally obligated to bind and gag Donald Trump every time he opens his mouth. Fortunately, it also prevents him from doing the same to peasants like me. So let me beg you to be cautious. I know lots of words. I can be vitriolic, malicious, rancorous, vicious, bitter, caustic, venomous, and spiteful. I can also be cruel and acerbic. I do hold a grudge. Before any of you nominate Edward Snowden to follow the Rosenbergs to the electric chair or to elevate him to sainthood, before any of you use the actions of the NSA to pitch your political, spiritual, or racial animosity toward the current administration, before any of you use your all-consuming desire to gain power and money through the spreading of panic and terror across both ends of the political spectrum by disseminating fabrications, exaggerations, and false moral outrage, keep one thing in mind: when the Patriot Act was first passed immediately following the horror of 9/11, some of us were called un-American, unpatriotic, and terrorist sympathizers for cautioning about the dangers of infringing on our most treasured rights. I don’t take that lightly. Let me tell you something: we do not know what Edward Snowden’s true motives were, yet. We only know what he claims. Let the dust settle before he is declared saint or sinner. The truth will be known. There are all sorts of levels of violations of privacy that could be breached by the NSA – your server breaches them every time they sell your preference in a brand or search for an article or clothing or appreciation for a movie – as Google says, let the servers reveal what has been revealed before you cloak yourselves in righteous indignation. Certainly you don’t believe it’s an accident that you search Sears for a new sofa and suddenly sofa ads start appearing on every website you visit! The Patriot Act needs to be revisited. It needs to be renamed. Patriotism has nothing to do with what it tries to accomplish. Its provisions need to be examined by a serious, thoughtful, altruistic legislature – something we haven’t seen in quite a few decades. It needs to be vented by a single-minded, resolute, unbiased court – soon, I hope. And, it needs to be enforced by an honest, intelligent, humane government. It goes too far, it tries to do too much, and it was reckless, over-reaching, and under-productive. Please don’t comment on this. I know those who agreed with me and I know those who thought me un-American; I don’t need to know the hypocrites. If you think this all Obama’s fault, your motives are showing and they’re dirty; if you think this is a government conspiracy, talk to Rush; if you’ve made up your mind about Snowden, you’ve jumped over the conclusion fence and got your foot caught in the barbed wire. If you think I’m right: talk to your Congressman.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:24:58 +0000
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